Upgrade Apps annoyance

[raybarrow]

Hi Folks,
Just a little moan. I have iPhone 6 which will support up to IOS12 operating system.
Starbucks have upgraded their app which needs IOS13. That's ok but it won't let me continue to use the old one (without the 'new' features, whatever they are). I contacted Starbucks who suggested apologetically that I get a Starbucks card, remember them, and Starbucks will transfer anything I have onto the new card. Well it's a workaround and one less app on my phone.
Then Capital One announce the same type of thing. The app has been upgraded and it need IOS13. Also won't let me use the old app. Another app to come off my phone.
I accept technology moves on but IOS12 isn't exactly decrepit. Everything else on my phone is fine.
Does anyone with a non-iphone have the problem of apps outgrowing their Operating System?
Ray.

[xeny]

I have the issue with IOS and Android devices.

IOS 12 is what, 2018 era and the iPhone 6 is 2014 so 7 years old? It's not ideal, but if you want to have a smartphone then OS/App obsolescence is the nature of the beast.

[vrdiver]

I have an android phone. My old one (with android 6.1) became increasingly obsolete for various apps.

The financial ones, I could understand, as there were potential security issues with the older OS, but games and loyalty cards?

It seems to have become a type of baked-in obsolescence driven by the app developers. As somebody who owns their own phone, and doesn't feel the need to upgrade it every year or so, it peeves me no end that apps are made to stop working, rather than just left alone for those of us on older platforms. I had an iPhone 3G that was slowly "bricked" by apps becoming obsolete. Switching to android slowed the effect, but it's still there.

VRD

[UncleEbenezer]

You have stumbled into a reason to avoid apps (well, at least those that aren't open source). They leave you hostage to someone's whim.

Same applies to proprietary software elsewhere. Like when skype ceased to work on my (technophobic) dad's macbook, and both my brother and I looked at it and concluded this was not end-user fixable.

[pje16]

Decent programmers can make things compatible
there is just too much sloppinesses around these days
I have 2 apps on my Android ver 8 that stopped working a month or so ago and a few updates later the glitches were fixed and they work now

[UncleEbenezer]

Decent programmers can make things compatible

Depends on the environment they're working in.

Pressure from management to meet arbitrary deadlines and "get a product out" makes for a race for the bottom. Corners get cut, and a prime candidate is the forward planning needed to make something maintainable.

Even when there isn't excessive pressure, closed source hides a multitude of sins. Not least the unhealthy relationship between programmers and management particularly prevalent in the UK industry (though the American Dilbert hints at it too), but that's a whole nother rant.

[AF62]

Decent programmers can make things compatible

They can, but then they have to give up the features in the newer OS versions or they have to maintain multiple versions for each OS version.

Given that app developers can see which OS people are using then they could take a business decision about whether it is worth spending the time, effort, and money, supporting an app for a long out of date OS that a tiny proportion of their customers use.