New Celebrity App Update Requires IOS 17 or Above (iPhone)?

[PTC DAWG]

I have cruised without using the APP, isn’t that still possible?  If so, you have a choice, update your relic of a phone, or do without it as many with newer phones do, like me. I don’t expect Celebrity to offer support for old technology. 

[Charles4515]

2 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I have cruised without using the APP, isn’t that still possible?  If so, you have a choice, update your relic of a phone, or do without it as many with newer phones do, like me. I don’t expect Celebrity to offer support for old technology. 

OP has an older phone, iPhone 8, but it is not a relic. (It is not on Apple’s vintage list) Celebrity does not seem to have made a tech decision but a business decision. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

OP has an older phone, iPhone 8, but it is not a relic. (It is not on Apple’s vintage list) Celebrity does not seem to have made a tech decision but a business decision. 

A 8 is good up IOS 16 

OP should ask their grandchildren for their old phone 

I just got my son old IPhone 12 as he upgraded to a 15 pro max, those person in military make to much money 🤣

[doghog]

On 4/16/2024 at 2:29 PM, DaKahuna said:

The safety drill was playing on our TV in the stateroom so I assume that counted.  I will verify in 16 days when we embark for the first time in almost a year. 

It will. Like the app, nothing showing you actually watched the drill.

 

We recently were on a Princess cruise. Muster drill was not available on the app. Only the cabin TV. We turned the TV on and selected the muster drill. At the conclusion of the TV drill we both received green check marks next to our names. We didn't watch the drill as we were unpacking.  W2e checked in at the muster station when we first boarded the ship. Long before watching the video. 

Edited April 20 by doghog

[Charles4515]

49 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

A 8 is good up IOS 16 

OP should ask their grandchildren for their old phone 

I just got my son old IPhone 12 as he upgraded to a 15 pro max, those person in military make to much money 🤣

iOS 16 is still supported. I have apps on my 15 Pro Max that is running iOS 17 that support iOS 13 and still get updates like FB. Maybe earlier as I just sampled a few apps. Celebrity is just being short sighted or lazy in my opinion.
 

My sister and one of my nieces have iPhone 12s which are still good phones. They are like you they prefer hand me downs to new. 

[Lena11033]

Maybe there is difference in the backend with coding/APIs between 16 and 17. 

 

My work just did an iPad update and basically cut of support for certain iOS support so a my entire team can no longer do screenshots as our device the OS can't be upgraded.

[JLMcruise]

12 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Only occasionally do people get responses when they write to the executive office. I would certainly not be expecting one in this case and even if you hear from them, I would not be expecting them to change the requirements back to the previous.

They have been excellent responding to me when I have written. Most of the time - it is a phone call back. I don't expect to get a positive answer but just wanted to let them know a large amount of guest can no longer use the app.

[DaKahuna]

 The Celebrity App was updated today.  Did this update have any effect on those of you not running iOS 17 being able to use the app? 

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 4/20/2024 at 5:36 AM, cruisestitch said:

Only occasionally do people get responses when they write to the executive office. I would certainly not be expecting one in this case and even if you hear from them, I would not be expecting them to change the requirements back to the previous.

 

I've found Celebrity/X on Twitter/X is responsive, but I'd guess they rarely reach out to those in the Exec offices

[NutsAboutGolf]

It’s the same with RCI, requires iOS 17.  They simply don’t want to spend the money to support iOS 16 or older.  I don’t think a few dozen people asking for X or RCI to support iOS 16 will cause them to spend money on it.  They’ll probably just suggest workarounds including buying a new tax free iPhone on your next sailing…lol

 

 

[markeb]

2 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 The Celebrity App was updated today.  Did this update have any effect on those of you not running iOS 17 being able to use the app? 

 

The App Store still says iOS 17 or higher. Curious if anyone on 16 got it to install. 

[SerraG]

In a recent review on the Apple App Store page, the developer requested feedback and listed their email address as: appfeedback@rccl.com.  
 

Perhaps people who can’t update might want to send a message to this email? 

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 minutes ago, SerraG said:

In a recent review on the Apple App Store page, the developer requested feedback and listed their email address as: appfeedback@rccl.com.  
 

Perhaps people who can’t update might want to send a message to this email? 

 

Simply put, cutting iOS 16 support is another cutback

 

Thanks for providing the email, I'm not trying to discourage anyone, you have nothing to lose by emailing them.  But I'm trying to manage expectations as this isn't a developer issue where something like a bug is preventing people from updating.  It's a financial decision by RCG since RCI has also cut iOS 16 support

[omahabob]

3 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

It’s the same with RCI, requires iOS 17.  They simply don’t want to spend the money to support iOS 16 or older.

 

This is the part that gets me. They already supported iOS 16, so there was no expenditure necessary to support it. They spent money to exclude it. I can see it if it was a really old OS that gets very little use among customers, but it isn't. More people use 16 than use 17, so that simply isn't the case.

[Charles4515]

21 minutes ago, omahabob said:

This is the part that gets me. They already supported iOS 16, so there was no expenditure necessary to support it. They spent money to exclude it. I can see it if it was a really old OS that gets very little use among customers, but it isn't. More people use 16 than use 17, so that simply isn't the case.

No, 66% of active iPhones run iOS 17, 23% run iOS 16 and the rest earlier versions as of February 24. 23% is still a large number. I do agree that that there was no reason to drop support for 16. It was running on 16. There is nothing they are doing that requires 17. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

12 minutes ago, omahabob said:

This is the part that gets me. They already supported iOS 16, so there was no expenditure necessary to support it. They spent money to exclude it. I can see it if it was a really old OS that gets very little use among customers, but it isn't. More people use 16 than use 17, so that simply isn't the case.

 

Several sources state an App's annual maintenance costs are 15%-20% of the app's initial development costs.  I have no idea how much X paid for their app but it's downloaded and used by a lot of people so you'd imagine considerable costs

 

Do you have a source for your claim that more people use 16 than use 17?  I just googled it and the first two answers were more use 17...

[omahabob]

https://gs.statcounter.com/ios-version-market-share/

[omahabob]

And I just noticed the chart only depicts iOS 17.2, not 17.3 or 17.4. I used the chart. That's probably why our numbers don't match. Mea culpa. Nevertheless, it still seems to make no sense to deliberately exclude a large number of your customers when there's no reason to. The only possible reason I could see is if using a new feature of 17 required them to delete 16 functionality. But that doesn't seem to make much sense either. I've seen no other iOS upgrade that requires anything like that.

[gatour]

On 4/24/2024 at 9:03 PM, omahabob said:

This is the part that gets me. They already supported iOS 16, so there was no expenditure necessary to support it. They spent money to exclude it. I can see it if it was a really old OS that gets very little use among customers, but it isn't. More people use 16 than use 17, so that simply isn't the case.

There is a cost going forward.  As they make tweaks to the app.  They have to do retro testing to make sure the tweeks work on prior versions of the OS.  They have decided to stop doing this testing for versions of OS prior to IOS17

[Charles4515]

55 minutes ago, gatour said:

There is a cost going forward.  As they make tweaks to the app.  They have to do retro testing to make sure the tweeks work on prior versions of the OS.  They have decided to stop doing this testing for versions of OS prior to IOS17

A large busness with hundreds of thousands of customers can afford to test. And it is not retro. iOS 16 is still supported. iOS 16 was incremental. It should take minimal effort. IOS 17 has been out less than a year so requiring it is short sited . There are thousands of apps that still get updates and run as far back as iOS 13. 

[Jeremiah1212]

Maybe there were artificially influenced by all of the inevitable commentary like "we turn our phones off and put them in the safe!!!" every time a question is asked about anything phone or app related.....

[gatour]

3 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

A large busness with hundreds of thousands of customers can afford to test. And it is not retro. iOS 16 is still supported. iOS 16 was incremental. It should take minimal effort. IOS 17 has been out less than a year so requiring it is short sited . There are thousands of apps that still get updates and run as far back as iOS 13. 

Sure they can afford to test, but on the bean counters hat.  It is a cost center so a possibility for an expense reduction which increases net revenue.

 

Other companies have different business models that include updates "certified" for prior versions of OSes.  Not saying that Celebrity (RCCL) is right or wrong, just that their business seems to be different.

[JLMcruise]

On 4/20/2024 at 7:03 PM, JLMcruise said:

They have been excellent responding to me when I have written. Most of the time - it is a phone call back. I don't expect to get a positive answer but just wanted to let them know a large amount of guest can no longer use the app.

I have been traveling but did get a call back last week. I was told that it is an                              "Apple requirement"   and those of us with older phones will not be able to use the app. No fix planned for the future.

[Lin336]

I can now use the Celebrity app - iPhone 8 OS 16.77.  

[omahabob]

On 4/26/2024 at 2:24 PM, gatour said:

Sure they can afford to test, but on the bean counters hat.  It is a cost center so a possibility for an expense reduction which increases net revenue....

Alienating a large portion of your customer base does not increase net revenue. Quite the contrary. I lost count of the number of times I did version testing of software upgrades. It usually took a few seconds at most. Whatever their reasoning, and I freely admit they may have reasons that are not glaringly obvious here, it just seems counterproductive to alienate a large portion of your customer base. 

 

Come Sail With Celebrity! Unless You Don't Have the Latest iPhone!