Rosetta 2 end of support: what Mac developers need to do

Apple introduced Rosetta in 2020 as a translation layer for the move from Intel to Apple silicon, and announced at WWDC 2025 that the transition is ending. The September 1, 2026 notice sets the steps: users on macOS 26.4 or later may be warned when they launch an app that relies on Rosetta, and macOS 27 is the final release to support it. Apple’s instruction to developers is direct: add Apple silicon support now so your app stays available and your users are not interrupted by system notifications.

In the Finder, select the app and choose Get Info: Kind reads Application (Intel), Application (Universal) or Application (Apple silicon). On macOS 27, System Settings, General, About lists recently used and installed Intel-based apps under Intel-based Apps. Look past the main binary too: Apple’s support page warns that extensions, updaters, plug-ins and other components can be Intel-only while the app itself is universal, and the notification can name a component rather than the app. In code, sysctlbyname with sysctl.proc_translated returns 1 when a process runs translated.

A universal binary contains arm64 and x86_64 code and runs natively on both kinds of Mac. In Xcode, remove any custom Architectures build setting and use Standard Architectures: debug builds target only the current machine, but release builds come out universal. Custom makefiles or scripts need arm64 added to their architecture variables, then the two builds merged with lipo. Apple lists what else to convert: app extensions, plug-ins, frameworks, static and dynamic libraries, build and command-line tools, daemons, launch agents, DriverKit and kernel extensions.

All code in one process must share an architecture, so a single Intel-only third-party library blocks the universal build and the linker reports errors: ask the vendor for a universal version. Plug-ins loaded into your process must be universal as well; out-of-process plug-ins can run through separate arm64 and x86_64 XPC services while third parties catch up. Apple also flags code that talks to the kernel or hardware, relies on specific GPU behaviour, contains assembly, tunes threading or assumes x86 performance. Rosetta never ran kernel extensions or virtual machine apps that virtualize x86_64 platforms, nor AVX512 instructions.

Apple’s documentation says macOS 27 integrates Intel binary translation directly, without installing Rosetta, to support Intel Linux binaries in ARM virtual machines and Intel Linux containers. Apple’s end-of-support notice itself is about Intel-based macOS apps. The exception Apple keeps for Mac apps is narrow: older, unmaintained games that rely on Intel-based frameworks. A maintained app or game you still ship does not fit it.

Apple asks developers who already offer a native version to reach out to their users and get them onto it, so they avoid the notifications on macOS 26.4 and later and the app keeps running on macOS 27 and beyond. An in-app prompt or a note to your mailing list pointing at the native download does that. For the iOS side of this year’s changes, see the Xcode 26 SDK requirement.

Keeping the app running on every Mac is the floor; being found is the rest. Censuus ranks apps by the visits they draw, and adding your app is free on the List my app form. Placement comes from traffic and sponsorship: apps climb on the visits they draw, and a sponsor can pay to rise higher.