TL:DR
When the prepaid program ends in early 2018, we will also remove support for iOS9.
Customers will need to update to iOS 10 or above in order to upgrade to the current account.
Those who haven’t upgraded to the current account will need to close their prepaid card, and we’ll refund their remaining balance. We’ll be posting an update about the timing of the prepaid program ending soon.
Details
As you may have seen, we are planning to remove support for iOS9 (and the iPhone 4S) when we end the prepaid program in early 2018.
Whilst it is common for tech companies to drop support for older operating systems and devices quite quickly after a new version is released, it’s not something banks tend do at the same rate, so we didn’t take this decision lightly.
As newer versions of devices and their operating systems are released, it becomes harder to design and develop experiences that are predictable and reliable across all versions. We are ending our support of iOS9 to reduce the risk of people experiencing issues with the app. The 3.5-inch screen of the 4S is also becoming challenging to design for as we add new features. The effort to ensure all functionality works well on smaller screens and older operating systems has to be balanced against the fact that there are fewer people using these devices each day.
There were two factors that went into our decision of when to do this; the number of active Monzo customers using iOS9, and the introduction of the Monzo current account. 1.3% of daily users are on iOS9, and the vast majority of them are using devices that are able to update to iOS 10 or 11 (iPhone 5 and above). The main reason we are planning to drop iOS9 support early next year is in order to minimise the the number of people with current accounts that are affected. We really want to avoid people upgrading to the current account, moving their bills and salaries over, closing their other accounts, then losing access to their funds. The upgrade to current accounts feels like the most natural time to make a change like this.
Our current plan is to keep iOS9 support until we stop supporting prepaid. From that point in time it will no longer be possible to download Monzo from the app store if you are using iOS9, and new versions of the app will only go to updated devices. We know this is a real pain for those that are affected, and this means some people may not be able to continue to use Monzo with their current device. However we hope that with enough upfront warning we can work with people to resolve things smoothly, either by upgrading their phone’s operating system, or changing device.
We’ll be posting an update about the timing of the prepaid program ending soon.
Let us know if you have any questions, thanks for reading!