An update on iOS9 support

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!

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I’ve been desperately hanging on to iOS 9.3.3 on my iPhone SE. Looks like :monzo: will be the nudge I need to upgrade to iOS 11! Now to get used to ungrouped chronological notifications…

Monzo is enough to nudge you, but a lack of security patches for years wasn’t?

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Does the fact that mobile operating systems go out of date, and the need to support at least two different operating systems at the same time make a standalone web portal more likely?

I am one of those people always signing up for Betas and previews. I always update as soon as a OS is available for my device.
Can I ask why were you sticking to an old version for so long?

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Yup, fun on the bleeding edge

I updated to iOS 11 as my desire for toggling data on/off and increased shortcuts made it seem like a good decision then, but after updating there has been so many bugs, crashes, and I wish I waited a bit before all the kinks were straightened out. My keyboard app still crashes if I try to open a textbox and type too quickly, which is extremely annoying since the system keyboard is slow and doesn’t have great predictive capabilities. I also dislike how the notifications work now, it slides down with your lockscreen as a background and it’s in chronological order and ungrouped :confused: so I understand why people might wait a bit before updating.

I didn’t want to bring this up at first publicly but you seem to have some contempt for people who don’t share you opinions/ habits in your responses in forums. People have lots of reasons for why they choose to do something, or don’t live the same way you do and it might not necessarily be a wrong thing. There is such a diverse group of people on here, I think we should allow for differing opinions, or at least a debate without implying someone is ignorant for not sharing POV.

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I’m very sorry if I come across that way, not intended at all. Just an observation on how insecure iOS 9 is at this point. I do sincerely apologise that you felt I had any contempt, I don’t, at all.

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I’m just massively overcautious, I guess. I’d prefer to stick with an OS version I’m happy with than upgrade and “risk” potential instability/features being removed which I’ve come to rely on… I don’t really have a solid answer other than I prefer to just stick with what I know! :see_no_evil:

If Apple were to provide a way to downgrade to a previous version of iOS (and I totally get why they don’t), then I’d be 100x more likely to upgrade. It’s the irreversibility of upgrading that puts me off.

Understandable, but remember that the flip side is that Apple no longer provides security updates to old OS versions. That’s a major risk too, and one you should take into account. I understand not everyone can update for various reasons, but I do often worry people don’t understand the security risks of not updating.

Now, on the flip side, look how many currently sold Android phones have not got security updates in many months!

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I think it makes sense. My wife is same I think never really want me to change anything on her phone always want her phone to be as she knows it. :smile:

Security patches are important but if things are changed massively, some people find that annoying and they can be put off by this and in some extreme cases will stop using technology. It’s important to be inclusive as much as possible and understand some people (like me) will trust and follow upgrades and updates tirelessly and some folks will always be hesitant to put up with change. There is nothing wrong in that and I totally get that. Microsoft still supports Windows 2008 server I think.

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Microsoft does an amazing job of this. They support extremely old software versions for exactly this reason! We still use Windows 7 at work on a substantial minority of our desktops.

Unfortunately, companies like Apple don’t provide nearly this type of support lifecycle (and Google is even worse).

I think we don’t give MS much credit for their legacy software support not only they support 10 years old operating systems their newest system supports all the legacy App/Softwares. Which means we can still run an old Office XP on a Windows 10 system Office XP is I think about 16 years old.
Things can go wrong a big time though just look up for NHS hack which was essentially caused by not installing security patches.

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If I am not mistakes quite a lot of ATMs run (or at least to until last year used to) on Windows XP…

Microsoft still provides security patches under a support contract for embedded device applications like this. We can only hope those ATMs are actually getting patched…

Think of all the emoji you’re missing out on if you don’t update your iOS! Apple has been pretty smart tying them into the .1 release for the past couple of years, it definitely makes the majority of my friends upgrade if they hadn’t already.

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A good example of this is the upgrade from Android N to Android O - lots of new exciting features (picture in picture etc.), bug fixes and security updates BUT nasty things like the horrible new emojis…

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LOL, my best friend and I have got into this one… I am using the Oreo emoji set (on Nougat, still) because they’re more colourful and it adds new emoji from a newer Unicode release. They, however, are partial to their blobs! I like the blobs, they’re cute… but I like the brighter colours and additional emoji more.

The beautiful, wonderful thing about Android is that we can install whatever emoji (or other) font we want :smiley:

Here’s a good piece of reading for those into emoji, also: Apple did not invent emoji / fuzzy notepad - it does have one point I feel may need clarification tho, be aware that Ad Council isn’t an ad agency in any conventional sense of the term, they’re a non-profit ad agency that designs and runs public service announcements.

If you have root I believe :wink: