Apple unveiled macOS Sonoma at WWDC 2023, promising a major update for the Mac that lots of users are likely to adopt on release day. But if you depend on the sideloading capabilities of AltServer and AltStore, then you may want to consider steering clear, at least for now.
In a Tweet shared Wednesday afternoon and shown above for your viewing pleasure, the AltStore team confirmed that macOS Sonoma doesn’t support legacy Mail app plug-ins like the one used by AltServer on macOS. Instead, macOS Sonoma will only support MailKit-based extensions going forward.
While it’s unfortunate news for AltServer users who may have been considering installing the macOS Sonoma beta or installing macOS Sonoma at launch when it comes out this Fall, the good news is that the AltStore team appears to be working on a new method.
Specific details about the new method weren’t expressly discussed in the Tweet, but the AltStore team said they expect to release it “soon.”
AltStore and AltServer as collectively recognized as a sideloading system for those in the Apple ecosystem. With it, users may install unverified apps on their devices using an Apple ID tied to a free Apple developer account.
It’s worth noting that AltServer users can continue to use the Mail plug-in if they simply avoid upgrading to macOS Sonoma, so this doesn’t affect existing users who are still running macOS Ventura.
It will be interesting to see what becomes of AltServer as the team pushes to modernize the platform for upcoming versions of macOS and iOS/iPadOS alike.
Will you be upgrading to macOS Sonoma before the AltStore team makes this important compatibility change, or will you wait? Let us know in the comments section down below.