Skip to Content

Apple to Phase Out Rosetta 2 Starting With macOS 28 as Intel Era Ends

by

Following its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple updated a developer document to indicate that Rosetta 2 will remain available through macOS 27.

apple silicon 1 feature
Rosetta 2 enables Macs with Apple silicon (Arm architecture) to run apps that were built for Macs with an Intel processor (x86 architecture), by translating code.

Starting with macOS 28, Apple said that only a limited version of Rosetta 2 will remain available for older games that rely on Intel-based frameworks:

Rosetta was designed to make the transition to Apple silicon easier, and we plan to make it available for the next two major macOS releases – through macOS 27 – as a general-purpose tool for Intel apps to help developers complete the migration of their apps. Beyond this timeframe, we will keep a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles, that rely on Intel-based frameworks.

The document also reiterates that macOS Tahoe will be the final macOS release that supports Intel-based Macs. However, Apple said that Intel-based Macs will continue to receive security updates for an additional three years.

macOS Tahoe is compatible with only a handful of Intel-based Macs, including the 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019), 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports), 27-inch iMac (2020), and Mac Pro (2019).

macOS 28 will be released in 2027.

Tags: Apple Silicon Guide, Intel, Rosetta

Popular Stories

Apple Event Logo

Apple Released Seven New Products Today

Wednesday March 11, 2026 7:05 am PDT by
Starting today, the seven new Apple products that were announced last week are available at Apple Stores and beginning to arrive to customers. The colorful MacBook Neo and all of the other new products are on display at most Apple Store locations around the world starting today. Apple Stores have inventory of the new products for both walk-in customers and Apple Store pickup, but...
Read Full Article • 22 comments
ios 26 4 yellow

Everything New in iOS 26.4 Beta 4

Monday March 9, 2026 3:50 pm PDT by
Apple is continuing to test the iOS 26.4 beta, and the latest update is now available for developers and public beta testers. As testing goes on, there are fewer new features in each beta, but today’s release adds new emoji characters and a few other changes. New Emoji Apple added new emoji characters, including trombone, treasure chest, distorted face, hairy creature, fight cloud, orca,...
Read Full Article • 71 comments
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Sunday March 8, 2026 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...
Read Full Article • 488 comments

Top Rated Comments

turbineseaplane Avatar
turbineseaplane
10 months ago
Bummer

Lots of software will get lost forever
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TruthAboveAllElse Avatar
TruthAboveAllElse
10 months ago
This is unfortunate. Rosetta 1 was almost unusable at times so made sense to phase it out. Rosetta 2 is usually totally invisible to the user, so a shame to break compatibility.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
L
Lounge vibes 05
10 months ago
Intel getting an extra three years of security updates means that 2019 MBPs will have received 10 years of official support, from 2019 to 2029.
Where is the guy that made that massive thread the other day saying Intel computers would become bricks this fall?
And I think this confirms that M1s will likely be supported at least in a security capacity into the early 2030s easily.

While it’s definitely unfortunate that Rosetta is being dropped, Apple actually giving a timeline for these kind of things, including how long the Intel computers will get security updates, is big progress.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StudioMacs Avatar
StudioMacs
10 months ago

Imagine being a Mac Pro buyer who spent $50,000 in 2019 on the top-tier configuration, only for Apple to announce its migration to Apple Silicon a year later. Now imagine a company that invested in 10, 20, or even 50 of those Mac Pros—would you buy Apple again?
If purchased by a business in such quantities, the cost of the tangible assets over their useful life has been depreciated for tax purposes. In the US, the IRS generally assigns a 5-year useful life to computers and related equipment.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iHorseHead Avatar
iHorseHead
10 months ago

Intel getting an extra three years of security updates means that 2019 MBPs will have received 10 years of official support, from 2019 to 2029.
Where is the guy that made that massive thread the other day saying Intel computers would become bricks this fall?
And I think this confirms that M1s will likely be supported at least in a security capacity into the early 2030s easily.

While it’s definitely unfortunate that Rosetta is being dropped, Apple actually giving a timeline for these kind of things, including how long the Intel computers will get security updates, is big progress.
A lot of people don't realise that Intel Macs are getting much better support than PowerPC Macs. Imagine spending like 3k on a Mac Pro and then it's supported only from Tiger to Leopard.
Like from 2005 to 2009.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
W
woolypants
10 months ago
Stop for a moment and consider how completely amazing Rosetta is. A technical tour de force.

I do wonder a little where this leaves the whole gaming triple-A title thing that Apple was talking about this time last year. Wasn't that basically built on Vulcan and Rosetta? Did nobody show any interest, so now it's forgotten?

EDIT: As somebody points out, this was built on Wine and not Vulkan.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments