How to See If an App Runs on an M1 Mac With Apple Silicon


A MacBook with an M1 chip logo on its screen.
Girts Ragelis/Shutterstock.com

Apple’s ARM Macs involve a equipment translation resolution named Rosetta 2. This allows all those Macs operate present software package created for Intel Macs. But it is not best. Here’s how to test whether your program is compatible right before acquiring an Apple Silicon Mac.

We endorse examining out the “Is Apple silicon ready?” web page. This site, established by programmer Abdullah Diaa, supplies a searchable listing that brings collectively compatibility facts from all in excess of the world-wide-web.

Head to the web page, lookup for an application, and look at the readily available info. If an application has a checkmark in the “Apple silicon optimized” column, that tells you it has an formal model that operates natively and speedily on Apple Silicon. The “M1 Supported version” column tells you which edition of the application supports Apple Silicon.

If an application has a checkmark in the “Rosetta 2” column, that tells you it functions appropriately by way of the Rosetta 2 translation layer. The app will operate and be usable on an ARM Mac.

In some cases, you may possibly see a yellow warning triangle. This indicates that the app might perform appropriately, but that it could have some bugs. You can click on any application and you’ll see a website link to additional information about any complications and programs for compatibility—perhaps on the developer’s web site, on a discussion discussion board, or in a Twitter thread somewhere.

Which is the actual gain of this website—it brings discussions from all above the internet jointly in 1 place.

You could also hunt down this data yourself—for illustration, if you are pondering regardless of whether a specialist app supports Apple Silicon, you can head to the developer’s web-site and see if they have an announcement. You could also carry out a website research for the title of the app and “m1 mac” to see if it functions thoroughly on Apple’s very first M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. But this directory must help you save you some time.


Actually, Rosetta 2 functions surprisingly well—especially compared to Microsoft’s half-baked emulation layer in Windows 10 on ARM. As of November 2020, Microsoft’s Home windows 10 on ARM nonetheless simply cannot emulate 64-bit Intel applications—years soon after it was initially introduced!

Related: Intel Macs vs. Apple Silicon ARM Macs: Which Ought to You Get?

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