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

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

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.