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I finished an app a while ago but this app's layout only works well in iPhone and I didn't plan to let it available for iPad, I just want it to work on iPhone devices.

Is it possible to submit to App Store and iPhone app that won't be available for iPad?

At iTunes Connect -> My Apps -> (App Name) -> App Store -> iOS APP -> Prepare for submission I didn't see anything like permitted devices.

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  • why not make it available to both?
    – Natsfan
    Commented Oct 5, 2017 at 17:26
  • When you run an iPhone-only app on an iPad, it runs in an iPhone-sized window (or a 2x-iPhone-sized window), so it looks the same as on an iPhone. There's no aspect ratio difference, etc. Unless you have a really good reason not to (not just that the "layout only works well on iPhone"), I wouldn't worry about it.
    – Tuesday
    Commented Oct 5, 2017 at 17:28
  • If you're talking about an iPhone vs. universal app, you set that in Xcode, I believe.
    – Tuesday
    Commented Oct 5, 2017 at 17:29
  • the layout get lots of bugs at iPad so I would prefer not to provide it for iPad
    – Daniel
    Commented Oct 5, 2017 at 17:31
  • @Daniel Can you explain what you mean? Are you talking about the app displaying natively on an iPad, with a 2:3 aspect ratio? If you don't have an iPad view set up, it should display exactly the same as it does on an iPhone.
    – Tuesday
    Commented Oct 5, 2017 at 17:55

2 Answers 2

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There are some iPhone apps that can't be installed on an iPad (e.g. WhatsApp).

You can prevent an iPad app from being downloaded to an unjailbroken iPhone. As mentioned in the comments, an iPhone app can run on an iPad in 'compatability mode'.

Your app should still look ok on an iPad unless your setting up autolayout constraints based on specific iPhone screen sizes. One of the benefits of autolayout is that your app should be able to run on different screen sizes, including iPads.

You would need to indicate in the App Store description that this app is not designed to run properly on the iPad. I would recommend spending the time to make it look decent on the iPad knowing that people will still download it on their iPads regardless of what you state in the description.

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  • these auto-layout statements sound tricky to me, cos we design apps for a rectangular screen in the iPhone, but iPad is almost a square, so some things don't look nice... but it is possible to fix, indeed
    – Daniel
    Commented Oct 11, 2017 at 17:03
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    In XCode the developer needs to set the build to iPhone only otherwise this answer is not complete. Otherwise when in App Store connect you're obliged to upload 12.9 inch (iPad Pro (3rd generation)) 2048 x 2732 pixels (portrait). stackoverflow.com/questions/37706952/…
    – Jim Clermonts
    Commented Jul 4, 2019 at 7:26
  • "No, you can't prevent an iPhone app from being installed on an iPad." WhatsApp would beg to differ.
    – ma1234
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 18:20
  • @ma1234 My answer is 6 years old, from 2017. Changes have been made since that time. Instead of leaving a comment that doesn't help anyone, feel free to update my answer with the latest info. Doing that will help people looking for the answer.
    – fsb
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 21:05
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As suggested in one of the comments, in order to build only for iPhone, you need to change in Xcode before you build. For XCode 14, it is in General → Supported destinations. From there, remove "iPad".

For apps that have already been distributed for iPad, this does not work.

Screenshot showing where to change the available devices

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