Check app is ARM or Intel build on your M1 Mac
There are two native ways to do so.
I started to switch my daily workflow to the M1 MacBook Air base model since January 2021.
Since the M1 MacBook Pro launch, I believe there are another batch of pro users only just had their first experience with the M1 Macs and quickly stumble upon issues with their apps that still do not have M1 native support yet. I know this as one of my previous article about how to get “Native” Microsoft Team app experience on your M1 Mac suddenly got huge traction around mid of October.
If you are new to M1 Macs, here are some quick method to check whether your app is a native build or relying on Rosetta 2.
1. Check using Finder
Go to your /Application folder and look for the app you want to check, and the right click and find Get Info .
You can now see a window popup showing all the detailed information about the WhatsApp app.
Under General > Kind, you can see Application (Intel) which indicates this app is an Intel build and needs on Rosetta 2 to run.
For applications that are build natively for M1 Macs, you will see Application (Apple Silicon). This is a good indicator that your app may have been specifically optimised by the software developer/vendor to run perfectly on your M1 machines.
This is the current most common kind of build. If you saw Application (Universal), the app may contain both Intel and M1 build in the same application binary.
You may use CleanMyMac X to remove the unnecessary content of the universal binary to regain some storage space.
2. Silicon Info App
If you think the first method above is not very user friendly, you may use this Silicon Info app published by William Castelli on App Store.
If you want to get a list of apps that do or do not support M1 chip natively, there are two sites that I still revisit sometimes since Jan 2021.
Want to learn more about M1 Mac related optimisations?
Here are some of my previous articles:
