[QUESTION] What is the exact support end date for Xamarin Form, Is Nov 2023 a safe end date for APP migration?

[nishadthajudeen001]

Description

As per this link(#14205), Xamarin.Forms 5 will be supported until November 2022, but as per the support policy (https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy/xamarin) since last release was on Nov 2021 , it should support 2 years which should be November 2023.

Could you please confirm that Xamarin APP should get support till November 2023 so that the APP migration can be planned based on this Nov 2023 deadline?

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Basic Information

• Version with issue:
• Last known good version:
• Platform Target Frameworks:
  • iOS:
  • Android:
  • UWP:
• Android Support Library / AndroidX Version:
• NuGet Packages:
• Affected Devices:

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[jfversluis]

Xamarin.Forms will be supported as per the policy that you have found. However, on the same page you linked it says release in January of 2021 and the support will be at least until 2 years after that, which is next January. Depending on how things will be by then we might extend, but don't count on that too much.

Ideally you will make the transition asap. Xamarin.Forms support will not be the issue, but as also stated on your linked support page, newer platform OS versions will not be supported. That means newer iOS and Android versions will not receive full support. If it works with iOS 16, that's great. If it's a hard crash we can easily fix, we will likely do that, but if there is a massive amount of work to be done so support a new major iOS/Android/UWP version, that is not part of the support.

If you have any challenges with the migration please let me know what they are so I can maybe point you in the right direction to overcome that. Feel free to reach out on my email that is on my GitHub profile.

[giuseppenovielli]

@jfversluis Thanks, for answer.

I think that Xamarin.Forms now is stable, with all libraries, developed, instead .NET MAUI.

I think that Xamarin.Forms must be continued supported only in maintenance mode, if iOS 16 will be a crash when run my ios app, it must be fixed.

Stop.

Nothing other implementation, but only compatibility with new iOS, Android SDK.

So, we can migrate our big Xamarin.Forms app to .NET MAUI when all is very stable and safe for production.

Thanks for all!

[nishadthajudeen001]

@jfversluis
Thanks for the reply, "Xamarin.Forms" release details wasn't in the Xamarin policy link when I initially posted this question.
Anyway thanks for adding that which helps for assessing the impact for customers.

In addition to that, I have seen below statement regarding additional 1 year support after .Net MAUI GA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bK2ICHtMxo -
“When Microsoft releases .NET 6 in November 2021, Xamarin will officially be switched to .NET MAUI. Xamarin will continue to be supported for another calendar year (until November 2022), but modern support will transition to .NET MAUI.”,

However, .Net MAUI GA in November was slipped and now targeting early Q2 of 2022. does that means that the support might have been extended for another calendar year(until Q2 @2023). So, hopefully we would get time till Q2 @2023 with proper support. Please confirm, which help the business to plan migration without any risk.

“Unfortunately, .NET MAUI will not be ready for production with .NET 6 GA in November. We want to provide the best experience, performance, and quality on day 1 to our users and to do that, we need to slip the schedule. We are now targeting early Q2 of 2022 for .NET MAUI GA.”
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/update-on-dotnet-maui/

[eqmarcin]

We have a new big app to build and I'm trying to do this in MAUI but it has so many simple bugs and it's very frustrating to use it for development e.g. on CollectionView in iOS labels are not visible (looks OK on Android); the same code on ListView works OK on both platforms. Simple IsVisible doesn't work for some controls, or SearchBar uses dark mode (which is not enabled) when other controls on the screen are in light mode.

I would like to start this new app in XF (as the standard UI worked well for us) but I don't want to rewrite it to MAUI next year. I think MAUI needs another 6 to 12 months to fix all the basic bugs.
I'm considering Blazor Hybrid at the moment. At least the UI works as it's html + js (the only thing that is missing at the moment is access to QR Codes reader)