Today, the American DropBox network disk has officially announced the unveiling of a Mac application built for Apple’s Apple Silicon chip.
Dropbox unveiled a beta version of its macOS client earlier this year that will support the Apple Silicon platform natively. The official version of 143.4.4161 has been released, which supports Apple Silicon natively.
In 2020, Apple unveiled its M1 silicon. Then, Dropbox didn’t have a native version of its file-hosting service for PCs using Apple’s CPUs until recently, which annoyed some professional customers who rely on and pay for the program for business.
In order to utilize the Dropbox app without the beta, M1 users must download Rosetta 2, software that converts x86 64 instructions for Apple’s Arm-based hardware. However, running Rosetta 2 can have a negative impact on battery life, memory, and performance. Rosetta 2 is a sufficient option for running Intel-based apps for the vast majority of users. It’s also likely that certain lesser-known apps will never be ported to M1 platforms.
However, as Apple continues to break links with Intel and plans to have all of its systems running on its own chips by the end of 2022, the number of programs that require Rosetta 2 should decrease. Other apps, including OneDrive, have promised to extend functionality to the M1 side, but we’re still waiting.
Last year, when a forum moderator reacted to demands for native M1 support by implying that more interest was required, Dropbox sparked controversy. Dropbox quickly changed its mind, assuring 9to5Mac that an M1 version of the service would be available soon.
However, Dropbox officials said that customers will immediately receive the update, so there is no need to reinstall the software.
Dropbox came under fire in late 2021 when it was unclear whether its clients will include native Apple Silicon support, forcing customers with Apple’s latest Macs to use software designed for Intel-based systems.
Dropbox has been chastised by Mac users for being under-optimized, resulting in high memory and battery utilization.
