Apple Retires Legacy iWork Apps for Creator Studio Versions
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Earlier this year, Apple made a massive change to how it sells and distributes its creative apps with the debut of Creator Studio, an annual subscription package that bundles everything from Final Cut Pro to Pages for $12.99 per month or $129 annually.
The move has created no small amount of confusion, as Creator Studio melds some of Apple’s most expensive “pro” apps into the same suite as its longstanding free “iWork” consumer apps — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. To make things even more awkward, Apple also chose to roll Freeform into the bundle, an app that was introduced in iOS 16.2 as a “built-in” tool for digital whiteboarding.
The transition from Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro into Creator Studio isn’t too hard to understand. These three “pro” apps that were once available solely as one-time purchases simply come under the umbrella of a subscription bundle, offering significant savings and access to their iPad counterparts. The standalone apps remain available separately, and are continuing to be (mostly) updated alongside their Creator Studio versions.
However, things have been more confusing for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, since these apps have been completely free for well over a decade. That hasn’t changed, although putting them into a paid subscription bundle has muddied those waters by locking some more advanced features like AI-powered “Magic Fill” behind the paywall. Creator Studio subscribers also get access to a large library of stock content and templates, but that more understandably carries an extra fee.
Although Pages, Numbers, and Keynote remain free, Apple decided it wasn’t worth maintaining two separate versions of these apps, so in late January it began nudging folks to switch to the free Creator Studio versions. After all, unlike Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, which can’t be used without either a separate purchase or Creator Studio subscription, the iWork apps are free either way.
The legacy Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps ended at version 14.5, an update released solely to facilitate the migration of saved passwords to the Creator Studio versions. While users can continue using those final versions, the new Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps with their fancier icons are now the only way forward.
Now, Apple is making sure that’s the case by pulling the legacy versions from the App Store entirely. It partially did this in January by hiding them from regular browsing. However, it was still possible to find them via a search in some cases. As of this week, they appear to have disappeared from nearly everywhere. The only place you’ll be able to find the non-Creator Studio versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote is by going into your Purchased list — assuming you’ve downloaded them from the App Store before.
Still, there’s little reason to do that, as the new Creator Studio versions remain free, and while the final 14.5 versions of the legacy apps still work fine, the new ones will continue receiving updates, and the time will come when things start to break in the old ones.
Other than the new icons and Liquid Glass look, which not everyone is a fan of, the only other annoyance in the Creator Studio versions is that you will find yourself being gently nudged to subscribe to Creator Studio in a few places. It’s not too aggressive, but it does detract from what’s previously been a cleaner user experience.
