Apple makes it easier for Mac devs to drop Intel

Apple's latest Xcode 26 update adds a one-click checkbox to projects that lets developers tell the compiler to target only Apple Silicon. If you check the box, the build skips Intel binaries and ships only for M-series chips. It's the opposite of what the old universal binaries used to do.

This is a real signal. Since the M1 launched in 2020, the Mac line has been fully on Apple Silicon for four years. A lot of open-source projects are still shipping universal binaries — Intel and ARM together — because the default template hasn't changed. Now a new project can start Apple Silicon only from day one, and older projects can drop the Intel slice in one place. The compiler flag alone won't touch the project's dependencies, but it's the first step toward letting the community stop pretending every Mac still needs x86.

Why this matters for us:
A lot of us bought M1 MacBooks for the price and the battery life, and we don't want Apple's dev tools quietly keeping dead architectures alive in our projects.