I don't want my iOS app to run on iPhone with 3.5 screens, is it possible to restrict my app only to 4 inch displays?

Question

I don't want my iOS app to run on iPhone with 3.5 screens, is it possible to restrict my app only to 4 inch displays or larger?

Also, is it possible not allow the app to run on a certain device? I do not want my app to run on iPhone 4 and 4S.

Answer 1

NO.

You can't make an iPhone app restricted to a certain screen size. Not only is it not technically possible, it's against Apple's App Store Review Guidelines, in ways.

2.10: iPhone apps must run on iPad without modification, at iPhone resolution, and at 2X iPhone 3GS resolution

Although it's an old guideline mentioning the iPhone 3GS, the gist is the same even now: the app MUST be able to run on any screen size. There are even resizable iPhone and iPad Simulators within Xcode that you may use to take guesses on the next iPhone's screen size.

If they made guidelines so that apps can be used on the iPhone 3GS and the 4 and the 4s, said apps should also be able to run on newer phones and whatever's currently supported with the OS.

You said you noticed performance issues on older devices in a comment. This is where you need to work. How would you go about fixing said performance issues on older devices? Do what Apple did with iOS 7's release:

Reduce graphical effects and unnessicary processor-heavy effects on older devices.

If you look between devices, iPhone 4 has none of the translucency and background blurring that was advertised with iOS 7, namely with Control Center, Notification Center, Alerts, Keyboards, and Navigation Bars. This is how Apple tried to compensate with the lag of the iPhone 4 trying to run iOS 7. Same goes with the iPad 2. The iPod touch 4th generation didn't have enough RAM to run iOS 7, so it's stuck on iOS 6.1.5.

You need to do some work here too. If you have unnessicary graphical and processor-intense effects in your app that causes lag and performance issues, disable them on devices that can't run them at a smooth frame rate.

Answer 2

You cannot choose an app to only be released for 4" devices, and you have no influence on what display the iPad simulates when it runs an iPhone only app. What you want is simply impossible. This answer was found here: Limit app to running only on 4 inch devices IOS and answer credit goes to @Scott Berrevoets

Answer 3

Rather than selecting for a specific device you should focus on what capabilities you need. For example Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy communications supported only in iPhone 4S+ devices . You can add the bluetooth-le key to your UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities to prevent installation on every device but the iPhone 4S+ devices.

Answer 4

I don't think this is a good idea. Apple wants you to develop for as many devices as possible, and if you decide not to support a certain device for no reason (e.g. "no M7 coprocessor" for all devices except the 5S), Apple will reject your app.