Hello,
I am building a developer tool and for that I need to figure out which min deployment targets users technically may still specify in their Xcode projects.
This page https://developer.apple.com/support/xcode indirectly says that both Xcode 26 and Xcode 27 allow setting IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET only to iOS 15.0 and newer.
Also https://developer.apple.com/news/upcoming-requirements/ now says that starting April 28 2026, the apps must be built with iOS SDK 26+, meaning only Xcode 26 and newer may be used for building the apps that go to the AppStore.
However in fact in Xcode 26 I can specify older iOS deployment targets, as low as iOS 12.
This post here https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/805506?answerId=863871022#863871022 confirms that in fact it is possible to even submit the app to the AppStore with IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET 12.0
There's also this post https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/821370?answerId=882853022#882853022 that indirectly confirms that Apple still allows iOS 12.0 deployment target.
Since Xcode 26 is still allowed to build apps for the AppStore even after Xcode 27.0 release, does that mean the developers may technically be able to keep specifying iOS 12, iOS 13, iOS 14 as deployment target when submitting their apps to the AppStore without having their apps rejected?