Every year when Apple launches its new slate of iPhones it also launches its latest major software updates - and in 2024, alongside the iPhone 16, it'll be iOS 18.
However, while iOS 18 always debuts on the newest iPhone, it also comes to older devices, with a cut-off that isn't always easy to predict.
This time around, according to the Daily Mail, the new artificial intelligence features that Apple is going to bring to the table might mean that a big slice of old iPhones won't be able to install iOS 18.
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The software is expected to be showcased at this year's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in early June, and there have been heavy hints that AI will play a starring role.
The Mail reports, though, that only phones with at least the A12 Bionic chip at their heart will have enough onboard computing power to manage the features that will be added with iOS 18.
This results in a pretty long list of iPhones that are likely to no longer be supported by new software:
- iPhone 5s
- iPhone 6
- iPhone 6 Plus
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone SE 1st Gen
However, dig a little deeper and you'll find that this list isn't too shocking - after all, none of those phones supported iOS 17, either, so nothing will actually change for anyone using them.
The oldest iPhone that was able to install iOS 17 was the iPhone XR, which came out in 2018, so it wouldn't actually be a huge surprise if iOS 18 moves on by another year and leaves behind the iPhone X family.
Still, at this stage, it's all just speculation - Apple itself hasn't confirmed anything on this front, and likely won't for a while.
In fact, even though it'll show off a bunch of features from iOS 18 when it holds its keynote presentation at the start of WWDC, we probably won't learn which devices will be compatible at this point.
Apple normally keeps this information back until its September launch event for the new iPhones.
This brings with it so much news and a huge wave of press releases, and somewhere in the fine print under these will be that key little detail.
We already know from widespread reports that iOS 18 is expected to make a few welcome changes to your iPhone. One is that it'll finally let you re-order your home screen to include gaps between apps, a tiny feature that has nonetheless been on many people's wishlist for years and years.
The slate of possible AI features that Apple will add might be of more interest to market analysts, meanwhile, given that AI is an area in which Apple hasn't been particularly active as yet.
Apple has been approached for comment.