Official iOS 17 news is still a few months away, with Apple expected to talk about the next major version of its smartphone software at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2023). However, the excitement around iOS 17 is growing, and many of us have started to wonder what iPhones Apple will support going forward, so Tom’s Guide presents this article with their guesses on which models will get the update and which won’t.
As is typical for Apple, we don’t have official confirmation on which iPhones will get iOS 17, but we can make a good guess. The iPhone 7 was “cut” on iOS 15, and the iPhone 8 released in 2017 was the oldest phone that could still run iOS 16.
Let’s start with the obvious iPhones likely to get iOS 17.
The models that will surely get iOS 17
Obviously, models released in the last few years will certainly continue to receive software support, and here they are:
iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 14 Pro Max
iPhone 14 Pro
iPhone 14 Plus
iPhone 14
iPhone 13 Pro Max
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 13
iPhone 13 mini
iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 12
iPhone 12 mini
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11
iPhone XS Max
iPhone XS
iPhone XR
iPhone SE (2022)
iPhone SE (2020)
Which iPhones might not make this list?
Apple typically offers software support for about five years, and for iOS 17, that means models released in 2017 are in danger of not being included among supported devices this year.
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
iPhone X
The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X were released in 2017, so it makes sense that these models won’t get iOS 17 because their older chipsets likely won’t support the new features in the operating system. They can’t even use all the goodies in iOS 16, for example, to take advantage of features like Live Text in the latest iOS, you need at least an iPhone XR.
Outlook for iOS 17
Apple usually doesn’t reveal which iPhones are being dropped from the list of supported devices until it unveils the new version of iOS at its developer conference, which is still about three months away, probably in June, and there we’ll hear all about iOS 17 and its feature set, as well as certainty about which iPhone models will get iOS 17.