The next major release of iOS, iOS 19, is expected to make its debut next summer at WWDC, and according to Frenchwebsite iPhoneSoft.fr, it looks like iOS 19 is going to support all iPhone models that can run iOS 18.
This would be great news as it would mark the second year in a row that iOS doesn’t drop older iPhone models for major software releases, and I believe that iOS 19 is going to be more of a “refinement” update, rather than introducing several new features, similar to what Apple did with the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard back in 2009. It has been reported that iOS 18’s staggered releases shelved development towards iOS 19, according to Mark Gurman. So having such a dire update to iron out those minor bugs would be a welcome change for those long-time users.
Currently, iOS 18 supports the following iPhone models:
- iPhone 16 / Plus / Pro / Max
- iPhone 15 / Plus / Pro / Max
- iPhone 14 / Plus / Pro / Max
- iPhone 13 / mini / Pro / Max
- iPhone 12 / mini / Pro / Max
- iPhone 11 / Pro / Max
- iPhone XS / Max
- iPhone XR
The oldest of these models are the iPhone XR and iPhone XS models, which all three support the A12 Bionic chip and were released in September 2018. So iOS 19 would support all iPhone models that have an A12 Bionic chip or later.
In other news, the source also claims that the incoming iPadOS 19 release will support all iPad models that can run iPadOS 18 except for the iPad (7th generation), which was released in September 2019 and had the older A10 Bionic chip. Based on that report, iPadOS 19 would require an iPad model with an A12 Bionic chip or later. In summary, both iOS 19 and iPadOS 19 would support all iPhone and iPad models that have an A12 Bionic chip or later. We’re just about six months until WWDC 2025, so anything can change from here on out.
