Don’t Have Access to iOS 26? You Might Need a Newer iPhone. Here’s the List of Supported Models

Apple released iOS26but if you haven’t yet seen the latest update appear on your iPhone, you might be out of luck. Devices older than the iPhone 11 are out of luck and you’ll need to upgrade to a more capable device before you can experience new features like “Liquid glass” redesign and the ability to block unwanted calls.
Since iOS 26 requires the power of the A13 Bionic chip or newer, some popular older models have unfortunately been excluded from iOS 26, although they will continue to receive security updates for iOS 18 (or iOS 16). Find out if your iPhone supports the iOS 26 update below.
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Every iPhone supporting iOS 26
The phones excluded from the list this year are the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR.
The iPhone 17 will ship with iOS 26.
Please note: Apple Intelligence is not present on all iPhone models
While all of the above models can install iOS 26, Apple Intelligence requires beefier hardware. Features like Genmoji, Image Playground, and new Visual Intelligence search only work on:
- iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max
- iPhone 16 models
- iPhone 17 models
If you’re using an older device, you’ll still benefit from all the design changes and daily updates, but nothing involving Apple Intelligence.
Watch this: 26 other things hidden in iOS 26
Don’t know which iPhone model you have?
On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > About and look at the model name. If your phone isn’t on the compatibility list, it will continue to receive iOS 18 security patches for a while, but you won’t see any of the new features in iOS 26.




