Need to Upgrade to iOS 26? Check and See if Your iPhone Is Supported
Apple has officially rolled out iOS 26.2but don’t expect to see this update notification if you’re keeping hardware older than the iPhone 11. In fact, you may not have access to the iOS 26 update at all. If that’s the case, it might be time to upgrade your phone entirely.
The new software requires the processing power of the A13 Bionic chip, which means many popular older models have reached their ceiling. Even if you will not have the opportunity to discover the new Liquid glass overhaul or advanced blocking unwanted calls Without upgrading, Apple isn’t completely abandoning you: older devices will continue to receive critical security patches for iOS 18 and iOS 16.
But is your device compatible with these updates? We’ve got everything you need to know 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
Although 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: iOS 26.1 update fixes alarm and lets you change liquid glass
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.
