Every year, those who own older Apple devices nervously tune in to the WWDC keynote presentation to see if they will be able to install the upcoming major software updates. The iPhone, for example, typically gets around six or seven years of active support, but there’s no guarantee like Google or Samsung. Some models have had as little as four or as many as eight, and Apple’s decisions about which handsets will drop off the supported list can be surprising and unpredictable.
In 2024, it was announced that all the phones that could run iOS 17 would also be able to run iOS 18, which was good news all around. And early reports suggested that this year would be a repeat: that same list of iPhones (bolstered by the new models that have been released since then) would be able to run iOS 19 too. But now that looks less certain.
According to a private and anonymous X account with an impressive track record of accurate predictions (via 9to5Mac), three iPhones that launched in 2018 and have had active software support until now will not be able to run iOS 19: the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max.
That leaves the following handsets as iOS 19-ready:
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2020)
- iPhone 12 & 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro & 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 & 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro & 13 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2022)
- iPhone 14 & 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro & 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 15 & 15 Plus
- iPhone 15 Pro & 15 Pro Max
- iPhone 16 & 16 Plus
- iPhone 16 Pro & 16 Pro Max
- iPhone 16e
Owners of the XR, XS, and XS Max will still be able to install security updates for at least a year, but the new features and visual/interface changes rolled out as part of iOS 19 and all future software updates won’t be available until they buy a newer model. With the devices heading towards their seventh birthdays and running A12 processors (by contrast, the weakest iPhone model currently on sale runs an A16, and the “budget”‘” iPhone 16e has an A18), it may be time to consider an upgrade.
iOS 19 will be announced at WWDC 2025 on June 9 and rolled out immediately in a beta testing program for developers only. Public betas usually follow a month later, before the finished version of the software is rolled out in the fall. For all the latest information about the launch, check out our regularly updated iOS 19 superguide.
