Oliver Haslam on December 20, 2021, 11:45 pm

iOS 16 Compatibility: Rumor Says Apple To Drop iPhone 6s / 6s Plus And Original iPhone SE Support

Apple has only just released iOS 15 but a new report claims that we can expect iOS 16 to drop support for some devices that people might still be using — although the devices in question are very much ready to be replaced if that’s the case.

According to a report by iPhoensoft, Apple’s iOS 16 will drop support for iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and the original iPhone SE.

The same report also claims that iOS 16 will not support some iPads, namely iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad (fifth-generation), and the 2015 iPad Pro lineup.

Via machine translation:

After three years of full compatibility, Apple should exclude multiple devices for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. Indeed, the oldest iPhone and iPad currently running iOS 15 are starting to get old. We think of the iPhone SE 2016, iPhone 6s, iPad 5 or iPad Pro first of the name of 2015. The four devices have one thing in common, the A9 / A9X chip. And what about iPad mini 4 and iPad Air 2 with A8 processor?

We don’t expect Apple to announce iOS 16 until the 2022 WWDC event, likely to take place in June of the same year. That’s when we will know for sure what Apple intends to support and what it will kill off, of course.

Apple tends to remove older devices from support when a big new software update is released, although that isn’t always the case. iOS 15 supports all the same devices that iOS 14 supported, for example.