iOS 18 system requirements: Which phones will it work on?

Apple announced iOS 18 at this year’s WWDC event, showcasing all the exciting new features coming to the iPhone.

Keep reading to discover which iPhones will receive the update this year, along with which ones will miss out.

Which phones will get iOS 18?

You can see the full list of iPhones confirmed to support iOS 18 below:

• iPhone SE (3rd generation)
• iPhone SE (2nd generation)

Aside from the above, we’d also expect iOS 18 to be available on the iPhone 16 series, including the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

This has been the case with the newest handset every year and we wouldn’t expect this year to be any different – especially seeing as the iPhone’s typical September/October launch date times in with iOS 18’s release this fall.

Which phones won’t get iOS 18?

Each year at WWDC we see one or more phones get sent to the chopping block. However, this year we were surprised to see Apple release the same list of compatible phones for iOS 18 that it did for 2023’s iOS 17 update. This means that, like iOS 17, iOS 18 will not run on the iPhone X or iPhone 8.

It also means that there’s no dire need to upgrade your handset if you’re currently using iOS 17 as the same models will remain supported.

That said, if you want to access all the smart new Apple Intelligence features, like Writing Tools, Image Playground, and ChatGPT in Siri, you’ll need a device that can handle the more intensive AI workload. This means that anything less than the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max won’t support this particular set of features.

“The core foundational models behind these experiences require a huge amount of compute”, said senior VP of machine learning and AI strategy, John Giannandrea (via Yahoo News). “It’s the amount of computer that they require that actually provides that limitation”.