The list of iPhone models that support iOS 16, but you shouldn’t expect that you will get access to all features if you have an older iPhone. The new iOS version is available starting from the iPhone 8, released in September 2017. Although Apple is still rather ambiguous about which model will get full iOS 6 features, we could expect that the older iPhone won’t get the full benefits of the operating system.
Camera features
Some new camera features of iOS 16 will be exclusive to only iPhone 13 models. If you own an earlier iPhone model, you can’t get improved video quality when recording with cinematic mode. For portrait photos, there will be no foreground blur for earlier iPhones, which gives you a realistic result with a depth-of-field effect. After installing iOS 16, owners of Pro and Pro Max versions will get a more accurate bokeh or depth-of-field effect around the edges of the hair.
Live Text
Live Text feature in iOS 16 will be available for iPhone models with an A12 Bionic processor. This means, that if your iPhone is older than iPhone XS or XS Max, the Live Text feature won’t be available for you after installing iOS 16. This feature allows you to pull any contextual information from photos. There are many benefits of using the Live Text feature, such as converting currencies, translating languages, and tracking shipments with a single tap. Live Text in iOS 16 has added new languages, including Ukrainian, Japanese and Korean.
Live Captions
When enabled, Live Captions generates onscreen captions in many apps, if they are not available natively. When iOS 16 debuts, this feature will not be available on any model older than iPhone 11. When enabled, auto-generated captions will be available in real-time text (RTT) interfaces and FaceTime calls. It’s a very useful feature to have for any iPhone user and a shame that it’s not released for all models.
Battery percentage indicator
Apple has the habit of removing functionality and introducing it back later as a new feature. The battery percentage indicator was removed five years ago and it will return with iOS 16. This “new feature” will be available for iPhone X and most newer devices. Despite being newer than iPhone X, the iPhone XR, 11, 12 mini and 13 mini won’t get the battery indicator due to display size constraints.
Other features
There is a myriad of other new features that will be included in iOS 6, including adding medications in the Health app, Siri skill discovery in apps, expanded image search, Visual Lookup enhancements, and new wallpapers. However, many of these will be available for iPhone XR/XS and newer. An Astronomy wallpaper is supposed to be available only for iPhone with an A13 Bionic processor or later, but it will be delivered for devices with an A12 Bionic chip as well. With Visual Lookup, you can easily remove objects from images, like statues or cars, as PNG files, which can be used by other apps. The iOS 16 will also have a Spotlight search engine that allows seamless searches of anything within apps, which makes your iPhone far more functional for daily and productive uses.
