What devices will be compatible with iOS 16?

There is less than a month to go until WWDC 2022, which will take place between June 6 and 10. An event in which the star will surely be iOS 16, the new revision of the iPhone operating system and the recently discontinued iPod Touch. It is possible that ipadOS will receive even more news, or at least a good set of long-awaited features, and we may even see the long-awaited jump from Mac Pro to Intel Silicon, or even the hypothetical return of the iMac Pro, that would be a news after so many rumors. But in the end, What will generate the most conversation will be the news of iOS 16.

It will be presented at WWDC 2022, there is no doubt about that, which is still not so clear is whether the final version of iOS 16 will arrive in September or OctoberAnd it is that we are still waiting for news about the possible delays in the presentation and arrival on the market of the iPhone 14, as a result of the recent outbreaks of coronavirus in China, which have affected some nerve centers of its production. Thus, if the iPhone 14 is finally delayed to October, it is likely that iOS 16 will too, since they usually always come hand in hand.

What is not delayed at all, as is the case every year, are doubts about which devices will be able to update to the latest version of iOS. Users of older devices that are still kept up-to-date see the Damocles sword of seeing how Apple considers its life cycle to be over, thus preventing them from enjoying the new features of the operating system and, what is more, worryingly, of the most recent possible security updates. After the previous updates, many breathed easy, but iOS 16 could change this.

And it is that, pending confirmation from Apple, which obviously we will not have until WWDC 2022, MacRumors raises an interesting theory, which could help us complete the iOS 16 pool, and that is that this new version of the operating system requires a minimum of three gigabytes of RAM. And it is that, if so, if the cut-off point is marked by the RAM memory and not the SoC of the device, we can determine that there are five devices that will not be able to make the jump from iOS 15 to iOS 16. They are the following:

• iPhone 6S
• iPhone S6 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone SE (first generation)
• iPod Touch (7th generation)

The most surprising case is found, without a doubt, in the seventh generation iPod Touch. Let us remember that this generation hit the market in the spring of 2019 and that, since then, it has been the most recent of the Apple MP3 player. This, on the one hand, invites us to doubt this theory, but on the other hand it would explain the reason why Apple has chosen this moment to end the life of the iPod Touch.

It is possible, however, that they raise an exception, since the iPod Touch has fewer functions, and therefore they do allow its update to iOS 16. And, as Apple itself indicated in its statement about the player, will still continue to be sold until existing stock runs out. And it is that it doesn’t make much sense to sell a new device in May, to announce that it runs out of updates in June.

Not surprisingly, by the way, find the iPhone 6S and its Plus edition, as well as the first generation iPhone SE, on the list of candidates to leave the building. It is a bit more shocking to also see the iPhone 7, but in fairness we must bear in mind that we are talking about a phone that hit the market in 2016, and that continues to receive updates today. And, yes, in this case it would be only the standard model that could not be updated to iOS 16, since the iPhone 7+ has three gigabytes of RAM, compared to the two gigabytes of the iPhone 7.