The iOS 26 Features Not Coming to Older iPhones

Source: Apple.

Each fall’s major iOS update and its accompanying set of new features have become a staple of the iPhone user experience. iPhone owners – even those who don’t keep up with all the latest Apple news – expect and anticipate these enhancements every year. However, for those who aren’t on the latest-generation devices, it may not always be clear which of this year’s new features you’ll have access to. Even if a device supports iOS 26, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be able to run every system feature.

To save you from having to comb through a bunch of footnotes on Apple’s website or, worse, wait until this fall to find out which capabilities your device will support, I’ve compiled a list of all the iOS 26 features that are limited to newer iPhones. Here’s what you can expect based on the model you’re using.

First off, it’s important to know whether or not your device will be able to run iOS 26 at all. These are the iPhones for which the new version will be available:

iPhone 16 line (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and iPhone 16e)

iPhone 15 line (iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max)

iPhone 14 line (iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max)

iPhone 13 line (iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max)

iPhone 12 line (iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max)

iPhone 11 line (iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max)

iPhone SE (2nd generation and 3rd generation)

If you’re using an iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or iPhone XS Max, you won’t be able to update from iOS 18 to iOS 26, as those devices have been dropped from the compatibility list this year.

Liquid Glass is coming to all iPhones that run iOS 26. Source: Apple.

The good news is that if your device does run iOS 26, then you’ll definitely get to experience the most prominent element of the update: the new Liquid Glass design language. The striking new design – with its translucency, light reflection and refraction, dynamic elements, and more – is coming to older iPhones as well as newer ones. (Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for tvOS 26, which is leaving my beloved first-generation Apple TV 4K on the old design.)

Apple Intelligence features are limited to newer iPhone models. Source: Apple.

Next up, keep in mind that Apple Intelligence is still only available on the iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the iPhone 16 line (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and iPhone 16e). This means that all the new Apple Intelligence features in iOS 26 will be limited to those devices. They include the following:

visual intelligence in the screenshot UI

Apple Intelligence Shortcuts actions (including ‘Use Model’)

Live Translation for conversations in Messages, Phone, and FaceTime

voicemail summaries

poll suggestions in group chats

task suggestions when sharing text or a webpage to Reminders via the share sheet

auto-categorization of Reminders tasks

email-based order tracking in Wallet

the ability to mix multiple emoji together into custom Genmoji

new Image Playground styles from ChatGPT

finer control over Genmoji and Image Playground images based on people

Image Playground-generated chat backgrounds

That’s a long list of features that older devices won’t have access to. However, there are some new capabilities that sound like they’re powered by Apple Intelligence but aren’t. The new Lyrics Translation feature in Apple Music doesn’t rely on Apple Intelligence and thus will be available on all iPhones running iOS 26. Also available on older devices: excellent new Phone capabilities like Call Screening and Hold Assist.

Finally, there are a couple of new photo-related features that won’t be offered on all devices running iOS 26. Spatial scenes, which add depth to your photos so you can simulate looking at them from different angles as you tilt your phone, will only be available on the iPhone 12 and later. And the new system hint that lets you know your camera lens needs cleaning will only be offered on the iPhone 15 and later.

And those are the iOS 26 features that won’t be coming to older iPhones. Regardless of which iPhone you’re using, there’s still a lot of new functionality packed into the update, like the new Games app and Visited Places in Maps. So stick around for more of our coverage of iOS 26 and Apple’s other OS updates as we get closer to their release this fall.