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Is iOS 15 already unsupported?

iHorseHead

iHorseHead

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 1, 2021
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Hi!
My iPhone 7 hasn't received any updates for awhile, while iOS 17 and 16 have. Is iOS 15 already unsupported? If so then why was iOS 12 supported for that long?
 
Those “supports” you observe is merely for critical security updates Apple found in iOS 12 that can have lasting impacts to the end user using older devices. The support matters for general public is mostly the app support after a version of iOS no longer becomes the latest. In this sense, iOS 15 is still being supported, just not in a sense that security update is being provided to iOS 15 as of late.
 
I also have iPhone 12, but still am using iPhone 7 daily as well, because the iPhone doesn't support 2 SIM cards…
I just need WhatsApp to work. I was just wondering if it's still 'safe to use' since it hasn't received iOS updates in awhile, yet the iPhone 5s received those forever.
 
iHorseHead said:
I also have iPhone 12, but still am using iPhone 7 daily as well, because the iPhone doesn't support 2 SIM cards…
I just need WhatsApp to work. I was just wondering if it's still 'safe to use' since it hasn't received iOS updates in awhile, yet the iPhone 5s received those forever.
Click to expand...
Apple would like to tell you not use older software, so does many other people. But tbh it really doesn’t matter if you don’t use that iPhone to do some sensitive stuff like online banking or transactions.
 
Shirasaki said:
Apple would like to tell you not use older software, so does many other people. But tbh it really doesn’t matter if you don’t use that iPhone to do some sensitive stuff like online banking or transactions.
Click to expand...
Apple should announce like Windows if they're dropping the support. The same goes for the macOS.
I have a banking app on there too.
 
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iHorseHead said:
Apple should announce like Windows if they're dropping the support. The same goes for the macOS.
I have a banking app on there too.
Click to expand...
Well, fanboys gonna say yearly WWDC is the announcement of last major version of iOS ending support, which is also tied to device.
 
Larbo said:
Long past time for a new phone.
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Why?

Because Apple Arbitrarily dropped support for it?

No reason the iPhone 7 shouldn't have gotten iOS 16 and 17 (since the A9 based iPad 5 got iOS 16 and the A10 based iPad 6 got iOS 17 as well).

If a phone continues to work, why would its be 'long past time for a new phone' - such an anti consumer and anti environment statement.
 
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Apple officially says only the very latest version is fully supported: https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/about-software-updates-depc4c80847a/web

Note: Because of dependency on architecture and system changes to any current version of Apple operating systems (for example, macOS 14, iOS 17, and so on), not all known security issues are addressed in previous versions (for example, macOS 13, iOS 16, and so on).
Click to expand...

Going by this official info iOS 16 and older are not guaranteed to get all known security flaws fixed and the longer you use a device not on the latest version the higher the chances it has flaws Apple knows about but doesn't care to fix anymore.

They might still fix some things occasionally but from a compliance perspective for business or insurance or banking as a banking app was mentioned here anything other than the latest major OS version are considered out of support. That doesn't mean you can't keep using an older device, but if you need to be in compliance using a fully supported version then an older iOS, iPadOS or MacOS version won't cut it.
 
Have I misunderstood something? Didn't Apple promise security updates, so you dont have to upgrade??
 
The iPhone 6 received full update support including major OS upgrades for 6 years receiving 5 major OS upgrades. To this day that's unheard of with all other smartphone manufacturers, even the Google Pixel phones have in the past only received 3-4 major OS upgrades and went out of support after 3 years and those have the longest support times following Apple.

This year they extended support for their latest Pixel phones to 7 years although they only promise security updates for the entirety so in terms of actual OS upgrades that might be less. So even Google only just caught up to Apple about a decade late now and that's only for the very latest models, my Pixel 4 from 2019 already went out of support after 3 years in 2022 which is absolutely ridiculous as the hardware is still plenty fast going into 2024 and those were Google's most high-end premium phones at the time.

Saying Apple cares about the bottom line and not about the environment may be very true but in terms of software support length they are by far the best smartphone manufacturer and have been for a long while.
 
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iHorseHead said:
I also have iPhone 12, but still am using iPhone 7 daily as well, because the iPhone doesn't support 2 SIM cards…
I just need WhatsApp to work. I was just wondering if it's still 'safe to use' since it hasn't received iOS updates in awhile, yet the iPhone 5s received those forever.
Click to expand...
Totally safe OP, don’t worry.
 
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oldmacs said:
Why?

Because Apple Arbitrarily dropped support for it?

No reason the iPhone 7 shouldn't have gotten iOS 16 and 17 (since the A9 based iPad 5 got iOS 16 and the A10 based iPad 6 got iOS 17 as well).

If a phone continues to work, why would its be 'long past time for a new phone' - such an anti consumer and anti environment statement.
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My running theory for A9 and A10 support loss is battery life: iOS 15 obliterated battery life, rendering all 5 iPhones unusable with any slight battery degradation. iOS 16 and 17 were too much for the batteries coupled with iOS 16 and 17’s power requirements.
 
iHorseHead said:
Have I misunderstood something? Didn't Apple promise security updates, so you dont have to upgrade??
Click to expand...
They may have mentioned that they'd provide updates, but no company provides security updates forever. Apple certainly should provide a security update roadmap for all their products, but they unfortunately do not. As such, it's safe to assume that 15.x will not receive any more updates.
 
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AlixSPQR said:
It’s weird with all those iOS 12 updates, for sure.
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Not really, iOS 12 was the last version supported for a number of models. Then Apple kept supporting models up until iOS 15. So that's why iOS 12 do get a few updates there and then.

1702846820105.png
 
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wellander1 said:
And where is this image from? Link?
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That's from the iPhone wikipedia page. That page lists the versions accurately although the yellow color for (legacy) supported isn't what Apple says, so "supported" doesn't mean actually fully supported. But Wikipedia is like that, their info is not always accurate.
 
okkibs said:
That's from the iPhone wikipedia page. That page lists the versions accurately although the yellow color for (legacy) supported isn't what Apple says, so "supported" doesn't mean actually fully supported. But Wikipedia is like that, their info is not always accurate.
Click to expand...
Do you have a link as I could not find that page.
 
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