Before
iOS 16 was officially announced, it was expected that the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, and older phones would not be eligible for the upgrade, but Apple surprised everyone by also
dropping support for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and affected users are evidently not happy about it.
Apple has a reputation for long-term software support. 2015's iPhone 6S got its last update with iOS 15. Thus it was natural for iPhone 7 users to assume that they would get iOS 16, which brings a host of new features including edit and undo send for iMessages, customizable lock screen, and improvements to Mail and Map apps. Only iPhone 8 and later models support iOS 16, meaning Apple has ended support for the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, and OG iPhone SE.
As noted by
MacRumors, there is no plausible reason as to why Apple has dropped support for the iPhone 7 duo. Granted, the phones came out in 2016 and feature the 16nm Apple A10 Fusion chip, but the SoC seems capable of running the new version of the operating system, given that iPadOS 16, which is based on iOS 16, will come to the sixth and seventh-generation iPad, which are both powered by the same A10 chip. In fact, iPadOS 16 will also be rolled out to the fifth-generation iPad which is powered by the A9 chip which is older and less powerful than the A10 Fusion.
The iPhone 7 is ancient in phone years but that shouldn't matter as long as its chip is capable of supporting iOS 16
Only the forthcoming iPhone 14 will apparently get the full suite of features introduced with iOS 16, whereas the rest of the models, will miss out on
at least one feature. This could make the iPhone 14 the
best phone of 2022.
Apple could have disabled some resource-intensive iOS 16 features on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. That would have let iPhone 7 users enjoy some long due features as well as take advantage of security patches and bug fixes. Apple may still continue to offer some security updates for the phones though, as it has done with the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6.
Having said that, the iPhone 7 received around six years of software support, which is very impressive, especially when compared to what Android phones that were released during the same time period got.
While iPhone 7 users are helpless in the face of the new requirements and they can only get a taste of iOS 16 by buying a supported model, there is no stopping them from voicing their frustration and many of them took to Twitter to call out Apple for this.
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