- The same iPhones with iOS 18 can also have iOS 19
- An iPad model will launch with iPadOS 19
- Expect official news sometime in June 2025.
This year’s release of iOS 18 has brought a host of new features and functionality to millions of iPhones, and a new leak suggests that the same phones that can run iOS 18 will also be eligible for an upgrade to iOS 19.
According to the generally reliable iPhoneSoft (via 9to5Mac), phones as old as the iPhone XS and iPhone XR, released in 2018, will be able to get next year’s software update. Meanwhile, iOS 18 stopped supporting the iPhone X and iPhone 8, which were released in 2017.
There is a caveat, however: not all of iOS 19’s new features will be available on all iPhones. This is something we’re already used to, of course, because the latest phones have the processing power to handle Apple Intelligence, while others don’t.
So far we haven’t heard much about what updates iOS 19 will bring, although Apple is apparently planning a ChatGPT-style update for Siri. For the moment, of course, you can use ChatGPT within Siri for more advanced AI conversations.
iPads and release schedule
However, the same report says that one iPad model will be left behind when iPadOS 19 is released. Apparently, the base seventh-generation iPad, which launched in 2019 and is powered by an Apple A10 chip, will not be supported.
The new minimum requirement for iPadOS 19 is said to be an A12 chip, meaning all other iPads should receive the software update. We can expect a similar set of new features for iOS 19, with some tweaks and extras to take into account the tablet form factor.
If Apple sticks to its usual schedule, the first we’ll officially hear about iOS 19 and iPadOS 19 will be at WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) 2025, which will likely take place in June. After that, we should have a beta testing period, before a full public launch in September 2025.
Of course, the new software updates will run on the iPhone 17 series, as well as any new iPad Apple decides to release this year. We could well get the 11th generation iPad before 2025 comes out, as well as a new 8th generation iPad Pro.
