Apple has big plans for an AI overhaul in iOS 18, but some of the new features might not work on older iPhones, even if they appear on the operating system’s device compatibility list.
Potentially 22 iPhone Models Won’t Get Every iOS 18 AI Feature
Apple’s initial AI roadmap for iOS 18 is said to consist of two parts: basic AI features that will be processed on-device and more advanced capabilities that will require communication with Apple’s servers.
At the center of these features is a redesigned Siri. To achieve this, Apple engineers had to redesign Siri’s core software using large language models (LLMs), the algorithm that forms the basis of generative AI.
According to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, this will enable Siri to open specific documents, organize notes in folders, delete an email, summarize an article, email a web link, and more. Apple is thought to be planning to use AI to analyze what people do on their devices to automatically enable these features.
Apple’s own LLM is expected to perform tasks that are considered basic AI tasks and will be entirely on-device. In other words, the model is powered by the iPhone’s processor instead of the cloud. It’s unclear what the criteria for a basic task will be, but the LLM is said to contain code that determines whether a request can be processed on the device or requires Apple’s servers.
According to Gurman, on-device AI capabilities will largely require an iPhone 15 Pro or higher model to work. Meanwhile, rumors suggest that iOS 18 will be compatible with the same iPhone models as iOS 17. Combining the two reports, it’s possible to expect the following iPhone models to run iOS 18, but lack support for some of Apple’s on-device AI features:
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 15 Plus
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone SE (3rd generation)
Both iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 are expected to share many of the same AI features, and Gurman notes that Macs and iPads will need at least an M1 chip for on-device AI features. In other words, any device older than the fifth-generation iPad Pro will not support on-device AI features in iPadOS 18.
