Features you WON'T be getting 😡

The shockingly long list of iOS 26 features NOT coming to older iPhones.

Author

Leander Kahney
June 18, 2025

Even though your battered old iPhone 12 will be getting a shiny new operating system upgrade this fall (iOS 26, natch), there’s a somewhat shockingly long list of features it won’t be getting!

I was genuinely surprised not only by the length of the list of features not coming to older iPhones, but also by the intricacies of it.

Older iPhones, for example, will be able to run many core iOS 26 features — like the new Liquid Glass interface — but they won’t be getting all the latest enhancements. It’s a bit of a confusing hairball.

The good news is that nothing deal-breaking is being left out. And you might actually be glad you’re not getting Image Playground and some other underwhelming tat (which is British slang for “junk”).

If you don’t have an iPhone 16 or iPhone 15 Pro, here is what you’re gonna be missing out on come the fall.

Also in today’s newsletter:

  • Talking of features you’re not getting: The latest Samsung Galaxy watches will have some interesting new health and fitness features not yet available on Apple devices — including some needle-free blood analysis that sounds like the kind of non-invasive health monitoring that’d be great for Apple Watch.

  • A good VPN is basically essential these days; no one should be without one. I even use a VPN at home. And my dear, 84-year-old mom — who’s not that techy — is a dedicated VPN fanatic.

  • Thunderbolt 5 is finally going mainstream with a new dock from Plugable that packs a bazillion ports and is aimed directly at consumers, not pros.

  • Former Apple CEO John Sculley doesn’t fully deserve his bad rep, in my opinion. He’s often blamed for ruining Apple, but his tenure saw both explosive growth and interesting experiments in early mobile (i.e., the Newton) before it all blew up and he was forced to resign.

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

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Claude Zeins (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 video Apple Intelligence confirmed in Snow Leopard

Rafa (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 video If you're like me and are trying to study and inspect the new Liquid Glass effect, I've built a small utility app for you! Test Liquid Glass with all the different options, tinting, sizes, and backgrounds — only for macOS Tahoe for obvious reasons. đŸ’Ÿhttps://rafa.design/glasshole

Wallpaper of the day

One more thing ...

❝

There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say, “Wow,” and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.

— Steve Jobs, 2011.

Today’s poll

Which missing iOS 26 feature would entice you to upgrade your iPhone?

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Results from yesterday’s poll: What AI company will win?

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