Will the Apple iPhone 8 get iOS 17?

iOS 17 is headed to multiple Apple iPhone devices later this year. The upcoming iteration of the OS — which was first introduced in 2007 — will offer several interesting features like AR/VR headset integration, new updates to CarPlay, and more.

Apple is well known to be one of the few companies that provide up to five years of software support — most Android manufacturers limit their flagships to three years of updates. Samsung recently announced four years of updates for the Galaxy S22 and S23 devices, which still falls behind what the Cupertino-based tech giant offers.

As of fall 2023, the iPhone XR and XS will have turned five years old. Thus, it should be the last on the list of devices slated to get the upcoming iOS 17 update. As per the rules, the iPhone 8 and X will be removed from the update list, and they should remain confined to the upcoming iOS 16.5 update.

However, sources have spoken otherwise.

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iOS 17 might come to older iPhones, as per sources

The iPhone 8 lineup was launched in the fall of 2017 as the last Apple smartphone with a home button. Two smartphones were introduced in this lineup: the base model and the Plus variant.

In the following months, the iPhone X was launched with the company's next step in smartphone design: the notch. This design was considered a more contemporary approach that leveled Apple devices with their Android counterparts.

Although the devices continue to be potent smartphones for daily usage, they have long been discontinued by the tech giant. As of this writing, they can only be found on websites like eBay and Craigslist for a few hundred dollars. Thus, it makes sense for Apple to drop support for these five-and-a-half-year-old smartphones.

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Why will the iPhone 8 get updated to iOS 17?

The iPhone 7 was updated to iOS 16, thus, sources believe that the iPhone 8 and X will get the upcoming iOS 17 software version in all possibilities.

It is worth noting that Apple hasn't released the official list of devices that will get updated to iOS 17. The company won't shed light on this aspect until WWDC 2023, scheduled for June 2023. Be that as it may, it is very unlikely that the company will drop two generations of smartphones from the updates list.

The iOS 17 update will be rolled out to the public in Q3 2023. Thus, we still have to wait another half a year before updating the iPhone 8 and XS to the next step in Apple smartphone software. While this update won't be substantial, much like Android 14, it is gearing up to be a change worth waiting for.