[globalise83]

Another extremely useful feature that won’t work for our Safari users with any older than 1 year old iPhones and means for the next five years we have to support both this API and a full-blown polyfill or alternative implementation.

[JimDabell]

All iPhones going all the way back to 2018 can upgrade to iOS 17 right now.

66% of all active iPhones are already on iOS 17, 23% are on iOS 16, and only 11% use anything older. People upgrade iOS fairly quickly and it’s uncommon to support anything more than the two most recent major versions. So it’s more like one year, not five.

https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/

[afavour]

Two year old iPhones are absolutely able to upgrade to iOS 17 and receive this feature, all the way back to iPhone 8.

That said, I do wish Apple had their browser set up like Google does with a complete upgrade possible via the App Store. It feels unnecessary to completely tie it to the OS version.

[pmontra]

I don't know how iOS works but if it was an app would other browsers be able to use Safari's rendering engine? There is also the lower functionality JS engine that Apple forces those browsers to use (if I'm not mistaken.)

[afavour]

The way it works on Android is that the system web view is an "app" (though not one you can launch) that updates via the Play Store. Any app using webviews automatically gets the upgraded experience whenever that app gets upgraded.

[jimbobthrowawy]

> though not one you can launch

Try the app "Activity launcher" on your phone some time. Lets you open any Activity (android class that apps are composed of) on your device.

[monsieurbanana]

Is it recommended to update iOS with old phones? Not recommended by Apple, actually recommended as in it won't slow your phone to a crawl.

[robertoandred]

Ignorance, or just anti-Apple lies? This is pure misinformation and hurts web development.

[globalise83]

Practical experience having to build workarounds to support Safari users whose browser versions don't support modern web APIs.