Upgrading to iPadOS16 while iPhone iOS15: safe?

[Yannick]

Hello. I couldn't find an answer to this question. Can I safely upgrade my iPad pro (M1) to iPadOS 16.2 while my iPhone SE (1st generation) stays on iOS 15.7.2 since it is not compatible with iOS 16? Is there any risk of problems for the iPhone and iPad devices communicating. I am talking about possible issues with AirDrop, Text messages, etc.

Thanks for your help.

 

[fwmireault]

You will probably be fine. If you use Apple Home, maybe you should not upgrade to the new architecture as your iPhone will not be able to control your home devices. For AirDrop, Messages etc, I see no reason why it wouldn't work. You can always install a previous back-up if iPadOS 16.2 is not playing nicely with your iPhone.

 

[FeliApple]

Yeah, compatibility is fine. My Air 5 (iPadOS 15.6) is fully compatible on Messages, AirDrop, etc, with my iPhone Xʀ (iOS 12.3.1) and my 9.7-inch iPad Pro (iOS 12.4.1). Shared Notes and mentioning people by name, however, isn’t available on iOS 12, so it wasn’t fully compatible (it displayed handwritten segments within a square), but apart from that, it was perfect.

I doubt iPadOS 16 can have even those little issues when compared to iOS 15, however. It’ll most likely be flawless.

 

[Yannick]

Thank you very much.

 

[iStorm]

There are some differences that may or may not apply to you.

1. iCloud Shared Photo Library is only available in iOS/iPadOS 16. You would not be able to access the shared library in iOS 15 if you do use this.
2. Messages behave a little different. It might be a bit quirky, but really shouldn't be a problem as long as you're aware of the differences.
   1. In iOS/iPadOS 16, deleted messages go into a 'Recently Deleted' area so they can be recovered if needed (similar to how deleted emails go into a 'Deleted/Trash' folder). In iOS/iPadOS 15, they are deleted right away. Not sure how this behaves when deleting on one device vs. the other.
   2. iOS/iPadOS 16 allows you to edit and undo/delete sent iMessages. These will look different on your iPhone if you use these features on your iPad, or if someone happens to edit or unsend a message to you.
3. Passkeys. Both versions have this, but they are synchronized between devices in iOS/iPadOS 16. Again, not really a problem, but don't expect passkeys set up on your iPad to sync to your iPhone, or vice versa.

There are a few other things, but probably less commonly used features (i.e. differences in Maps, Notes, Reminders, etc.) that wouldn't work or sync to your iPhone. You could go through this list to see what's new in iPadOS 16 and see if any apply to you.

iPadOS 18

iPadOS 18 brings new ways to work with Apple Pencil, new experiences in apps, deeper customization options, and support for Apple Intelligence.

www.apple.com

 

[Yannick]

Thanks for the detailed answers and the time you took to write them. Really appreciated.