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YouTube's iOS App Just Dropped Support for These iPhone Models

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Apr 12, 2001
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YouTube has updated its iOS app to version 20.22.1, which now requires iOS 16 or later to install and run. The change means several older iPhone models are no longer officially compatible with the app.

General-YouTube-Feature-Redux.jpg

The affected devices are those that cannot upgrade beyond iOS 15 – namely, the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and the first-generation iPhone SE. If you have an iPod touch 7, that will no longer run the app either.

Likewise, the YouTube app for iPad now requires iPadOS 16 or later, which means the app has discontinued support for the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4.

Users with these older devices can still access YouTube through their web browser by visiting m.youtube.com, but the experience won't match the native app's functionality.

Article Link: YouTube's iOS App Just Dropped Support for These iPhone Models
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/03/youtube-ios-app-dropped-support-iphones/
So YouTube would work on my mini 5, really? 😯
Well work and being useful are not always the same thing - but as long as ithe 5 works as a timer, it do its work for me. When 8 comes, its life and service here will end.
 
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The YouTube app still works on the older iPhones with iOS 15.xx The phone won't update to iOS 16. The YouTube app will stay on 20.21.6. The app just won't update anymore. This is the state of my older iPhone 6S. I turned off automatic app updates just in case it's possible for the YT app to update, and then no longer work, though, not likely to try and update.

But over time, YT might not let this version work anymore, but for now it does.
 
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MacRumors said:
Users with these older devices can still access YouTube through their web browser by visiting m.youtube.com, but the experience won't match the native app's functionality.
Click to expand...
Realistically, the last supported version of the app will probably still work for a long time… maybe years. There are many old devices with archaic versions of YouTube that still work.

Article is a bit misleading. The older devices are still officially compatible with the final version of the app supported. Unless, YouTube is purposely blocking it from launching, but I don’t believe this is the case.
 
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I remember when YouTube on iPad 4 running iOS 10.x no longer worked.

It could take a few months, a few years, before launching YouTube on iOS 15.x and be asked to update to continue using it.
 
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MacRumors said:
Users with these older devices can still access YouTube through their web browser by visiting m.youtube.com, but the experience won't match the native app's functionality.
Click to expand...
Haha, not so sure!
Since I rarely use YouTube nowadays (it is honestly a laggard and very obsolete service at this point, compared to rivals), I use it from the web. The plus side is that there is a bug that allows you to skip ads by refreshing the page as soon as the video autoplays🤣

UPD: another big plus is increased battery life. It lasts twice more than with the app installed

1748959278071.jpeg
 
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But you can still use the app and download an old version from your app store list apps.

I did that with Google Photos and Gmail I think that were only compatible with iOS 16 to a SE OG with iOS 15.4. The problem comes when the app can not connect to the servers due to the unmatch versions but I hope, this is not the case here
 
I sure hope the existing version of the YT App on iOS 15 continues to function on my SE1s.

I use those daily with my YT Premium sub.

😕
 
My iPhone is quite up-to-date, but I nonetheless finally got fed up with and stopped using the native YouTube app entirely after the last time it "glitched out" and blocked me from using Picture in Picture (PiP) mode. (Alphabet would no doubt refer to this as one of the "bugs" that they fixed in a subsequent update... but I have my doubts as to the veracity of that description, since this has happened before; it just feels far too much like tolerance testing to me.)

I tried Safari, and couldn't get PiP to work in YouTube there, either, even though the feature worked perfectly well on other sites. I then did some reading on the topic, and ultimately turned to the Brave browser, which has an easily accessible "Request desktop site" button that (so far) seems to consistently grant me access to PiP, regardless of Alphabet's blocking attempts.

Oh... and while Brave has it's own built-in ad minimization efforts, I also went ahead and installed a separate ad blocker... because as I see it, if Alphabet can be petty, so can I.
 
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