Recent iOS 26 Update Has Some iPhone 13 Users Frustrated

There has long been speculation that Apple intentionally tries to phase users off older products as it continues to introduce new ones to the market. This appears to have become increasingly true as Apple's iterative product updates have gotten smaller and smaller with each subsequent generation.

Now, some users think that iOS 26, Apple's latest update that unified all of its devices, has negatively impacted their iPhone 13s, and want to know if this is really the case. Here's what we know.

Apple is never going to announce that it is intentionally trying to break older phones to encourage its users to buy a new one. What's undeniable, though, is that iPhone 13 users are congregating online to complain about all the ways their phones seem to be breaking down.

One TikTok video, from @nots3ko, exemplifies this congregation. In the video, he says that his phone has been overheating and causing all sorts of problems since he installed iOS 26.

He also asks other iPhone 13 users whether this is also true of them. The video, which has more than 330,000 likes as of this writing, seems to have resonated, and the comments only reinforce that.

"Dies at 10% then suddenly wakes up at 3%," one person wrote of their own phone.

"Yesterday I saw the battery go down while the phone was plugged," another person added.

"May God protect my iPhone 13 I REBUKE THIS EVIL ENERGY," a third said.

Clearly, then, people are concerned that Apple might be trying to convince them that it's time for an upgrade. Of course, it's worth noting that devices do just age on their own, and it's possible that iPhone 13s are breaking simply because they've been around for a while.

You're never going to convince Apple users that that's the only thing going on, though, even though they're definitely going to buy another iPhone when they upgrade.

The iPhone 13 was released in September 2021, so it is five years old at this point. Apple is currently on the iPhone 17, so 13 is not such a crazy distance away, but it is a reminder that iPhone 13s are probably at the tail end of compatibility with the software and features that Apple is rolling out in 2026.

The problem with iPhones now is that they are too good, and too similar to one another, for regular upgrades to really be necessary. The early generations of iPhones felt genuinely distinct from one another as touch screen technology and the software itself continued to improve.

Now, the changes from generation to generation tend to be a lot smaller.

Still, iPhone 13 users might know that their days are numbered. Apple will only let you use an old phone for so long. Eventually, we'll all have to upgrade, whether we want to or not.