Your iPhone or iPad might lose Netflix soon – here's why

Netflix has just cut off a few older iPhone and iPad models by updating its app to a version that can only run on iOS 17 or 18.

Opening the old version of that app on a phone running iOS 16 will now display a message: "We’ve updated the Netflix app! To use the latest version, install iOS 17 or later". That doesn't leave a huge amount of wriggle room.

This means that you either need to update your phone to iOS 17 or later, or face the prospect of an upgrade if you want to keep using Netflix, and it cuts off a few older Apple devices that actually don't have compatibility with the newer operating system software.

These include: 

• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone X
• iPad 5th-gen (2017)
• iPad Pro 1st-generation

So, it's obviously quite old hardware that's affected, given that Apple typically allows phones to update to new iOS versions for around five years after they come out, if not slightly longer.

However, this will still be bad news for anyone running those older devices – especially in the case of the iPad models that can't update. After all, while a super-old phone can be a bit obstructive in many cases, plenty of us keep older tablets around until they're basically non-functional, so long as they can still stream movies and TV shows.

It would probably have been nice to get some warning from Netflix, admittedly, but this sort of software support ending can't come as a huge surprise on phones that might have been released all the way back in 2017 at the earliest.

The good news is that if this is all relevant to you, and you're therefore in the market for a new smartphone, we've got lists to help you out with buying advice. From our overall list of the best phones on the market to a round-up that specialises in more affordable options, we've reviewed so many phones that you'll struggle to find a model we haven't tested.