Drop iOS 15 support #437
Description
The trigger for this is the realization that the UIViewController method shouldAutorotate is deprecated since iOS 17, and that the UIViewController method setNeedsUpdateOfSupportedInterfaceOrientations (which is the new way to properly handle interface rotation) is available only in iOS 16 and later.
It could be argued that by keeping iOS 15 as the deployment target there is no need yet to remove shouldAutorotate, but as the past has shown relying on old APIs will cause trouble rather sooner than later, and upgrades that will eventually be required anyway can become pressing and painful at the most awkward moments.
Last but not least, a quick test on an iPhone with iOS 26 and a base SDK 26 build showed that suppressing interface orientation changes during a panning gesture (which is what shouldAutorotate was used for) no longer works: UIKit no longer invokes shouldAutorotate when the device orientation changes, it just rotates.
By changing the deployment target to 16.0 we drop support for the following devices:
- iPhone 6S / 6S Plus => discontinued September 12, 2018
- iPhone SE 1st generation => discontinued September 12, 2018
- iPhone 7 / 7 Plus => discontinued September 10, 2019
- iPod Touch 7th generation => discontinued May 10, 2022 (final iPod version before the entire iPod product was discontinued)
- iPad Air 2 => discontinued March 21, 2017
- iPad Mini 4 => discontinued March 18, 2019