iOS 10 release date: When new iPhone operating system will arrive

watchOS 3 is likely to come out at the same time, ready for the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch 2

Customers shop at the new Apple Store at the 350,000 square-foot World Trade Center shopping mall at the Oculus on opening day on August 16, 2016 in New York City (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The new iPhone is about to come out. But even your old iPhone is about to get freshened up.

Alongside the launch of the new phone, Apple is set to reveal more details about iOS 10, the operating system that will run on it. And that will soon be pushed out to everyone with a recent iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

The software was first unveiled in June, and more details have been revealed from it since then. But Apple still hasn’t said when it will actually be making its way onto the phone.

Apple usually releases software updates a week after the new iPhone event. On that schedule, they would come to the public around 14 September.

But there might be a delay this year, since some rumours have suggested that the iPhone’s release date could be pushed back a week to 23 September. If that happens, then the iOS release will probably be pushed back too – meaning that it could be 21 September or thereabouts that it actually makes its way to people’s phones.

(There’s been some suggestion that iOS 10 will come even later, on 30 September, because Barbara Streisand said she’d complained to Tim Cook about Siri mispronouncing her name, and that he’d said it would come with an update on that date. But it’s pretty much impossible Apple would ship the new iPhone without iOS 10, and presumably either Ms Streisand is wrong about the date or it refers to an update specifically to Siri and its pronunciation.)

watchOS 3, which brings a range of improvements to the Apple Watch, will probably come at the same time. macOS Sierra will probably a bit later.

iOS 10 will arrive only specific devices – but if you’ve got iOS 9, you should be able to get iOS 10. It will be available for the iPhone 5 and later, the iPad Mini 2 and later, the iPad 4 and later (including the iPads Pro and Air), and most recent iPod Touches.

When it actually arrives, it’ll be downloaded by heading to Settings, then General and clicking through to Software Update.

It’s actually possible to try out iOS 10 now – though Apple warns that there might be issues with doing so. You can sign up to Apple’s beta programme and enrol your phone, and you’ll be able to put it back onto the proper version of iOS 10 when it’s actually released.