Which iPhones and iOS versions work?
Updated September 2026
Fold'em runs on iPhone, on iOS 26.5 or later, and on nothing else. It is not an iPad app, a Mac app or an Android app, and the block it places holds on the one iPhone it was set up on. The phone also needs a passcode, because iOS hands Screen Time to no app without one, and an Apple Account, because setup signs you in with Apple and Apple takes the payment. A keyholder needs none of this and never installs the app.
The floor, and why it sits at 26.5
The app is built for iPhone only. Every part of it, the app, the block screen and the widgets, declares the same device family, so there is no iPad build and no Mac build to install.
The minimum system version is iOS 26.5, and that floor is not arbitrary. iOS 26.5 added the one instruction that lets a block screen open the app that placed it, which is what makes the SOS button on the block screen work: you tap it on a sealed app and Fold'em opens at the support hub. On iOS 26.0 to 26.4 the only way to do that was to post a notification and hope you tapped it, which would have meant asking for a notification permission during setup for that single path. Raising the floor was the smaller cost, and the version was the current release when the decision was made.
What else the phone needs
A device passcode. Screen Time is what holds the sealed apps, and iOS refuses to hand Screen Time to an app on a phone that has no passcode. There is no way around this from inside Fold'em; the setup step says so and sends you to Settings.
An Apple Account. Signing in with Apple is one of the three things setup will not let you past, and the subscription is sold and billed by Apple rather than by Fold'em.
A network connection, at least some of the time. Your term and your release are held on Fold'em's server, and the phone applies what the server says rather than deciding for itself, so a phone that never reaches the network cannot be told that anything has changed. The shields themselves keep holding while it is offline.
A keyholder needs none of that. They install nothing: what reaches them is an email, a page on this website and a Wallet pass, and the pass is the only part that wants an Apple device.
Before you start
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Check the iPhone and its version
Open iOS Settings, then General, then About, and read Software Version. If it is below 26.5, update before installing, because a phone under the floor cannot run the app at all.
The first screen
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Set a passcode if there is none
iOS Settings, then Face ID and Passcode. This is the one requirement people meet by surprise, and it stops the Screen Time grant rather than the install, so it appears mid setup rather than at the App Store.
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Have the Apple Account you use for purchases to hand
Setup asks you to sign in with Apple after the plan is bought, and that identity is what your term is stored against. If you are returning to Fold'em on a phone you have used before, take the link on the first screen for an existing account instead of starting fresh.
What this does not do
Meeting the requirements does not widen what Fold'em reaches. It blocks on the one iPhone it is set up on, so a second phone, an iPad, a laptop, a shop and cash are all outside it, and no version of iOS changes that. There is no iPad or Mac version to install alongside it, and no Android app for a keyholder to be sent to. Fold'em also has no jailbreak requirement and no separate app to install: the web shield is a DNS setting the app adds and you switch on in iOS Settings, and there is nothing to download from a web page.
Still stuck? Email support@foldem.app and we answer within two working days.