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What iOS version do I need to scan a room?

Apple's room scanner RoomPlan arrived with iOS 16 in 2022, and the ability to stitch several rooms into one building came the following year. If you're running the latest iOS, you're covered.

Why the iOS version matters

Room scanning on iPhone isn't something any single app invented. It comes from Apple in the form of RoomPlan — an engine apps can build on, which recognises walls, doors, windows, openings and furniture types as you walk around the room. The engine ships with the operating system. If you're on an old iOS, you have an old engine — or none at all.

iOS 16 was the first version with RoomPlan. The next major version added something that matters a great deal in practice: the ability to merge several scanned rooms into one coherent building. Without merging, you have a stack of separate rooms, each measured correctly, but with no idea how they relate to one another — and then no floor plan of a whole home can be drawn.

How to check which iOS you have

Go to Settings → General → About and look next to iOS Version. If you want to update, that's under Settings → General → Software Update. If there isn't enough space, the phone will suggest what can be cleared away — an update typically needs a fair amount of free space temporarily, more than the update itself takes up afterwards.

Set aside some time. A large iOS update can take half an hour or more including the restart. It shouldn't happen in the car on the way to a viewing.

The hardware stops people before the iOS version does

Most people who can't scan aren't missing an update — they're missing LiDAR. The rule is short:

• iPhone: the Pro and Pro Max models from iPhone 12 Pro onwards.
• iPad: iPad Pro from 2020 onwards.

Models without LiDAR: every iPhone without "Pro" in the name — including the Plus models — plus the iPhone SE. And on iPad: iPad Air, iPad mini and the regular iPad, however new it is. If you're unsure about your particular model, it's listed under Compatibility on the app's App Store page.

If you have one of those, no iOS update will help. There's no setting that unlocks scanning, and an app that claims to use RoomPlan without LiDAR is doing something other than what it says.

Can an old iPhone Pro still scan?

Yes. An iPhone 12 Pro from 2020 has LiDAR and can run a much newer iOS than 16. What limits an older Pro model is speed and battery, not capability: a scan uses LiDAR, camera and screen at full power simultaneously and drains the battery noticeably. If you need to measure up a whole home on an older phone, bring a power bank and scan the most important rooms first.

What the app's App Store page tells you

At the bottom of any app's App Store page, under Information, there's a field called Compatibility — that's where the iOS version the app requires is listed, along with which devices it can run on. It's the only place where the figure is both current and correct. An article like this one can go out of date; the App Store page can't.

If an app requires a very recent iOS, that's usually a good sign rather than a bad one: it's using the newest versions of Apple's own tools instead of dragging along old workarounds. HouseSense is built on the latest iOS for exactly that reason — the current system requirement is listed on the app's App Store page.

What you can do if you can't update

Some people deliberately stay on an older iOS — because a work app requires it, or because the phone is getting full. If you can't update, you can still get a measured floor plan in two ways:

1. Measure it yourself and draw it. A tape measure or a laser distance meter couldn't care less about the iOS version. Measure each room internally from wall to wall and enter the measurements. In HouseSense you can draw the home with your finger on graph paper — you drag a rectangle, and that's a room, and the measurements go in as whole centimetres, measured internally.
2. Borrow a device. An iPad Pro at work or a Pro phone in the family can handle the scan. Afterwards the home sits in your own iCloud and can be opened wherever you like.

Does an old scan become useless once you update?

No. A scan you've already made is stored as data in the app — walls, doors, windows and measurements — and it doesn't change just because the phone gets a new iOS. What an update can do is improve new scans: better recognition of doors and windows, fewer crooked walls, better merging of multiple rooms.

So if you're unhappy with an old scan, updating and opening it again won't help. You'll need to scan the room again — or correct the measurements by hand, which is often quicker. That's exactly why the ability to type a measured figure into the drawing matters more than any iOS version: it's what turns a mediocre starting point into a correct one.

The short version

• iOS 16 is the minimum for room scanning at all; a newer iOS gives better results and lets you merge multiple rooms.
• LiDAR is the real requirement — and no update can give it to you.
• Check the App Store for a given app's requirements before you download.
• Without LiDAR, the way forward is to measure yourself and draw — it works on any iPhone, in the dark, and in an empty house with no power.