iOS 16 will come with support for Always-on Display (AOD) functionality, claims a new report by 9to5Mac. At the recently held WWDC 2022 event, Apple revealed the new features that will be arriving with the iOS 16 upgrade. However, it did not mention anything about the highly anticipated AOD feature.
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According to the publication, it was able to find multiple references for AOD within iOS 16. This indicates that Apple could be working on the AOD feature for the upcoming iPhone 14 series. Rumours are rife that the iPhone 14 lineup will include four models: the iPhone 14, the iPhone 14 Max, the iPhone 14 Pro, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max. However, the AOD functionality could be limited to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Always-on Display feature could be limited to iPhone 14 Pro models
iOS 16 to arrive with support with Always-on Display mode
The AOD functionality has been available on Android devices for several years. While the feature was made available on the Apple Watch 5 series back in 2019, it hasn’t yet arrived on iPhones. It appears that the iPhone 14 Pro models will be the first iPhones to arrive with support for AOD.
Soon after announcing iOS 16 at WWDC 2022, Apple rolled out the first developer beta update. The publication claimed that it came across multiple references in the developer beta that confirm that iOS 16 will bring AOD functionality. Backlight management is one of the key aspects of the AOD feature. There are new frameworks in the iOS 16 code that are related to the backlight management of the iPhone’s screen.
These frameworks are used by the Lock Screen and Springboard. The latter manages the lock screen and home screen on iOS. Since Springboard is not available on the Apple Watch, it appears that the new AOD findings could be for the upcoming iPhones. In addition, the publication claimed that iOS 16 has hidden flags, which allows Apple engineers to use AOD capability for testing purposes even on unsupported devices.
The reason why the AOD feature will be limited to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max is that these devices will arrive with a ProMotion display, which supports a variable refresh rate of 120Hz to 1Hz for the feature to work. It remains to be seen whether the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, which are equipped with LTPO AMOLED panels that can scale down the screen refresh rate from 120Hz to 1Hz, will receive the AOD feature.