As part of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, first event of the year for the manzanita company, the spotlight is on users of devices with iOS, macOS, iPadOS or watchOS support. And this edition doesn’t seem to be the exception to the rule.

According to Mark Gunman of the Bloomberg agency, the version of the operating system iOS 16 will bring some in particular Important improvements to the lock screen: the iPhone 14 mobile phone would have the Always on Display function.

This feature, which became popular on Android phones, could not be a part of Apple devices until now due to a software and hardware impossibility that iOS 16 will partially fix.

As it turns out, the future iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max would include a new LTPO screen with a dynamic range between 1 and 120 Hz, which would be the key to Always on Display to function properly. The other factor will be thanks to reinterpretation of the FPS (frames per second) from the system.

What’s always on display

Normally when the device is saving power, or “dormant”, the screen stays off. For example, Android phones include the Always On Display or AOD feature which keeps the screen always on and shows basic information, such as the time.

This always-on display mode is available on some Android phones, what’s good and bad and how you can have it on your phone, with several methods that should work for the vast majority of phones.

Always On Display is a system whereby the mobile phone screen is always on, showing basic information such as time, date and notifications. When the phone goes into “sleep”, instead of turning off the screen, it becomes a kind of clock. This feature was already available in 2010 on Nokia phones with Symbian.

The Always On Display mode takes advantage of a particularity of OLED screens that allows you to reduce energy consumption while keeping the screen on.

With this premise, Always On mode usually uses minimalist elements to display the time and various information without “turning on” too many pixels. Commonly black and white, although it wasn’t long before color made it to AOD screens.

The rest of the new features of iOS 16

On the other hand, the Bloomberg reporter also referred to the rest of the features that the next operating system will bring, such as the native Messages application. Mark Gunman noted that Apple will implement “more social networking-like features, particularly in regards to audio messaging.”

Finally, the version of its smartwatch operating system, watchOS 9, will include “significant improvements that affect daily operation and navigation”, as well as a new low-power mode.

These Gurman advances occur just days before the start of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which will take place this year from June 6-10 in an online-only format.