Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL;DR
- In a few months, Apple will no longer disable the True Tone feature or battery health metrics when users install third-party displays and batteries.
- While Apple will not block the aforementioned features, it cannot guarantee that they will work reliably as third-party components could be calibrated differently.
- These changes could be implemented around September, when Apple releases iOS 18 to the public.
Apple is famous for locking down its hardware and software, making it difficult for third parties to fully integrate its products into their devices. For a long time, iPhone users who opted for third-party screen repairs would lose the True Tone feature that iOS offers. Similarly, inserting a non-Apple battery would disable the relevant metrics in the Settings app. Fortunately, the tech overlord will relax and remove these restrictions later this year, potentially via iOS 18.
As highlighted The edge, Apple quietly revealed that it will no longer disable certain iOS features following third-party fixes later this year. In a lengthy article discussing the longevity of the iPhone, the company stated that True Tone and battery health metrics will continue to work after users install non-Apple displays and batteries.
However, the company warned that while it won’t block True Tone from working, the feature may not work reliably or display accurate colors. This is because Apple’s calibration processes were designed for its own hardware and alternative components may not behave similarly.
Similarly, Apple mentioned that second-hand batteries with manipulated metrics are sometimes sold as new. In this case, your iPhone’s battery metrics might mark the maximum capacity as 100% when, in reality, that is not the case. So while the company won’t be blocking these metrics for a few months, it will alert users that it can’t verify them and they may not reflect the actual state of the battery.
“Currently, battery health metrics such as maximum capacity and cycle count are not presented to consumers whose devices have third-party batteries. This is because Apple cannot verify the accuracy of these metrics. In fact, an internal Apple analysis found that some third-party batteries sold as new are actually second-hand, and battery health metrics are manipulated to make them appear new.”
While Apple doesn’t say when exactly these changes will be implemented, we can assume it will be in September. After all, that’s when Apple usually introduces significant changes to its systems. It is not yet clear whether this change will apply to all models or only to the latest iPhones.
