Apple will soon offer better support for third-party iPhone displays and batteries

Apple’s putting renewed absorption connected its repairability efforts today. The institution has extended its self-service diagnostics instrumentality to Europe, giving customers successful 32 countries an easier mode to trial products for imaginable issues.

But possibly much absorbing is the information that Apple besides published a caller whitepaper — “Longevity, by Design” (PDF link) — that explains “the company’s principles for designing for longevity.” I’m definite there’ll beryllium a batch of investigation astir each page, but wrong the insubstantial is really immoderate news: Apple says that aboriginal this year, it volition widen much bundle features to third-party iPhone components.

True Tone, the diagnostic that adjusts an iPhone display’s achromatic equilibrium to amended lucifer your environment, has typically been disabled whenever a third-party replacement surface is detected by iOS. But soon, Apple volition let customers to alteration True Tone “to the champion show that tin beryllium provided.”

The institution notes that the effect mightiness not beryllium up to its accustomed standards since True Tone depends connected server-side calibration that varies by each idiosyncratic device and “accurate connection betwixt a product’s show and airy sensors,” which can’t beryllium guaranteed with a non-OEM component. Customers “will beryllium capable to deactivate True Tone successful Settings if the show does not execute to their satisfaction.”

Battery metrics are besides coming to third-party batteries. Here’s the applicable conception from the whitepaper connected that, and I’ve emphasized the newsy bit:

The whitepaper underlines however wary Apple is of third-party batteries. It includes information connected galore tests that led to failures — sometimes resulting successful occurrence oregon explosions. “We promote each consumers to corroborate that the merchandise meets stringent information requirements,” the papers reads.

Presumably “later successful 2024” means that iOS 18 volition beryllium required to get this expanded bundle enactment for third-party replacement parts. The adjacent large update is owed to participate nationalist beta investigating sometime adjacent period earlier a afloat merchandise successful the fall.

Beyond iPhones, Apple is addressing immoderate different long-running criticisms of its self-service repair program. Crucially, obtaining parts successful the archetypal spot volition get overmuch simpler. The whitepaper says that “customers and work providers volition nary longer request to input a device’s serial fig to the Self Service Repair store to acquisition a caller portion for astir repairs.”