On Wednesday, Apple released the first beta of iOS 17.1 to developers, as the company promised to bring some new features later this year. We’ve already covered most of what’s new in the iOS 17.1 beta here, but there’s another interesting change. With the update, Apple is bringing the flashlight indicator that appears on Dynamic Island to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15.
Flashlight indicator on the iPhone’s Dynamic Island
If you have no idea what this flashlight indicator is, it’s something that Apple has added to the new iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. For some reason, only these models show an indicator on the Dynamic Island to tell you when the flashlight is on. This is very useful when you forget to turn off the flashlight after using it or when you accidentally press the flashlight button.
There didn’t seem to be any technical reason for Apple to keep this indicator exclusive to the new 15 Pro models, and now we know that to be true. With iOS 17.1 beta 1, every iPhone model with Dynamic Island will show the flashlight indicator when appropriate.
This means the feature is now coming to the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Plus. Previous iPhone models will have no indicator other than the button on the Lock Screen, as they don’t have Dynamic Island. Although unusual, this is not the first time that a software update has brought features from a new iPhone to previous ones.
Last year, with iOS 16, Apple added a battery percentage indicator for iPhone X and later. However, the iPhone mini and iPhone models with an LCD display were left out. With iOS 16.1, Apple decided to enable the battery percentage indicator on all iPhone models compatible with the update.
More about iOS 17.1
Some cool features are coming with iOS 17.1. Users can now favorite songs and albums in Apple Music, and the app will generate playlists with those songs. There’s also a new option to create artwork for your playlists right from the Apple Music app.
iOS 17.1 also enables AirDrop via cellular data when the other device moves out of Wi-Fi range. Plus, it shows the balance and full transaction history of bank accounts in the Wallet app for users in the UK. The update will be released to the public in October.
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