How the iPhone 14 Pro ‘Always-On Display’ Will Work, Says Leak

As we inch ever closer to the launch of Apple’s iPhone 14 lineup, a new leak claims to showcase how the iPhone 14 Pro’s much-rumoured always-on display feature will work (via MacRumors).

The leak comes from the same MacRumors tipster who reported earlier this week that the new pill-and-hole front cutouts on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max would appear as one longer pill with the screen on.

According to the leaker, the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display will essentially be a silhouette of the iOS 16 Lock Screen. The new Lock Screen’s widgets, notifications, and the depth effect and colours for wallpapers will all be integrated into the always-on display.

In particular, the source detailed the following features of the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display:

  • The always-on mode will remove and darken the background from Lock Screen wallpapers with a depth effect, and dim the foreground. User-customizable colour tints and edge highlights will also be applied to the foreground.
  • The always-on display will feature widgets, but they will fade in and out at set intervals to prevent OLED burn-in.
  • Users will have to configure the Lock Screen to display the same content, i.e. wallpaper, colour choices, fonts, and widgets, in both always-on mode and when fully illuminated. They will still be able to freely customize the core visual elements of the always-on display, though.
  • The always-on display will also feature notifications, like the regular Lock Screen. Notifications will roll in from the bottom and remain subtly visible for 10 seconds. When the user wakes the display, the notifications will animate from the bottom and assume their user-defined configuration for the Lock Screen (such as count, stack, or list).
  • The always-on display might also get a notification counter at the bottom that users can enable.

Apple is reportedly also making changes to the Lock Screen status bar. These will supposedly include bringing back the classic battery indicator with the percentage displayed next to the battery icon and moving the cellular signal indicator to the left.

Apple is currently scrambling to get the always-on display feature dialled in before launch. However, the leaker added that the development team is still encountering bugs and Apple will likely release an incremental iOS 16 update — such as iOS 16.0.1 or 16.1 — to fix always-on display issues soon after the iPhone 14 Pro’s launch.

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the rest of this year’s iPhone lineup at its upcoming launch event, dubbed “Far Out,” on September 7.

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