Rumors about the under-display Face ID on iPhones aren’t new. We’ve been hearing about them for years, yet this upgrade never comes to pass. Perhaps the flagship iPhone 18 lineup will pull the plug on Apple’s Dynamic Island by hiding the Face ID behind the screen.
There’s a new leak on Weibo that pointed out what could happen to the Face ID on the iPhone 18 lineup. Apple seems to be testing in-screen 3D TrueDepth mapping components and a semi-transparent back glass for the iPhone screen to make this upgrade possible.
One leak said that the iPhone 18 will skip the fourth model as they bring the iPhone Fold to the mix. Another leak after that confirmed that Apple will drop the two-tone design that they brought with this year’s Pro lineup. And the series of leaks continued with one saying a slightly transparent back glass for the iPhones.
We are adding the under-display Face ID Apple’s iPhone new models the pile of likely plausible rumors. It’s said that Apple has taken an interest in something called “splicing of micro-transparent glass.” This is what the supply chain analysts have been reporting, and it’s probably how Smart Pikachu found the clues.
The spliced region of the OLED screen will be semi-transparent or almost see-through for the 3D depth mapper and infrared dot projector matrix to work. This isn’t a novel concept since Samsung has almost perfected it over the years, but Apple’s using it for Face ID, not the selfie camera.
We are about to enter an era of iPhones with nothing but a punch hole selfie camera. For some, it’s more terrifying than exciting, because the iPhone will start looking like just your regular Android phone.
Some insist on seeing this in the context of a bigger picture, when Apple finally gets rid of all the intrusions from the screen. The company is slowly moving to an all-screen iPhone, perhaps. We’ll let you know more about the iPhone 18 series when we have further updates. Keep watching the news.
