Patent shows Apple considering Pencil support for iPhone

Sep 1, 2017 06:25 GMT  ·  By

There’s been some evidence that Apple might be looking into ways to bring support for the Apple Pencil to the iPhone, and a new patent spotted this week seems to indicate that the company still hasn’t given up on the idea just yet.

Patently Apple has discovered a new patent that specifically points to the iPhone as the device supported by the Apple Pencil, revealing that Cupertino has already planned more advanced features like notifications to alert the user that the tip needs to be changed in order to avoid display damage.

This means that an iPhone customer who uses the Apple Pencil could at some point be alerted that the tip of the stylus needs to be replaced with a new one due to the risk of scratching the display and impacting performance level.

Smaller Apple Pencil

And what’s also very interesting is that the patent appears to be pointing towards a smaller Apple Pencil which could fit the iPhone, similar to what Samsung currently offers on the Note series. This means that Apple could repurpose the Pencil and in addition to the current model available for the iPad, the company could also develop a smaller sibling that would make more sense on an iPhone.

This is certainly something that would make sense especially given all the rumors of new iPhones with larger screens coming to the market in 2018, though for the time being these are just patents with no sign that mass production could start anytime soon.

Rumor has it that Apple’s next-year iPhones could come with a 6.4-inch display that’s almost as large as the one of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (which currently features 6.3 inches), so adding support for the Apple Pencil certainly aligns well with these rumors.

Of course, it’s a lot too early to discuss 2018 iPhone plans because everything can change overnight, and this Apple Pencil support for the iPhone is still in patent stage, it’s better not to get hopes too high for the time being.