14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s iPhone 7 will see daylight on September 7, during a press event in San Francisco, and the new model will debut with more or less significant hardware improvements, but as far as software is concerned, it turns out that Cupertino is preparing a little surprise that will certainly come in handy.
There are rumors that the iPhone 7 could come with native GIF support, a feature that has been around for a long time on Android but that Apple’s flagship device lacked.
In essence, native GIF support will allow iPhone users to save animations to their camera roll and view them with the Photos app without the need for additional apps and tweaks.
Previously, it was possible to view GIFs in the camera roll with apps available in the Cydia store, but only if the iPhone was jailbroken, so it’s pretty clear that this improvement comes in handy. Without native GIF support, every animation saved to an iPhone becomes a static photo.
No sign of GIF support in iOS 10 beta
While adding native GIF support to the iPhone 7 would be a welcome improvement that would bring Apple’s device closer to Android in terms of usability, there’s still no such feature in the beta version of iOS 10, the next version of Apple’s operating system built for iPhones and iPads.
iPhone 7 will launch with iOS 10 from the very beginning, and since Apple hasn’t yet tested native GIF support with help from users who installed beta versions, it would be a bit surprising to see the company rolling out the feature in GM.
As a result, it’s better to take this report with a certain amount of skepticism because, even though this is one of the most requested features in iOS, there’s still no confirmation that Apple is adding it with the release of iPhone 7. More info on this will come next week on September 7.