Dead iPhones can still show you the time on iOS 18!

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

Apple’s WWDC 2024 event was full of goodies, and some of the best announcements revolved around iOS 18. While many of the iOS 18 features seem old to us Android users, we can’t deny that Apple is doing a pretty good job with others. And here’s one I am irrationally excited about. It turns out iOS 18 can show you the time even if the battery is dead!

Forget AI and all that. Honestly, Apple should have totally announced this on stage. Or maybe I am just a nerd getting too excited over the little things. Regardless, the news comes from Reddit user ant_t99. He shows a dead iPhone with the low-battery icon in the middle, the “iPhone Is Findable” text at the bottom, and a glorious “5:12” time in the upper-left corner. This is the same location where iOS normally shows the time.

Isn’t that cool? Of course, the device needs to have enough battery to showcase the screen in the image. It’s possible to kill the battery beyond that, albeit a bit hard.

We certainly hope Android manufacturers start copying this. It’s an especially neat feature for those of us who don’t like wearing actual watches. If my phone dies, I have to rely on the sun, moon, and stars to know the time, which means I end up not knowing the time anyway.

If you want to check out more of what Apple is bringing to the table, you can check out our iOS 18 hands-on review. Just keep in mind this is the developer beta, which became available soon after the event. The general beta is coming this August, while the public release is scheduled for the Fall. Until then, all the rest of us can do is check out this list of the devices that will get iOS 18 and continue being clueless about the time when our phones die.

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