Apple isn’t known for providing very detailed, if not downright wrong, spec sheets, and the newly launched iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are still hiding some little secrets.
iPhone 16 and 16 Pro: a new security feature
The new iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max have a new security feature thanks to their A18 and A18 Pro chips. This feature is not, however, completely new in the Apple range since it is also available on the only device equipped with an M4 chip, the latest iPad Pro.
As with the high-end tablet from Cupertino, the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro have the Secure Indicator Light (SIL) mechanism. to link the display of the orange and green indicators at the top of the screen to the hardwareThese indicators are used to alert the user that the camera (green dot) and microphone (orange dot) are activated and were implemented by Apple in 2020 with iOS 14.
As a reminder, developer Guilherme Rambo explained in his publication on Mastodon what The iPad Pro M4 was the first Apple device to feature the mechanism, now joined by the latest iPhones.
Fun fact about the iPad Pro M4: It’s the first device to support and use Apple’s new Secure Indicator Light (SIL) mechanism. When using the microphone or camera, the corresponding indicator dot is actually tied to the hardware (and displayed on the screen), making it much less likely that malware or a user-space app can access these sensors without the user’s knowledge.
Enhanced security
This new functionality would thus be based on a Secure Exclave (running its own ExclaveOS) within the M4, A18, and A18 Pro chips. By linking the activation of these indicators to the hardware, reducing the possibility for malicious minds to be able to act on this activation (e.g. preventing the indicator from being displayed while microphones and cameras have been activated) in order to deceive the user.
Apple has not officially communicated on this new feature, which should also soon be found on the future MacBook Air M4 and the MacBook Pro which will host the M4 Pro and M4 Maxas well as the upcoming Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.
You can find it below in video our debriefing of the new features of the last keynote
