An optional new accessibility feature allows the upcoming iPhone 14 models to play a sound while turning on and off. The optional accessibility feature will allow blind and low-vision users to tell when the new iPhones have restarted. This is understood to be a chime similar to those played by generations of Macs.
As noted by developer Steve Moser, the feature will be located in the Settings app under Accessibility → Power On & Off Sounds and is designed to make it easier for users to know when an iPhone has been turned on or off. Steve Moser noticed the feature in the GM code for iOS 16.0, among a number of other last-minute changes that would have given away details of the new products if implemented earlier (such as Action Mode, Dynamic Island notification settings, and AirPods Pro volume swipes). A piece of code reads, simply: “Play sound when iPhone is powered on and off.”
Apple introduced the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max earlier, during a special event at Steve Jobs Theater. The two Pro models received the biggest upgrades, including an always-on display with a new pill-shaped “Dynamic Island” notch, a 48-megapixel Wide lens, a new Deep Purple colour option, and more. All
Given how useful this would be as an accessibility feature, and that this is a change spotted in the operating system code, some iPhone owners have expressed hope that it might be offered to all handsets capable of running iOS 16. But it appears not. The accessibility expert Steve Aquino, says he was told it’s for iPhone 14 only, and some commenters have even predicted that it might be limited to this year’s Pro models.
