iOS 17.1 will bring the flashlight indicator to Dynamic Island for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15

On Wednesday, Apple released the first beta of iOS 17.1 to developers as the company promised to bring several new features later this year.

TipsMake covered most of the new features in the iOS 17.1 beta in a previous article, but there's another interesting change. With the update, Apple will bring the flashlight indicator that appears on Dynamic Island to iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15.

Flashlight indicator on iPhone's Dynamic Island

A flashlight is something Apple added to the new iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. For some reason, only these models display an indicator on Dynamic Island to let you know when the flashlight is on. This is useful when you forget to turn off the flashlight after use or when you accidentally press the flashlight button.

There doesn't seem to be any technical reason for Apple to keep this indicator exclusive to the new 15 Pro model, and now, with iOS 17.1 beta 1, every iPhone model with Dynamic Island will display the indicator light.

This means the feature is now available on iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Plus. Previous iPhone models will have no indicator other than a button on the lock screen because they don't have Dynamic Island. While unusual, this isn't the first time a software update has brought features from a new iPhone to a previous iPhone.

Last year, with iOS 16, Apple added the battery percentage indicator feature to iPhone X and later. However, iPhone mini models and iPhones with LCD screens have been eliminated. With iOS 16.1, Apple decided to enable the battery percentage indicator on all iPhone models compatible with the update.

More information about iOS 17.1

Some interesting features will be available in iOS 17.1. Users can now favorite songs and albums in Apple Music, and the app will create playlists with those songs. There's also a new option to create artwork for your playlists right from the Apple Music app.

iOS 17.1 also enables AirDrop over cellular data when the other device moves out of WiFi range. Additionally, it displays the bank account's balance and full transaction history in the Wallet app for UK users. The update will be released to the public next October.