Apple is preparing to bring some motion from the Apple Watch to the iPhone 6S. One of the new device’s differentiators over its predecessor will likely be a spiced up set of animated wallpapers, according to three sources who have used internal iPhone 6S prototypes within Apple. The new animated wallpapers come from the same family as the set of “Motion” watch faces that dominate the main screen of the Apple Watch, where the user can choose from jellyfish, multi-colored butterflies, or brightly colored flowers.
For the new iPhone, we are told the types of motion wallpapers range from sets of animated fish from a koi pond to colorful arrays of smoke. In recent iOS 9 betas, Apple added new colorful wallpapers including colored smoke against a solid black background, and the same effect is likely to be fully animated on the iPhone 6S. Last night, a purported picture of a yet-to-be-assembled iPhone 6S Plus box surfaced on the web, and this image showed a gold koi pond fish wallpaper. Based on Apple’s internal testing of motion wallpapers, we now believe that box photo to be legitimate.
Apple first experimented with animated wallpapers via a set of “dynamic” colorful dot animations in iOS 7. In his lengthy Apple Watch-focused profile for The New Yorker earlier this year, Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive suggested that the Motion wallpaper feature could liven up an iPhone, provided that the screen was up to the task:
He picked up his iPhone 6 and pressed the home button. “The whole of the display comes on,” he said. “That, to me, feels very, very old.” (The iPhone 6 reached stores two weeks later.) He went on to explain that an Apple Watch uses a new display technology whose blacks are blacker than those in an iPhone’s L.E.D. display. This makes it easier to mask the point where, beneath a glass surface, a display ends and its frame begins. An Apple Watch jellyfish swims in deep space, and becomes, Ive said, as much an attribute of the watch as an image. On a current iPhone screen, a jellyfish would be pinned against dark gray, and framed in black, and, Ive said, have “much less magic.”
Sources did warn that the animation features in testing could have ultimately been dropped from the final iPhone 6S launch, but the presence of such wallpaper on the leaked packaging materials indicate that the feature is likely ready to go. Besides an updated, more animated look on the Lock screen, the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus will include a Force Touch display with a focus on shortcutting central iOS features, a revamped camera (perhaps with 4K recording support), a faster A9 processor, and more efficient cellular chips.
Apple is set to announce the new iPhones alongside a revamped Apple TV at an event in San Francisco on September 9th.
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This will make the iPhone 6s Magical. Apple will sell billions because of this.
I guess. I’m sure the Android fanboys will get all riled up if they do.
Lmao please shut the hell up with their “magical” crap. Apple has not called something “magical” in years. The fact that you still refer to that shows how dense you are.
Does that mean the new iphone will finally adopt OLED?
Also, that could easily be brought to older hardware.
Then does that mean the iPhone 6s will finally use OLED like the the Apple Watch? And that video with the 6s screen looked kind of tinted just like the iPad Air 2. Maybe it’s an anti-glare coat?
I love those motion wallpapers on the Watch and I’m very excited to see what it’ll be like on the iPhone.
i dont think we will see those backgrounds in the 6S, but it’s starting to look like the iPhone 7 will have an OLED display. first LG invested millions in producing more OLED displays for other phone makers *cough* Apple *cough*, then Jony wants to visually remove the border between display and bezel, and going OLED could make for a thinner iPhone 7 design
I feel like the 6S will have to include OLED if Force Touch is going to be coming.
In my case – It wil be magical for about 30 minytes to 12 hours – and then it will be distracting and I’ll switch back to a static display.
Life is full of enough “natural” distractions without adding more on my iPhone.
It will be nice to have the option though.
YMMV
Too bad most of us will have to turn off the animation to get a decent battery life. What good is a feature if you have to sacrifice precious battery life to use it?
Are you listening Apple, get a life and give us more battery life?
Yeah, they’ll tell you to just turn it off for better battery life. :-)
Good luck finding many other features that dont use up any battery
I’m sure the other features are a little more “useful” than moving wallpaper….
Sounds like another battery wasting gimmick.
I was sitting here thinking “What do I need in my next iPhone?”
Longer life battery? Stronger case? Stronger glass front? Improved camera?
Nope. I need Wallpaper. That will motivate me to go from my iPhone 5.
The only reason for a burst or fish-like wall-paper is as Ive mentioned, to highlight new HARDWARE that has properties simply not matched by the old. The ability to essentially turn off black pixels so you’re seeing only the lit/animated/colorful portions of the display. Like an object floating on a device which might otherwise be turned off.
Without a new screen technology, the old iPhones already have horsepower to spare to create al manner of animated backdrops – wall-paper itself is not a differentiator, it’s simply a method to showcase what is: new/improved hardware.
Can’t believe this story missed that entirely.
Completely agreed. Either the iPhone 6s is getting an OLED display or they’re jumping straight to microLED. See my post here on Macrumors, I have a feeling you would like it. Let me know what you think!
Hmm, for some reason my link didn’t go through in my reply. It’s in the iPhone section at MacRumors titled “Making a Case: MicroLED Display in iPhone 6S”
Case-in-point on an OLED screen; The alleged box with a straight white background behind the fish. That would be the absolute best way to waste power. No OLED screen, or else the box is a fake. Possibly both. I’m hoping that the box is a sham but that force-touch is in resulting a completely redesigned screen where Apple thought “Sure, let’s just go ahead and make it OLED.”
I agree with you. But I think this news might shows that iphone 6s’s A9 chip has effecient and great graphic power. (After all, apple watch’s motion wallpaper has some really insane animation. It will be lot more harder to operate this wallpaper on a iphone screen due to higher resolution and so on)
The motion wallpaper working with force touch will be also look great in design’s viewpoint. (If you force touch at the empty screen the koi pond fish might swim to your finger’s direction)
Well, iOS devices already have dynamic wallpapers since iOS 7, don’t they?
What about bringing the Watch’s complications to the iPhone screen? Any rumors about that? Anyone interested in seeing this feature brought over?
yeah it would be nice and could clean up the notifications piling up on the lockscreen
This is getting funny. My first Samsung phone 3 years ago came out of the box with an animated koi pond home screen. Is this a sly jab at Samsung for copying?
I love articles like this one; we get good laughs from the comments section. Thanks Mark!
Well, I’m glad there’s finally SOMETHING since Apple seems to have just forgotten about/missed the boat on dynamic wallpapers altogether since the release of iOS 7 2 years ago. I hate seeing an animated background on a garbage LG phone that looks more fluid and interesting.
yay for the animaytion
That’s a Siamese fighting fish, not a Koi fish.
I dont even use animated wallpapers on my Mac and it plugs into the dang wall 24.7
Like a lot of others here, I see this as a foreshadow for an OLED reveal, with the 6S. And I think it would be cool if they brought back the original image of the earth on a black background, for the lockscreen, but this time have it rotating. I’m not one for stock wallpapers, but I would use that, for sure!
“On a current iPhone screen, a jellyfish would be pinned against dark gray, and framed in black, and, Ive said, have “much less magic.””
AMOLED display confirmed.
Now do i know what the “S” is on iPhone 6s :)
iPhone 3GS Speed
iPhone 4s Siri
iPhone 5s sensors
iPhone 6s screen
The S actually stands for Successor but your theory is actually rather interesting. You’ve got a valid argument there.
No. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have stated in different interviews over the years what they stood for.
3GS – Speed
4S – Siri
5S – Security
6S – Screen? (Force Touch and OLED/microLED)
7S – Sensors? (Virtual reality stuff)
> Den 29/08/2015 kl. 03.17 skrev 9to5Mac : > >
OLED display!
So rather than improving the home screen, which has basically the same as version 1, Apple is going to add a battery-sucking useless animation to the wallpaper. I wonder if it will be as useless as the background that shifts in a non-convincing way when you move the phone? It’s really clear how important Steve Jobs was to maintaining innovation at Apple.
Even though i do love apple i have to agree with you, when steve jobs was gone suddenly things were just rapidly changing, some for the good some for the bad
What innovation did Steve Jobs bring to the iPhone home screen?
Lets just hope its not a battery killer!
So the new animated wallpaper wont be available on my iPhone 6? wtf :S why??!!!
If the iPhone 6 Plus does not get a simple feature like this that’s a huge fail.
Here’s hoping that the 6 and 6 plus don’t get them, but for a good reason like a different display technology (would love an AMOLED iPhone screen!).
Get them for Android already here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alivewallpaper.free
I want it I want it. But will this only be available on the iPhone 6S and 6S+ ? No iPhone 6? Doesn’t seem like there are any hardware deficits on the 6 that would make it not handle moving wallpapers… Does anyone know?