Apple Still Has Ambition To Launch Reverse Wireless Charging For iPhone

JAKARTA - Apple is continuing to develop a reverse or bilateral wireless charging feature where the iPhone can charge other devices such as AirPods.

Citing a source familiar with the matter from 9to5Mac, quoted Wednesday, February 8, said the company hoped to start the feature with last year's iPhone 14 Pro lineup but, he failed to meet the deadline.

Now, documents in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have revealed some of Apple's work on reverse wireless charging.

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In the document, Apple is building a wireless power-out firmware that forms the basis for its two-way wireless charging feature, and while its meaning is unclear, it appears to be a key aspect of testing as well as ongoing engineering, reverse wireless charging.

In order to implement an option that would allow the ‌iPhone‌ to charge other devices, Apple needed to optimize aspects such as charging speed, heat dissipation, and charging efficiency.

In addition, the Cupertino, US-based tech giant is designing a custom user interface for reverse wireless charging, which is similar to the interface used for MagSafe accessories.

That interface will include an on-screen animation as well as a sound effect to indicate bilateral wireless charging has started.

FCC filings hint at reverse wireless charging capabilities that may be hidden in hardware, with the release of the MagSafe Battery Pack in 2021, Apple demonstrated how to reverse wireless charging works.

When attached to the ‌iPhone‌ magnetically, the MagSafe Battery Pack can charge using passthrough technology while the ‌iPhone‌ is plugged into the Lightning cable.

While charging for AirPods and other devices may eventually work the same way, connecting to the back of the ‌iPhone‌ and charging at the same time as the ‌iPhone‌.

There have been lots of rumors of reverse wireless charging over the past few years, and it was rumored to be a feature of the iPhone 11 ahead of the device's launch, but again that didn't materialize.

Other rumors later claimed that Apple had abandoned the feature at the time because the charging efficiency did not meet Apple's needs.

That feature has actually been in the Samsung Galaxy S line for the last few years now, whereby Samsung smartphones can charge any Qi-based device, including many others.

Reverse wireless charging technology is claimed to be coming to the iPhone 15 later this year, but that functionality could be delayed once again or removed for good, as Apple has been working on it since at least the iPhone 11.