The launch of the iPhone 14 final fall was lacking one key ingredient: reverse wi-fi charging. However sources cited by 9to5Mac report that Apple initially deliberate on together with the characteristic, and would have completed so if the corporate’s engineering groups hadn’t missed the deadline to finish improvement work.

Reverse charging, also referred to as bilateral charging, is a characteristic whereby a tool can each obtain and transmit cost wirelessly. It’s been obtainable on high-end Android telephones such because the Galaxy S23 for years.

Technically, as 9to5Mac notes, the iPhone has included a rudimentary model of this operate because the launch of the iPhone 12: plug your system into an influence outlet, join a MagSafe battery pack to the again, and it’ll begin to cost up. However “true” reverse charging would give the iPhone the power to cost up a far bigger vary of equipment, and allow it to take action purely from battery energy reasonably than transmitting mains energy ‘via’ its chassis. The obvious utility could be charging an AirPods case when it’s positioned on the again of the iPhone, however any Qi-compatible accent would presumably have the ability to work with the system.

Reverse charging is a perennial iPhone rumor. Some thought it will arrive (within the true sense) with the iPhone 12—though these {hardware} developments turned out to be for the MagSafe battery pack solely—and the identical concept was predicted for the iPhone 13. Unsurprisingly, pundits repeated their declare for the iPhone 14, but it surely now appears they had been at the very least partly proper.

9to5Mac, citing nameless “sources conversant in the matter,” says the characteristic was slated for inclusion in final 12 months’s new Professional iPhones, providing one more incentive for customers to select the dearer fashions. The corporate didn’t hit its personal deadline for the completion of the characteristic, which meant it didn’t make the reduce, however hopes to incorporate it in a future mannequin.

The sources supply additional element of Apple’s plans on this space, which give hints as to why the corporate was unable to finish the mission in time. It’s, for instance, a mission with each {hardware} and software program parts, as Apple additionally needs to supply onscreen animations and sound results to point that reverse charging is underway, and presumably to information the consumer via the method. On the {hardware} facet, the sources say Apple is “creating a novel ‘wi-fi energy out’ firmware as the idea for the characteristic,” and are wrestling with questions of warmth administration, effectivity, and charging velocity.

This new report will inevitably result in rumors that reverse charging will lastly arrive with the launch of the iPhone 15 later this 12 months, however 9to5Mac cautions in opposition to such optimism. The positioning’s sources warn that the characteristic might feasibly be delayed once more, and even scrapped fully.