Two New Patent Filings Hint At Apple Pencil Working For iPhone

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy Note 8, and it comes with a smarter S Pen stylus. Now, it looks like Apple might be planning to bring the Apple Pencil to one of its future iPhones.

It’s been discovered recently that Apple has filed for two patent applications describing a stylus that works for both the iPhone and the iPad Pro. The recently published patent filings were first spotted by Patently Apple.

The website says that one of the filings, titled “Noise Correction for a Stylus Touch Device,” shows an illustration of a touch screen for a “smartphone or tablet.” The patent later clarifies that the smartphone and tablet that was mentioned are an iPhone and iPad.

This isn’t actually the first time we’ve heard of the Apple Pencil working on an iPhone before. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented that he had already tried using a Pencil on an iPad and iPhone, saying that “it’s really unbelievable,” as pointed out by 9To5Mac.

In 2015, Apple was granted a patent for an Apple Pencil that worked for both an iPad and an iPhone. Then the following year, the tech giant was once again granted another patent for an Apple Pencil working with an iPhone and even on a MacBook Pro.

The main difference now is that the new patent filing clearly mentions the iPhone by name. The previous patents from 2015 and 2016 avoided using the name, and instead carefully used words and terms like “cellular phones” or “personal device.”

Apple patents a lot of things and most of them don’t even end up becoming actual consumer-ready products. However, with these pair of new patents, it’s becoming more likely that the tech giant wants to officially bring the Apple Pencil to one of its future iPhones.

The current Apple Pencil is big and is really for the 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Apple could simply make a smaller version of it for the iPhone. With the iPhone 8 expected to get rid of those thick bezels and going for an edge-to-edge OLED display, a stylus could really become a useful accessory.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note line has been famous for its large size and the S Pen, and has proven that there’s still a market for smartphones that comes with a stylus. The Galaxy Note 8, which was just announced yesterday, arrived with an improved S Pen which can be used to instantly translate highlighted text.

If Apple does plan on bringing the Apple Pencil to the iPhone, it could potentially attract current Galaxy Note users. That is, of course, if the Apple Pen proves to be as useful on the iPhone as it is on the iPad Pro. Apple did add the ability to instantly open the Notes app on iOS 11 when user tap the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro’s lock screen. This certainly sets itself up as a future instant note-taking feature for the iPhone.