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iOS 15.4 Will Allow Third-Party Apps to Take Full Advantage of iPhone 13 Pro 120Hz ProMotion Displays

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After the launch of the iPhone 13 Pro models with 120Hz ProMotion, it became clear that most third-party app animations were limited to 60Hz and were unable to take advantage of the 120Hz maximum refresh rate of the new devices. At the time, Apple said there was a Core Animation bug that would be fixed in a later update.

iphone-14-pro-120hz-promotion.jpg

Apple appears to be addressing the Core Animation issue in the iOS 15.4 beta, introducing a change that will see apps automatically offering 120Hz refresh rates for all animations on iPhones that offer ProMotion support for more streamlined usage experience.

Apollo developer Christian Selig today said on Twitter that someone at Apple informed him that a fix has been implemented in iOS 15.4, and he was able to confirm the change himself.


With the full 120Hz ProMotion support, there should be no discernible difference between the various animations in an app, and everything should operate as expected. 120Hz refresh rates are designed to provide for a smoother viewing experience for scrolling through content, gaming, and more.

Article Link: iOS 15.4 Will Allow Third-Party Apps to Take Full Advantage of iPhone 13 Pro 120Hz ProMotion Displays
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/01/27/ios-15-4-apps-120-hz-promotion/
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Kylo83

Kylo83

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This should of been fixed in 15.3 anyways should of taken this long
 
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dmylrea

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After both the iPhone 13 Pro and the MacBook Pro 14/16 both being advertised with this tremendous 120Hz display feature only to find out after shelling out thousands of dollars that the feature is half-backed, I'm having a hard time trusting anything Apple says about new devices with new features ACTUALLY being functional at all. Really let down that we have to wait this long to get a feature that should have worked out of the box.
 
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Kylo83

Kylo83

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dmylrea said:
After both the iPhone 13 Pro and the MacBook Pro 14/16 both being advertised with this tremendous 120Hz display feature only to find out after shelling out thousands of dollars that the feature is half-backed, I'm having a hard time trusting anything Apple says about new devices with new features ACTUALLY being functional at all. Really let down that we have to wait this long to get a feature that should have worked out of the box.
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I agree we shouldn’t have to wait 6months for a feature to be fully working on a new phone
 
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ouimetnick

ouimetnick

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The real embarrassment is that this wasn’t a thing at launch. Not sure if it’s because software engineers work from home, but it shouldn’t take 4 months for this to happen (still in beta so it’s going to be longer than 4 months)

Just got my 14” MBP M1 Max in on Tuesday. No 120Hz scrolling in Safari until Wednesday. I thought my machine was broken since ProMotion was enabled in System Preferences. It’s amazing (pathetic) how they only added 120Hz scrolling in their very own web browser 3 months later. It seems like the software engineers don’t find out about new hardware features until the general public does. For a company that prides itself on tight integration since they make hardware, software and services, it’s kind of an embarrassment.
 
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Kylo83

Kylo83

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ouimetnick said:
The real embarrassment is that this wasn’t a thing at launch. Not sure if it’s because software engineers work from home, but it shouldn’t take 4 months for this to happen (still in beta so it’s going to be longer than 4 months)

Just got my 14” MBP M1 Max in on Tuesday. Amazing how they only added 120Hz scrolling in their very own web browser 3 months later. It’s like the software engineers don’t find out about new hardware features until the general public does. For a company that prides itself on tight integration since they make hardware, software and services, it’s kind of an embarrassment.
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Completely agree
 
Lexdexia

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Seems more of a deliberate move, if there was no bug or it got fixed ASAP, the phone’s battery life would most likely drain faster and that would go against Apple’s marketing claims of the best battery life ever on an iPhone.

Bugs aside, ProMotion on iPhones is already an inferior implementation than iPads, all to reduce energy usage as much as possible. Now I’m just curious how much shorter the battery life will be when all apps can use 120Hz.
 
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exoticSpice

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Lexdexia said:
Seems more of a deliberate move, if there was no bug or it got fixed ASAP, the phone’s battery life would most likely drain faster and that would go against Apple’s marketing claims of the best battery life ever on an iPhone.

Bugs aside, ProMotion on iPhones is already an inferior implementation than iPads, all to reduce energy usage as much as possible. Now I’m just curious how much shorter the battery life will be when all apps can use 120Hz.
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It does not matter when the user is not using the screen it the screen goes down to 10hz because of LTPO. So if you are watching a video the screen would clock down to 24hz. Scrolling in 120hz does not use the P cores, just the E cores and they are very efficient in A15.
 
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ChristianSelig

ChristianSelig

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I dunno this guy looks sus

EDIT: In all seriousness to clarify because this all can be a bit confusing, basically with iOS 15.0 *system* animations (as well as those present in apps) worked at 120 Hz right out of the box. So off the top of my head we're talking scrolling, system views like context menus, as well as view controller transitions (so transitioning from one screen to another within an app) have *already* been 120 FPS.

What *didn't* work in third party apps was custom animations. So like the Tinder example someone else mentioned, if as a developer I was to put a view on the screen, and wanted it to move somewhere else in response to a user tap or gesture, the result would only have animated at 60 FPS. This was contrary to say, the iPad Pro's ProMotion implementation that worked at 120 FPS for those custom animations.

This contrast between some animations (or even most!) flying around at a gorgeous 120 FPS but some still being at 60 I think was jarring to some users and what prompted the discussions.

With iOS 15.4 I can only guess that they figured out that their fears about the 120 FPS animations taking too much battery weren't as bad as they thought, or they made some optimizations (like I mentioned in the tweet, where it automatically downscales the frame rate where it doesn't need to be high on iPhone, like in slow animations, as opposed to the iPad where it's *always* 120 FPS). Or a combination of both of those!

But either way it sounds great and it's automatic going forward, so I don't think you'll have to worry about your favorite apps having to "add support" for it, I would assume compiling with the newest version of Xcode will just flip the switch (and I'm not even sure that's needed, it might just be flipped on at a global, iOS level).

(Hopefully that answers Kylo's question if not I can clarify more if needed!)
 
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Superhappytree

Superhappytree

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Bloody FINALLY! I’ve been waiting for this one more than anything. Thought they were never going to do it and assumed they probably forgot about it even though they promised it months ago.

Does this also fix the issues with random stuttering around iOS 15 like swiping horizontally? It’s all over the place with janky animations. It will be pleasantly smooth in one area and then all of a sudden sill feel like it’s running at 60Hz or even below in another. It’s completely jarring and ruins the otherwise smooth experience on the 13 Pro.
 
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