Apple has moved Face ID beneath the display on the iPhone 18 Pro, a design step that 9to5Mac reports brings the company closer to its long-running ambition of making the iPhone’s front look more like a continuous sheet of glass. In its report, the publication says the change hides the TrueDepth hardware behind the screen while preserving everyday usability and display quality.
The technical challenge is straightforward in concept but difficult in practice: Face ID depends on infrared light, and display pixels normally block it. 9to5Mac reports that Apple addressed this by creating larger gaps between pixels above the Face ID hardware, allowing IR light to pass through the display. At the same time, the company reportedly had to avoid making that part of the screen visibly worse than the rest.
To do that, Apple used a different pixel layout over the module, 9to5Mac reports. The outlet says Apple confirmed that pixel density in that area is reduced by half. Because that could make the section look dimmer, the report adds that Apple compensates by increasing the brightness of those pixels.
9to5Mac also reports that an IR pass filter appears to help conceal the system by blocking visible light from passing through the gaps. In normal use, the publication says, the Face ID array is effectively impossible to see, even if the altered pixel structure can still be detected under magnification.
That hidden hardware reportedly has an immediate interface benefit. By moving Face ID under the display, Apple has been able to reduce the size of the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 Pro, 9to5Mac says. The outlet adds that the smaller cutout allows the phone to support three Live Activities at once instead of two.
The front-facing camera, however, has not made the same leap yet. 9to5Mac reports that Apple still intends to place that camera beneath the display in a future iPhone, but that the image-quality tradeoff remains too severe for the company to accept today.
If that timeline holds, the iPhone 18 Pro marks a partial but notable shift: not the complete disappearance of visible front-facing hardware, but a meaningful reduction in how much of it still needs to interrupt the screen.
