Apple is said to be working on cases that add extra touch controls to an iPhone, so you can do things like manage music playback without needing to touch the screen.
Smartphone users will be familiar with the screen and side buttons as the main ways to interact with their devices using touch alone. However, using specially-created accessories, this could expand touch controls to other areas of the iPhone experience.
According to serial Weibo leaker Instant Digital on Sunday, Apple will be investing in new cases for the iPhone that go beyond just protection. Instead, they are to become "second touch interfaces" for the iPhone.
The leaker doesn't go into detail about this. All they say is that it will make "the iPhone Pro even more Pro'" to consumers.
Instant Digital has a reasonable track record when it comes to accuracy, with some of its iPhone rumors proving to be true at a later time. However, Weibo leakers generally aren't that accurate, due to a tendency to repost rumors from other sources, often without checking if they could be real.
A questionable case
Apple bringing touch controls or other interactive elements to an iPhone case isn't impossible. Given the many different way the iPhone communicates with accessories already, it isn't a massive stretch of the imagination to consider this a possibility at all.
Patents and applications over the years have shown Apple has at least considered bringing additional controls to other elements of the overall Apple experience.
This has included adding a screen and touch controls to an AirPods case to handle media playback, without necessarily needing to deal with an iPhone directly.
Back in 2020, Apple was also granted a patent for the use of piezoelectric ink, which could provide haptic feedback on fabrics and other flexible materials. In that patent, Apple used images of an Apple Watch with a band that used the material to vibrate different areas of a wrist.
There's also the existence of the various cases for the iPad line that allow an in-case keyboard to function, as a more direct example.
As for Apple considering expanding touch control away from the screen in the first place, that too has been explored in patents. Apple has looked at the possibility of using touch sensor structures on the side edges and rear of iPhone-like devices, as well as edge display controls.
Bringing similar functionality to a case could allow Apple to make edge controls and alternative control schemes a reality, while still enabling more conventional use of an iPhone.
