This iOS 18 Feature Attempts to Make Your iPhone Not Worth Stealing

Beta Profiles, a community dedicated to Apple beta releases, shared images of a new feature on the release candidate for iOS 18 that aims to make your stolen iPhone useless for thieves. Apple said back in April that it would extend its existing Activation Lock feature to iPhone parts. This means your iPhone’s components, such as battery, camera, display, etc, are going to be tied to your Apple ID, and thieves should no longer be able to make money off of disassembling a stolen iPhone and reselling its parts. According to Beta Profiles’ post on Threads, this feature is available for iPhone 12 and later.

The post includes sample screenshots of how the feature will look on iOS 18. When an unauthorized person attempts to access your iPhone and calibrate its parts, it prompts them to enter the Apple ID credentials to which the parts are tied. It also informs them that the parts cannot be accessed until the ID is logged in or the lock is removed.

The thread also mentions that the iPhone can still be used regardless. A thief can tap ‘Cancel’ (shown in the screenshots above) and resume using your iPhone. However, the Parts and Service section in Settings will expose the actual history of the phone’s components. The section will see “Unknown part” added to it.

Apple said in an April release that customers and law enforcement agencies had requested Activation Lock for iPhone parts. The fact that calibration will be restricted on devices with locked parts also means that customers don’t have to worry about third-party repair shops unlawfully replacing their genuine parts with off-brand ones. As long as your desired service doesn’t require the repair technician to calibrate your iPhone’s components, you can be confident about your repair as long as Activation Lock is enabled and the technician doesn’t have access to your Apple ID.

I’m feeling pretty positive about the feature potentially (hopefully) reducing theft. It will certainly deter thieves from taking a huge risk only to get their hands on a device that’s practically worthless to them. iOS users on Reddit mostly seem happy about the feature, too, and are excited about the ease in self-repairability that it’ll bring.

It looks like Apple is finally doing something about the lack of self-repairability criticism it has received for years. One of the biggest arguments against Apple in the never-ending Android versus iPhone debate has been about the number of hoops a user has to jump through to replace parts on an iPhone.

Apple seems to be taking safety a lot more seriously, too. iOS 17.3 saw the launch of Stolen Device Protection, which requires an unauthorized person to enter biometrics on the stolen device and re-enter them after a one-hour gap to access your iPhone. This adds an extra layer of security in case a thief has glanced at your passcode. Here’s how to enable the feature. If you ever run into the misfortune of losing your iPhone or having it snatched, these tips might be helpful.