The iPhone’s front-facing camera has never been considered particularly conspicuous, and yet Apple still wants to hide it in future models.
Apple is reportedly planning to use a special black coating on the front-facing camera to hide it in future iPhones, according to analyst Jeff Pu. The special coating will cover the front part of the camera, making it nearly invisible to the naked eye. As it is, it’s not like the camera on the iPhone is an eye sore—it actually blends in nice with the notch of the iPhone XS—but it seems Apple wants to make the look even more uniform.
The black coating would be applied from the inside of the glass and cover the camera module from being visible. It won’t interfere with the camera’s functionality even though it wouldn’t be visible from the outside.
According to Pu, the feature is going to come to more smartphones in the coming years. Apple has a close working relationship with the camera supplier responsible for the coating, presumably opening the door for it to use the feature first in an upcoming iPhone.
Pu pegs the timeframe for the feature to be used as early as 2020.
