The next iPhone you get may come with super-fast data speeds that are 100 times faster than Wi-Fi. Based on references found in iOS 9.1’s code, it appears that Apple is testing Li-Fi capabilities on the iPhone that use light pulses instead of radio waves to transmit data.
Hidden inside iOS 9’s system library cache file there’s a specific mention of “LifiCapability.” The reference was first spotted by 19 year-old developer Chase Fromm on Twitter:
Li-Fi testing is already imminent. May appear in the next iPhone 7 according to iOS code in iOS 9.1 firmware. pic.twitter.com/MPK65QwLvp
— チェイスフロム (@kyoufujibaya) December 31, 2015
AppleInsider also independently confirmed the “LifiCapability” reference in iOS 9.1 and newer versions. However, just because Apple might be experimenting with LiFi, it is still unlikely that it will be included on the iPhone 7.
Invented by Harald Haas, a researcher at Edinburgh University, LiFi could theoretically increase the iPhone’s throughput capacity to 224 gigabits per second. Those data speeds would be heavenly for goggling through all the 4K video steaming your eyeballs can handle.
The big problem though is LiFi isn’t commercially available yet. There are many companies working on making it happen in the future, but it’s not ready for an iPhone release this year. The reference could also have something to do with a 2013 Apple patent that uses the iPhone’s image sensor for “optical modulation” that sends data via light.
