iOS 18 will enable your iPhone to show the time even when the battery has run dry. This improvement relies on the Power Reserve function of new iPhones to work.
Thanks to Power Reserve, your iPhone is findable offline, and the NFC chip also works for Express Card functionality.
iPhone can show the time even without battery power
In iOS 17, when your iPhone runs out of battery, pressing the Side key will show a red battery icon along with the “iPhone Is Findable” message at the bottom. As spotted by a Redditor, the same screen in iOS 18 shows the time on the status bar in the top-left corner.
For some reason, the time will only appear in a 12-hour format. This is even if you have set your iPhone to display the time in 24-hour style.
Photo: ant_t99/Reddit
It is unclear if all iOS 18 compatible iPhones will get this feature. It could be limited to iPhone 12+ models since they use an OLED display, or it could be limited to the iPhone 15 lineup. The feature will also only work for a few hours after the phone runs of out battery juice.
While a small improvement, it is a welcome one. It ensures your iPhone can do something as basic as showing the time when it’s out of battery power. The Apple Watch already provides a similar functionality.
iOS 18 is full of small but significant improvements
The ability to tell the time is just one of the many small enhancements Apple has introduced in iOS 18. While the company highlighted all the major iOS 18 features on-stage at WWDC24, it skipped mentioning all the little ones.
Another such improvement is the addition of T9 dialing to the Phone app. It lets you quickly find the contact you want to call right from the dialer in the Phone app.
