Apple Unveils a Way to Control Your iPhone With Your Brain. Really.

There’s a vast labyrinth of Accessibility settings within Apple’s iPhones centered upon making the devices usable for folks with needs that go beyond the vanilla controls inherent in the iPhone’s design.

Now, Apple has one-upped themselves by announcing that they’ll be allowing folks with brain implants to control at least some of their iPhones’ functions just by thinking commands to them, no swiping or clicking needed.

“For users with severe mobility disabilities, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS will add a new protocol to support Switch Control for Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs), an emerging technology that allows users to control their device without physical movement,” said Apple in a May 13 press release announcing the feature.

so… what’s switch control, exactly?

“Switch Control is an assistive technology for anyone with limited mobility,” Apple writes in a support section of its website introducing the iPhone features. “It enables you to interact with iPhone by activating a switch, such as pressing an external adaptive button, performing a head movement, or making a voiced or voiceless sound.

“Using one or more switches, you can navigate a cursor around the iPhone screen, then open the Scanner menu to choose an available action such as tap, zoom in, zoom out, and more.”

The full list of actions that Switch Control can utilize can be found here. Apple hasn’t specified yet whether BCIs will be able to control all Switch Controls functions or only certain ones.

You should give up your Magneto fantasies about pestering your friends with late-night memes on your iPhone from across the room, or at least put them on the back burner. You need to have that all-important BCI, since the new Apple feature interfaces with BCIs. It doesn’t read minds. There’s a difference.

Still, it’s impressive that Apple is keeping pace with the BCI technology out there. It may not be common yet, but kudos on them for being proactive and forward-looking.