It looks like Apple is finally ready to make my little dream of using the Apple Pencil on an iPhone come true – maybe.
Recent reports about iOS 17.4 indicate that the next iPhone platform update will add the ability to locate your missing Apple Pencil using Find My. What’s more interesting is that the pencil in question may be a new version of the digital stylus.
There are no reports or direct indications that this “Apple Pencil 3” will be designed to work with your top iPhone, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that Apple is opening the door to that possibility with this first piece of iOS -integration.
Sure, you can now use your iPhone to find lost AirPods and all the AirTags you packed in your backpack, wallet, and luggage, but Apple doesn’t often add new hardware to the Find My Bead.
As for why I want to finally use Apple Pencil on an iPhone, I think the answers are obvious.
Art is the thing
In 2009, talented digital artist Jorge Colombo drew one New Yorker magazine cover on his little iPhone 3GS with just his finger. This was quite a feat considering the phone’s puny 3.5-inch screen. He didn’t even have Procreate (he used an early app called Brushes).
That work inspired me to start drawing with my fingertip on the iPhone. My work wasn’t good and I soon started buying a collection of soft-tip analog styluses to use on the small screen. I had more control, but it still wasn’t great. After the iPad launched in 2010, I immediately adopted it as my new drawing platform and continued to use those stupid styluses. It would be another five years before Apple unveiled the first Apple Pencil. It immediately transformed my ability to draw in digital space. By 2017, Jorge Columbo was also drawing New Yorker Covers on an iPad with the Apple Pencil. His work was much better than mine.
I often wonder if artists like Colombo are like me and sometimes still wish they could draw with an Apple Pencil on their iPhones. The iPad is a beautiful canvas, but I don’t carry it in my pocket, and what if inspiration strikes me and I want to sketch something quickly? I don’t have a pen and paper with me. I could wear the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. It has an excellent built-in S Pen and there are some great Android art apps like Autodesk Sketchbook – but not my go-to Procreate. And honestly, I’m still an iPhone user first and really want to make use of my iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display.
That brings me back to this piece of news.
Ready for iOS 18
The rumored Apple Pencil 3, which we now “know” will work with the iPhone somehow, could be more than just a minor upgrade with USB-C support and perhaps a new SoC. It would fit the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
You may have noticed that your iPhone’s MagSafe charging magnets attract the magnets in your Apple Pencil, but it would make more sense if Apple introduced a new case that fits the Apple Pencil 3. To do that, however, this new pencil must be less than 6.29 inches long. The current Apple Pencil 2 is about 15.5 centimeters long. So it should be shorter, but not necessarily thinner.
I think the perfect time to introduce this new Pencil would be during WWDC 2024, when Apple could unveil iOS 18 and perhaps a whole host of Pencil gesture-based features. That would all be great, but I’d be most excited about the ability to finally draw on the iPhone with some real control, tilt and pressure sensitivity.
I know it’s a long shot, but thanks to iOS 17.4, an Apple Pencil 3, and support for Find My Apple Pencil, I’m dreaming of creating art on my iPhone.