Apple relents on controversial restrictions on iPhone 13 display repairs

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Apple has reversed course on its controversial choice to make the iPhone 13 reject repaired screens.

When the phone was launched, in September, repair experts quickly found that if an iPhone 13 had its screen repaired, it would break the facial recognition tools built into the phone.

The only way for independent repair shops to avoid that was to replace a small chip by taking it from the original screen and putting it in the new one. Official repairers were able to make it work with software, but that required authorisation from Apple.

As such, it meant that independent repair workers were unable to fix the display on an iPhone 13 without also breaking a central part of the phone.

The decision led to controversy, especially given the focus on the right to repair and accusations that iPhones are too difficult to fix.

Now Apple has reversed course, however. It told The Verge that it will be releasing a fix that means the phone won’t need that tiny chip to be swapped over.

The change will arrive in a software update, though Apple did not say when that wold happen.