iOS 15.2 is set to bring a helpful feature for iPhone owners who recently had their iPhones serviced, reports MacRumors. With the new update, Apple is adding a section to your iPhone Settings dubbed “Parts and Service History”, which will let you see the service history of the phone and confirm the components used for the repair are the real deal.
iOS 15.2 will bring “Parts and Service History” to let you know whether parts installed on your iPhone are genuine
When you get iOS 15.2, you will be able to go to Settings > General > About, where you will be able to locate the Parts and Service History section. This section will only be available if your iPhone was repaired, and it will not be present for new, unrepaired iPhones. Information on the components used for repairing your iPhone will be displayed depending on your iPhone version. For example, iPhone XR, XS, XS Max, and later models (including the iPhone SE 2) will be able to see if the battery has been replaced. iPhone 11, 12, and 13 owners will also be able to see battery and display information. The newest iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models will also display information on battery, display, and camera replacements.
If the repair was done with genuine Apple parts and tools, you will be able to see the label “Genuine Apple Part” next to the repaired component.
If a part installation is incomplete or the part was replaced with a non-genuine component, the message “Unknown Part” will be displayed instead of the message above. The same “Unknown Part” message will be shown also if the part was already used or installed in another iPhone, or if the part is not functioning as it should.
The messages in the “Parts and Service History” of your iPhone won’t interfere with the ability to use the iPhone, its battery, display, or camera. And of course, this info is collected and stored on-device; Apple may use it for service needs, safety analysis, or future products improvement.
The addition of this new feature to iPhones comes alongside an improvement for the iPhone 13 models. When the newest flagship phones from Apple were released, people discovered that if you replaced a broken display on an iPhone 13 model without specialized tools and components from Apple will disable the Face ID authentication system.
This, quite understandably, led to immense backlash from the repair community, which had the Cupertino tech giant work on a software update that would allow for Face ID to remain unaffected from display repairs. This change will also be introduced alongside the new iOS 15.2 update, as this update will remove the specific pairing requirement that causes Face ID not to work when a display repair is performed by a repair shop without Apple-certified equipment.
However, the Face ID situation is not the first time Apple has introduced repair restrictions on iPhones. It has previously introduced such restrictions for Touch ID, True Tone for the display, and iPhone 12 cameras, and of course, such decisions were always faced with backlash (in the case iPhone repairs are disabling features or the iPhone has limited repair options).
Now, it seems Apple will settle with just informing customers the parts put in their iPhone are not genuine, while the iPhone functionality will remain as is.
Last month, Cupertino announced plans for a new Self Service Repair program, which will allow users to perform their own repairs on their iPhones with instruction manuals and components provided by Apple. Still, the Self Service Repair program should be used by individual technicians who have the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices, while the rest of Apple’s customers are still encouraged to visit a professional repair provider with certified technicians.
