With iOS 18, Apple is making its iPhones even more secure with this new feature

After announcing the iPhone 16a little discovery was made in iOS 18 by @betaprofiles: Activation Lock for iPhone spare parts.

Activation Lock is not a new thing for iPhones. Available through the Find My app, this feature aims to prevent an unknown person from using a reformatted iPhone. The first time it restarts, it will ask to log in to the last iCloud account logged in to work.

iOS 18 extends this process to spare parts. Each part of an iPhone is thus linked to an iCloud account, thus limiting the use of the latter to repair other devices.

Let's imagine that a stolen iPhone has been disassembled from top to bottom, it will not be possible to install its components on another model without providing the username and password of the owner of the stolen iPhone.

For now, @betaprofiles points out that this new feature does not prevent the smartphone from being used. Bypassing the process will still have consequences, including the inability to perform calibration and the restriction of certain features.

Please note, the activation lock on spare parts will only be available from iPhone 12. In addition, only batteries, screens and photo modules are affected.