iOS 15.4 Will Allow Third-Party Apps to Take Full Advantage of iPhone 13 Pro 120Hz ProMotion Displays

Thursday January 27, 2022 4:06 pm PST by Juli Clover

After the launch of the iPhone 13 Pro models with 120Hz ProMotion, it became clear that most third-party app animations were limited to 60Hz and were unable to take advantage of the 120Hz maximum refresh rate of the new devices. At the time, Apple said there was a Core Animation bug that would be fixed in a later update.

iphone 14 pro 120hz promotion
Apple appears to be addressing the Core Animation issue in the iOS 15.4 beta, introducing a change that will see apps automatically offering 120Hz refresh rates for all animations on iPhones that offer ProMotion support for more streamlined usage experience.

Apollo developer Christian Selig today said on Twitter that someone at Apple informed him that a fix has been implemented in iOS 15.4, and he was able to confirm the change himself.

Yay, got a little message from someone at Apple today that this is fixed in the iOS 15.4 betas and all apps automatically get 120 Hz animations on supported iPhones going forward, and just confirmed myself. (See attached, 1/120 = 8.33 ms) 🥳🥳🥳 https://t.co/EtZ9zkrM6S pic.twitter.com/04cl8uLb11 — Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) January 27, 2022

With the full 120Hz ProMotion support, there should be no discernible difference between the various animations in an app, and everything should operate as expected. 120Hz refresh rates are designed to provide for a smoother viewing experience for scrolling through content, gaming, and more.

Related Forums: iOS 15, iPhone

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Top Rated Comments

diego.c

63 months ago

Millions in R&D to develop a ProMotion display and FOUR software releases to finally enable it properly. Same on Mac…

Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)

KaliYoni

63 months ago

So this means swiping left and right on Tinder will be even smoother? Hallelujah! All rejoice!!

Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)

DEMinSoCAL

63 months ago

After both the iPhone 13 Pro and the MacBook Pro 14/16 both being advertised with this tremendous 120Hz display feature only to find out after shelling out thousands of dollars that the feature is half-backed, I'm having a hard time trusting anything Apple says about new devices with new features ACTUALLY being functional at all. Really let down that we have to wait this long to get a feature that should have worked out of the box.

Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ouimetnick

63 months ago

The real embarrassment is that this wasn’t a thing at launch. Not sure if it’s because software engineers work from home, but it shouldn’t take 4 months for this to happen (still in beta so it’s going to be longer than 4 months)

Just got my 14” MBP M1 Max in on Tuesday. No 120Hz scrolling in Safari until Wednesday. I thought my machine was broken since ProMotion was enabled in System Preferences. It’s amazing (pathetic) how they only added 120Hz scrolling in their very own web browser 3 months later. It seems like the software engineers don’t find out about new hardware features until the general public does. For a company that prides itself on tight integration since they make hardware, software and services, it’s kind of an embarrassment.

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)