Apple is focusing more and more on gaming, and of course a game mode for your iPhone can’t be missing. But what exactly do you get out of it?
During Apple keynotes, we see one topic coming up more and more often: gaming. Not only is the company making it increasingly easy for developers to release games on the Mac, the iPhone and iPad aren’t being left out either. With special software, it is now even easier to release games for the Mac on other Apple devices.
But it doesn’t stop there. A special game mode for the Mac came earlier, but with iOS 18 it’s also coming to the iPhone. What exactly does it do?
iOS 18 brings game mode to your iPhone
MacOS Sonoma got a game mode last year, and so now it’s the iPhone’s turn with iOS 18, which means we already know a bit about what to expect. Basically, in a nutshell, it comes down to this: gaming gets top priority on your iPhone. That means it becomes the most important task on your processor, reducing other tasks in the background.
According to Apple, gaming mode has several benefits as a result. First, it should make games more responsive to game controls. In addition, picture and sound should also have less lag. This is especially important in multiplayer games, where you want to immediately hear where the sound is coming from. That way you notice enemies sooner and not when you are already being shot.
Gaming on your iPhone. (Image: Apple)
Additionally, wireless accessories should also be more responsive in game mode. So if you’re gaming on a wireless controller and with AirPods in, you should experience everything even faster.
Here’s how it works
You can’t enable game mode yourself, the iPhone does this automatically for you. iOS 18 notices when you are playing a game and will then switch to game mode. However, you will get a notification on your screen that game mode is enabled.
This feature is primarily intended for larger games. These include Death Stranding, Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Resident Evil Village. If you’re playing Candy Crush, the feature won’t turn on, and that makes a lot of sense. Such a game requires much less from your iPhone, and you probably don’t even want that game to come at the expense of other tasks on your iPhone.
As mentioned, the game mode is part of iOS 18, and if you install the beta of the operating system, you can already take advantage of it. Otherwise, unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until September of this year. Then, in all likelihood, the first final version of iOS 18 will come to the iPhone.
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