If you've ever had an iPhone update go bad, you may have used recovery mode to resuscitate your device. A device booted into recovery mode can't do anything by itself, but it can be connected to a working Mac or PC with a cable, and that Mac or PC can download a fresh copy of iOS and all of your phone's related firmware to restore it to a factory-default state. You'll need a backup to recover your personal data, but it beats having to take a trip to an Apple Store or send your phone in for repairs.
The new iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models launching this week apparently add a new option for phones that are in recovery mode: rudimentary wireless communication, so phones that need to be recovered can be placed near another iPhone or an iPad and be restored without using a cable, a PC, or Mac.
The new system was tested by 9to5Mac, which says it uses "the same RecoveryOS that lets users restore Apple Watch and Apple TV firmware from an iPhone." When you place an iPhone 16 in recovery mode near another device, the functioning device will download the software and firmware files and then transfer them to the broken phone, where they can be installed.
For now, this only seems to apply to iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models, but Apple was able to add a wireless restore option to both the Apple Watch and Apple TV via software updates. For the Apple TV, this support extends all the way back to 2015's Apple TV HD, which has far older hardware than any currently supported iPhone or iPad. This suggests that most iPhones, iPads, and even Macs could also be updated to support the new wireless recovery mode if Apple decides it wants to expand the availability of the feature.
This isn't Apple's first foray into wireless iPhone updating; earlier this year, the company began using a new update mechanism in its stores that allows iPhones to be updated to the latest software version without being removed from their boxes. That means users can expect their new phones to ship with up-to-date versions of iOS, even if they've been sitting in their boxes on a shelf for a few weeks or months after being manufactured.
