A new iPhone camera patent application hides the front camera behind the display, and a second application adds touch controls around the camera cutouts. The iPhone Duo already ships with a front camera under its inner display, so the open question is whether the 20th anniversary iPhone gets a hidden camera on a non-folding phone.
Patentlyze spotted both applications for the hidden camera behind the screen and the touch controls around camera holes. Apple first filed the camera idea in 2011, filed the latest camera application on July 21, 2026 and has not been granted either patent. Both ideas could shape the 20th anniversary iPhone, which is rumored to have no front cutout and is expected to launch in September 2027.
iPhone Camera Patent Hides the Lens
Apple wants the part of the OLED display over the front camera to turn see-through when the camera needs to see. Processing circuitry decides when something, such as opening the camera app, calls for the camera to be exposed, and the display above the lens then clears. Nine inventors are named on the application, including John Ternus, who is now Apple’s CEO.
Apple’s design clears the view for the lens in three ways:
- The pixels above the camera are spaced farther apart, and they may be about 85 percent transparent.
- A printed color layer behind the display has a hole lined up with the camera.
- The pixels over the camera switch off when the camera app opens and come back when it closes.
The same approach could hide a flash or a fingerprint reader until you need it, though that would take far more development than a hidden camera.
Fewer pixels over the camera leave a lower-resolution patch of screen there, and photos taken through a panel have a rough history. Samsung’s under-display cameras ran for four Galaxy Z Fold generations before Samsung dropped them.
The iPhone Duo gives an early look at how a hidden camera performs. Its FaceTime camera sits under the 7.6-inch inner display and records 1080p video at 30 or 60 fps, and several iPhone Duo reviews called it too soft for selfies. Hands-on videos also showed the camera is easier to spot than Apple’s renders suggested.
Touch Controls Around the Cutouts
Apple’s second design puts two small holes in the active part of the screen, one for the front camera and one for the Face ID sensors. A thin strip of display between the holes can show an icon, a shape or light to flag a notification.
The touch layer keeps working on the glass over each hole, so a tap on the camera hole and a tap on the Face ID hole could start two different actions. A swipe across the cutouts is another input Apple has in mind.
Apple has not picked which actions those touches would run, and the idea could reach watches and tablets as well as phones.
Where Both Ideas Fit in 2027
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that the 20th anniversary iPhone will be a mostly glass, curved iPhone with no cutouts in the display. A hidden camera like the one in the first application would be one way to reach that look. DSCC’s Ross Young has said under-display Face ID and camera are unlikely to be fully ready for 2027, and a smaller hole-punch or a slimmed-down Dynamic Island has been seen as the more realistic near-term outcome.
Touch controls make more sense on a smaller hole-punch than on a clean front, because they need a visible hole. If Apple keeps a small cutout on the 20th anniversary iPhone, tapping it could start an action.
Apple has already put some front camera hardware under the glass. The iPhone 18 Pro puts the Face ID infrared camera under the display, which a teardown showed is how Apple built the smaller Dynamic Island. A hidden camera on the 20th anniversary iPhone would need sharper results than the iPhone Duo’s inner camera gives.
