Apple Files Patent for a Phone Screen Whose Camera Holes Respond to Taps and Swipes
Apple describes a phone screen where the holes for the camera and face-unlock sensors are not dead zones: you could tap or swipe right over them. A small strip of screen between the holes could also light up when a notification arrives.
What Apple's touchable camera cutout does
Ever tapped your phone's screen and noticed that the camera cutout at the top just sits there doing nothing? In this Apple patent application, that spot gets a job.
The screen has two small holes, one for the front camera and one for the face-unlock sensors. Between them is a thin strip of display that can show icons, shapes or a light to signal a notification. The touch system also keeps working over the holes, even right above the lenses.
So a swipe across the cutout, or a tap on one sensor instead of the other, could trigger different actions. When nothing is happening, the strip can stay dark or show a plain graphic, so the two holes can look like one continuous patch of screen.
… a display positioned below the front cover, the display defining: an active display region; a first hole surrounded by the active display region; and a second hole surrounded by the active display region; …
Translation: The screen has cutouts for sensors that are completely enclosed by the normal viewing area.
How the touch layer reads taps over lenses
The filing describes a phone whose front glass sits over a display with two small holes cut through the active screen area. An optical sensor sits under each hole. The description names a front camera, an infrared light projector and an infrared image sensor used for face recognition.
The main twist is in the touch layer (the thin grid of electrodes that senses your finger). It is set up to detect touches in two places:
- The normal active part of the screen
- The glass directly over a hole, including right above a sensor or a light emitter
Another claim treats the sensor area as a graphically inactive region (a spot that cannot draw pictures) that still accepts input, including gestures such as a swipe. Touching over the first sensor can trigger one action, and touching over the second can trigger a different one. A dark opaque mask (a printed layer that hides the parts behind the glass) has openings over the holes, and it may sit on a textured polymer coating.
A third claim covers the strip of display between the two holes. It can show its own graphic when a notification arrives. Before that, it may show nothing or a different graphic.
… a touch-sensing component configured to detect a first touch input applied to the front cover in the active display region of the display and a second touch input applied to the front cover over the first hole in the display.
Translation: Touch sensors can register gestures made both on the main screen and directly over the camera cutouts.
What this means for the top of your screen
For you, this could mean the top of your phone's screen does more. A glow between the camera and face-unlock sensors could signal an incoming message, and a swipe across that spot could work as a shortcut. The claims leave the actual shortcuts open and only say that two different touches can trigger two different actions.
Camera holes in a screen are hard to avoid, so this filing treats them as part of the interface rather than a blemish. The description also says the same idea could apply to other devices, such as watches and tablets, though the claims focus on phones.
Apple's 54th filing in our cell phone coverage since May joins earlier applications like one on scratch-resistant curved glass and one on activity-based location collection in the set we've tracked.
The part the claims cover is small and buildable: a touch layer that keeps working over the camera holes, plus a thin strip of screen between them. The phone in the description already has a screen with holes and sensors underneath. What is added is asking the touch system to read fingers over glass that cannot draw pictures.
The route to a product looks short. It takes a touch layer that covers the hole areas, plus software that decides what a tap on one sensor or a swipe across the strip does. The claims only say the two actions differ, so the useful part is still undecided.
The hard parts are habit and smudges. Fingerprints on a camera lens are an obvious worry for anything people touch, and a tap target that small has to be easy to hit. Whether people want to touch their camera is a design question, and software can answer it long after the hardware is locked.
Get our take in your Top Stories
Liked this breakdown? Add Patentlyze as a preferred source on Google, and our plain-English take shows up more often in your Top Stories the next time Apple patent news breaks.
There are more where this came from
We read every patent application Big Tech publishes and send you the ones worth knowing. Plain English, free, every week.
The drawings
59 drawing sheets from US 2026/0361815 A1 · click any drawing to enlarge
Show the other 51 sheets
Want this weekly breakdown for a company we don't cover? Patentlyze Pro →
Be the first to weigh in