Apple's iOS 17.4 update added a stealth Qi2 upgrade to the iPhone 12

When Apple announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro in September the new phones were also confirmed to have support for the Qi2 wireless charging standard. Based on MagSafe, the standard is open to all who want to implement it which means that wireless charger makers no longer have to pay to license Apple's MagSafe technology. The benefit here is that there are more options while also making the chargers cheaper for people to buy. At the time, Apple confirmed that support for Qi2 would also be brought to the iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 via software updates.

However, Apple now appears to have also added Qi2 wireless charging to the iPhone 12 series of devices for the first time, and it did it via the iOS 17.4 software update that was released to the public earlier this month. Apple didn't make any mention of the new functionality in the software's release notes and it hasn't said anything since the release, either. But according to testing carried out by Macworld, Qi2 support is now very much alive and well on their iPhone 12 after installing the iOS 17.4 update.

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Previously, using the non-MagSafe wireless chargers with the iPhone 12 meant a charging speed of just 7.5W, but as Macworld found out when trying to charge using a Qi2-compatible charger, the full 15W charging speed was available. In fact, there were instances where the third-party Qi2 chargers were performing better than the official Apple MagSafe Wireless Charger.

However, it's important to note that despite all of this the iPhone 12 mini remains the odd one out. Even with MafSafe, the iPhone 12 mini - just like the iPhone 13 mini - was limited to just 12W wireless charging due to the smaller size and the inability to dissipate the heat generated by inductive charging. That's still the case with the Qi2 chargers and there isn't anything that anyone can do about that.

The Qi2 standard has taken a little while to get going but there are now seemingly new chargers being announced all the time. The benefit of Qi2 is that any compatible charger will work with any compatible phone, whether that's an iPhone, a Samsung phone, or something with a different logo entirely.

The Qi2 support is sure to extend to future iPhones of course, including the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models that are expected to be announced to the world later this year.