The iPhone 13, and other upcoming iPhones, may solve the perennial problem of using the phone while wearing gloves.

AppleInsider has discovered a patent indicating that Apple has an idea for a touchscreen that automatically adapts to work while wearing gloves. If this becomes a reality, an iPhone with this feature could be one of the best phones on the market on its own.

The USPTO patent, straightforwardly named "Glove Touch Detection," details Apple's plans to make it happen. Simply put, smartphone displays are specifically designed to react to the conductivity of the skin. Nothing prevents the touchscreen from working with gloves, for example.

What stops it is the parameters set by engineers to ensure that it only responds to signals caused by intentional touch by the phone's user. In other words, these are the only parameters that need to be changed.

Apple's solution is to dynamically change this touch threshold when the user is wearing gloves. When the touchscreen registers a tap corresponding to a defined value for a gloved finger, it automatically switches to "glove mode". The glove threshold ensures that the screen registers taps and swipes when the fingers are covered, and the default "bare finger mode" allows the display to behave just like a current smartphone screen

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You can already buy gloves with conductive patches or cloth, or you can rely on your phone's digital assistant to operate it. However, there is an appeal in being able to use your phone normally, even when wrapped warmly, without having to buy new accessories or struggle with voice recognition.

Patents don't always become actual products, and even if they do, it's a long process before they become something you can buy. With that in mind, if the patent is only granted now, it may be unlikely that the iPhone 13, which will be released this September, will use this new system. Looking ahead to next year and beyond, we hope instead that this glove touch detection technology will be included in the iPhone 14 or later models.