Apple quietly removed its low-light Night mode from the Camera app's Portrait feature on the iPhone 17 Pro, and the company's silence around the change has become almost as puzzling as the decision itself.
On previous models, Night mode allowed users to combine long-exposure shots in low light conditions with Portrait Mode's depth effects, and it has been available on every Pro model since the iPhone 12 Pro launched in 2020. It still works on the last-generation iPhone 16 Pro, but owners of Apple's latest iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models won't find the option when using Portrait mode in the Camera app.
What makes this particularly strange is that Apple hasn't provided an explanation for the feature's removal. The company's own support documentation confirms the omission in its list of models that can use Night mode when shooting portraits with the signature "bokeh" effect, but the iPhone 17 Pro models are conspicuous in their absence, with no explanation given.
In fact, iPhone 17 Pro owners only discovered the limitation through their own usage, culminating in scatteredonline discussions over the past three months. Some have speculated that it could be related to the 24-megapixels that Portraits are taken in on the latest models, suggesting it conflicts with Night mode's 12-megapixel limitation. Others have suggested Apple may have wanted to avoid the over-long exposure time needed to combine the two modes, which could have ended up frustrating users.
Missing Night Mode option in Camera app's Portrait mode (left) vs. Photo mode
The truth is we don't know. Apple hasn't commented on the removal or whether it plans to restore the feature in future updates, but hopefully we'll hear from the company soon now that the omission has received media attention.
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
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Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
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Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by Juli Clover
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
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Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
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According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
Thursday December 11, 2025 4:19 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's next-generation Studio Display is expected to arrive early next year, and a new report allegedly provides a couple more details on the external monitor's capabilities.
According to internal Apple code seen by Macworld, the new external display will feature a variable refresh rate capable of up to 120Hz – aka ProMotion – as well as support for HDR content. The current Studio...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 12:22 pm PST by Juli Clover
The next-generation low-cost iPad will use Apple's A19 chip, according to a report from Macworld. Macworld claims to have seen an "internal Apple code document" with information about the 2026 iPad lineup.
Prior documentation discovered by MacRumors suggested that the iPad 12 would be equipped with an A18 chip, not an A19 chip. The A19 chip was just released this year in the iPhone 17, and...
