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Main Character of the Week: Is the new iPhone update a cheater’s dream? 

The new iPhone update makes your digital activity more private than ever.

Photo of Ramon Ramirez

Ramon Ramirez

A person looking at the camera next to an iPhone with iOS 18 on it. There is text that says 'Main Character of the Week' in a Daily Dot newsletter web_crawlr font.

Main Character of the Week is a weekly column that tells you the most prominent “main character” online (good or bad). It runs on Fridays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.


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Here’s the Trending team’s main character of the week: It’s the new iPhone features, which have made it open season four cheating partners.

The iOS 18 update allows you to use facial recognition on certain apps, and lock or hide certain apps as well. It allows a philandering partner to not worry about someone checking through their phone, in other words.

The update shocked viewers on TikTok, where one woman’s video about the update received more than 22 million views.

“I’d rather die single than play these GAMES” one shocked viewer said in response.

“I understand the premise of this right, like I get that it’s scary, but also, if you feel like you have to search their phone to trust them, they’re not the one” another added. 

Is the new iPhone update a field day for cheaters? 

Until now, iPhone technology has assumed its users are on their best behavior. Broadcasting your text messages over the Apple CarPlay in your vehicle. Notifying anyone within view of your phone’s screen the instant someone messages you and what they have to say. The ability to track your “friends” as they move about your surrounding area.

Certainly, none of this technology matters much if you are in a relationship built on mutual trust, with clearly communicated boundaries. So 5% of the population maybe.

Even without literal adultery, iPhone technology stirs jealousy and anxiety in every relationship. Who was that? Why were you in the bathroom so long? Where were you? Why are they texting so late?

But with this app-hiding move, Apple is changing course and helping the phone’s prime user, and customer, do whatever they please

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It is an insidious update here to help you withhold information from your romantic partner.

iOS 18 and iPhone 16 have faced criticism for a number of bugs. But this shift seems permanent.


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