Apple iPhone 16 event date revealed – it's glowtime

Apple has revealed the date of its next big launch event that will unveil the iPhone 16 family of products and likely lots more. This year is early with the date of Monday 9th September given, which is slightly unusual for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, it's a Monday. Previous Apple events have usually taken place on a Tuesday – presumably to allow people to travel to Cupertino on a week day, and give the Apple team that Monday to finalise preparations. Secondly, it's actually clashing with the IFA show in Berlin, which officially runs until Tuesday 10th September (though press events all happen the week before). 

This year's event is expected to reveal four new iPhone handsets, including the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. We don't expect to see the rumoured iPhone Air this year or any flip or fold devices – though I hope we're wrong on that. 

What we do know is the name for the event: glowtime. There's normally some relation between the name and one of the features. For instance, October's Scary Fast event was about the new M3 chips. Could we see big changes to the iPhone screen or the flash? Or maybe we can expect a glowing iPhone? (Unlikely). 

The new phones will run iOS 18, which was demoed at WWDC back in June and the biggest new feature is the addition of Apple Intelligence – or AI – to the operating system. This provides genuine assistance through all parts of the phone, making processes shorter and tasks easier. However, this requires a more powerful device, so the AI features will require either an iPhone 15 Pro model or one of the new iPhone 16 devices – and it may still need to be an iPhone 16 Pro. 

The event will be held once again at Apple Park in Cupertino at 10am Pacific Time (2pm Eastern, 6pm UK) with the event streamed live on Apple's homepage as well as the Apple Events app and YouTube channels.