You love your lossless music, don't you? Then you'll be pleased to learn that the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X and the new Apple TV 4K support playback of FLAC audio files.
Apple's Latest Hardware Supports FLAC Playback, But it's Highly Likely an iOS 11 Thing Only
With the release of iOS 11 Beta, a lot of things started to surface which Apple just did not announce on stage. Support for playback of FLAC lossless audio files was one of them. But the thing is - you just can't go ahead and copy FLAC files on your iPhone and start listening to them. This means support for the format in the native Music app was out of the question. If you are going to listen to FLAC, then you have to copy your audio files to iCloud Drive and then access those bits using the Files app.
Now, if you look at the technical specifications page for the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X and even the Apple TV 4K, support for FLAC is listed by Apple. Again, it's highly likely that these files are only compatible for playback through the Files app, which is somewhat of a bummer. Also, with the final release of iOS 11 just around the corner, it's likely that Apple will update its technical specifications page for the iPhone 7 and iPad too in order to reflect the changes introduced by the new firmware. So yes, you can expect to play FLAC audio files on your iPhone 7 or iPad as long as you're fine with them lurking in the Files app.
iOS 11 is all set for release on the 19th of September. The Gold Master seed of the firmware is already available to developers and public beta testers. It's essentially the final build but released on a small scale at first in case a last minute bug pops up and Apple needs to patch it.
If you're eager to try out iOS 11 GM on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, then check out the links below for more details.
