Future versions of the iPad and iPhone may include a newly designed “theatre mode”, designed to overcome the annoyance caused to filmgoers by cinema patrons checking their smartphones.

iOS 10.3 to feature a new Theatre mode - will include a new popcorn-shaped Control Center icon. — Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) December 30, 2016

According to serial Apple leaker Sonny Dickson, it will feature in the next iOS update, denoted 10.3, which Dickson says is due to start rolling out on 10 January. Dickson also says that a popcorn-shaped icon will be added to the Apple control centre to operate it.

Apple analysts AppleInsider are more sceptical, but suggest the update will be “iPad-centric” and might “disable system sounds and haptic feedback, block incoming calls and messages and reduce initial screen brightness during a movie”. AppleInsider also suggests it could draw on a series of Apple-patented technologies going back to 2012 that allow for the triggering of “customised phone settings automatically based on a phone’s GPS position”.

However, AppleInsider backs up Dickson’s claim of a 10 January start-date, saying its own site-tracker has shown a recent spike of visits from devices apparently running iOS 10.3.

Mobile phone use inside cinemas has been a bone of contention for years, with the AMC chain suggesting it could allow “texting-friendly” screenings, and a series of cinema-rage incidents such as the widely reported killing of an audience member in Miami during a screening of Lone Survivor in 2014, and a filmgoer being Maced in Los Angeles at a showing of Mr Turner.