The mobile phones of the future are expected to be more closely embedded in our day-to-day lives than ever before.

Some futurologists and industry experts predict that in years to come mobile phones will become remote controls for our whole lives, while others forecast that in the future mobile phones will literally run our lives for us.

One thing’s for certain: the technology involved in mobile phones and mobile networks has developed so rapidly over the last few years, it’s going to be an exciting ride.

Future phones: what’s in store for us?

Concept phones are a great way of getting a glimpse at how phones of the future may develop.

Here is a list of some of the things we might be able to expect from the phones of the future:

Holographic displays

From Star Wars to Ironman, holograms have long been a regular feature in sci-fi and futuristic fantasy films. But how close are we to being able to having touch-free technology on smartphones?

As far back as March 2014, rumours were flying around about the then-unreleased iPhone 6 containing holographic functions that allowed you to beam virtual displays to interact with.

The demo video shows the user interacting with all three screens simultaneously and even playing a game projected above the handset.

Unsurprisingly, this technology didn’t make it onto the iPhone 6 or the even the iPhone 7, and there are no rumours that next year’s iPhone 8 will include any holographic functionality.

Holographic phones could one day be a reality though. Especially if the Holoflex prototype showcased by researchers from Queen’s University in Canada is anything to go by.

As the name suggests, the HoloFlex is both holographic and flexible, allowing users to bend the handset to view the 3D display from different angles and interact with the images on screen.

Touted as the world’s first holographic, flexible smartphone, the HoloFlex is still in development and won’t be available any time soon.