Imagine There's No Button.
For years now, there have been rumblings that Apple may do away with a
physical Home button in the next iPhone. So far, of course, this hasn't
happened--that small circle has remained in place, and even been made to
double as a fingerprint reader. For most users, this is just as well; the
thought of an iPhone with no Home button causes discomfort and an immediate,
negative reaction. As I sometimes like to do, such as with my article about
how a single-port Macbook could be a good idea
<http://www.applevis.com/blog/apple-opinion-rumors/single-port-macbook-air-v
iable> , I want to posit that a radical change in design might be a good, or
at least survivable, idea. Specifically, I want to convince you that losing
the Home button is not the end of the world. In fact, it could be a great
thing.
What's the Point?
Why am I even bothering, though? Why not leave well enough alone, and let
the Home button stay? I can think of three reasons doing away with the
physical button could be helpful.
First, it's a moving part. The problem with moving parts is just that--they
move. There's a reason flash storage is better than mechanical, or that the
first sign of ware on a laptop is often the hinge on the screen, or that
headphone cables so often break near one end (where they flex against an
unmoving part). Movement, particularly the repeated movement of something
like a button as often used as the Home button, causes wear. Wear, in turn,
causes damage. Apple has gotten very good at making reliable Home buttons
that will last the duration of your device's useful life, but that's not to
say these buttons can't break. Plus, removing this moving part would make
assembly simpler, and would let iPhones be even thinner. Remember when Apple
came out with their MacBook in 2015, which had a Taptic-based trackpad
instead of one that physically moved? This let the laptop be Apple's
thinnest ever, thanks in part to the lack of a trackpad that had to move to
be clicked.
Removing this button may also help Apple increase water and dust protection.
What's better at keeping out water: a button that moves in and out, or no
opening at all? Of course, no opening will protect against water much
better. Yes, there are more obvious water problems in the speaker grill and
charge/audio ports, but doing away with the Home button is just one less
avenue for foreign debris to come in and ruin your iPhone's day.
Finally, there are people with motor impairments to consider. For most of
us, pressing the Home button is so easy we don't even think about it, but
some people struggle with the task. That is, after all, part of the reason
Assistive Touch was invented. What if Apple used Force Touch in place of a
physical button, complete with the ability to adjust how hard you have to
press? Users could taylor the button's resistance to best suit their needs,
or disable it altogether if they wanted to.
Lack of movement, no opening for debris, and an easier time for those with
motor problems are the advantages I can see. The disadvantages--the loss of
the ways we currently use our Home buttons--are on the other side of the
scale. Now, let's see if I can make them weigh less than they seem to at the
moment. Perhaps I can even get the advantages to weigh more? Let's find out!
What Is It Good For?
First, let's briefly look at what the Home button does right now. I'll
assume an iPhone 6 or 6s for this article.
* Home: this is the obvious one. Press the Home button, and you
return to your Home screen from wherever you are. On a related note, the
button will close Siri and return you to the app you were using before you
brought Siri up.
* Accessibility shortcut: this is the most useful feature for those
who rely on any of Apple's accessibility technologies. Hit the Home button
three times, and you can toggle any or all of the accessibility features you
want.
* App Switcher: press Home twice, and you get a list of all the apps
you've recently opened. This is necessary to switch apps without needing to
return home, or force-quit an app that is misbehaving.
* Reachability: new in iOS8 and only for the iPhone 6 and newer,
this feature essentially shrinks the entire screen by half. It's useful for
reaching content on the larger 6 or 6 Plus display when using one hand, and
is activated by touching--but not pressing--the Home button twice.
* Siri: ever since the iPhone 4s, a long press of the Home button
has brought up Siri. In iOS8, this feature was extended so that Siri could
use the Home button as a push-to-talk switch, listening as long as the
button was pressed, never mind any pauses you might make.
* Screenshots and Resetting: pressing the Home and Power buttons
together will snap a screenshot of whatever you're doing. Leave the two
buttons pressed for about twelve seconds, and you will force your device to
reset.
Six functions (seven, technically, but the last is an extension of the
sixth). If we can come up with alternatives that are just as convenient,
then losing the Home button wouldn't be an issue, wouldn't you agree? Let's
see if I can provide those alternatives.
Removing the Task Master
You currently go to your Home screen, and access your recently opened apps,
with the Home button. Without it, how would you do any of those? The answer
is simple: you already do. On the iPad, multi-tasking gestures have existed
for years that let you use four or five fingers to switch apps, open the App
Switcher, and get to your Home screen. On the iPad, the Home button could
vanish tomorrow and most users would be just fine. Of course, such a feature
has never come to the iPhone. Except it actually has.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are both capable of sensing how hard you press on
the screen. This allows a whole range of secondary gestures, and Apple has
only begun to take advantage of that idea. If you press hard on the left
edge of your screen and swipe to the right, you can either switch to the app
you were last in, or open the App Switcher. While you can't currently use
this feature to get to your Home screen, it's very easy to imagine such an
addition in a future version of iOS. Perhaps pressing firmly on the right
edge and swiping left would do the job, for instance. The point is, there
are already two ways of taking care of these aspects of the Home button.
(Yes, I know this feature is currently not usable with VoiceOver on, but
that's an easily-fixed software problem.)
No Touching the Touch ID?
Another landmark feature of iPhones and iPads in recent years is Touch ID.
You just touch the Home button, leave your finger there for a second while
the system reads your fingerprint, and--if iOS recognizes your print--your
iDevice is unlocked. Touch ID is also used to authenticate Apple Pay
purchases and takes the place of passwords in many apps and services. It's
vital that this continue to work, and with no Home button, where is the
fingerprint reader supposed to go?
There are a couple ways Apple could address this. The first is to follow the
trend of modern Android phones and put the reader on the back of the phone.
You pick it up, and so long as any recognized finger is on the sensor as you
do so, your phone is unlocked and ready for you by the time you get it into
position to use. Or, Apple could use this ultrasonic sensor, hidden behind
glass
<http://www.slashgear.com/sonovation-unveils-ultrasound-fingerprint-biometri
c-touch-sensor-under-glass-22393889/> . This solution lets the fingerprint
reading surface be tucked under glass, allowing for a virtual Home button
that exists only as a region on your screen. With Taptic feedback making
this button feel real when you press it, and the phone able to sense how
hard you're pressing on it, the virtual button could be almost as real as a
real one. Yes, it would lack the tactile feedback of an actual button and
thus be harder to locate by touch, but who's to say Apple could not simply
extend the field across the bottom of the whole phone? You could press
anywhere on that strip under your screen, and the place you press is your
Home button. There'd be no need for precisely locating anything.
And Toggling Accessibility?
Simple: as before, the answer here is in gestures. Android has long had ways
of enabling accessibility features through things like holding two fingers
on the screen or, long ago, drawing a box. There are plenty of unused
gestures in iOS, particularly when VoiceOver or Zoom are off, which could be
used for this purpose. A three-finger scrub, swiping two fingers from one
edge to the other, or a single finger quadruple tap are three that come to
my mind immediately. Best of all, there's no reason Apple couldn't support
two or three gestures, with a different feature assigned to each. If you
need VoiceOver, Zoom, and Guided Access, simply set each one to its own
gesture. No more selecting from a menu of options when you triple click the
Home button, just tap/swipe and you're done.
Hey, Siri
Siri is currently invoked via the Home button, and there'd be no way to do
that if the button were gone, right? Wrong! In iOS8, Apple introduced "Hey
Siri", a feature that lets you speak the afore mentioned phrase to call up
Siri. So long as your iThing is plugged in, this will work, even if your
device is locked.
Starting with the iPhone 6s series, the restriction that your phone be
connected to power has been removed. Shout "hey Siri", and your phone is
ready to go. If, for some reason, you needed to bring up Siri without
speaking the magic words, it seems that pressing the virtual Home button
would work well enough. Or, perhaps a volume button could do it? If you're
opening Siri, though, you and it are about to talk, so it only makes sense
that the primary way you start that conversation is with your voice. After
all, there's no way to use Siri silently, so why would you need a silent way
of starting to use it?
Turning It Off and On Again
Screenshots and resets are the last use of the Home button I haven't yet
addressed. The answer here is quite simple: use other buttons. I'm not
proposing a removal of all the buttons on the iPhone, only the Home button.
Why not make the screenshot command be the Power button with either volume
button? A reset could be done by pressing Power three times quickly, or
holding it with a volume button similar to the current system. It's rare
that you have to do a Home/Power reset on your iOS devices, and a normal
power-off is already done with no help from the Home button. Using volume
and power together seems a very workable solution. In fact, being on
opposite sides of the iPhone (on the 6 or newer), such commands would be
easier to manage and could be done one-handed.
Once More: Imagine There's No Button.
I started this post by asking if losing the Home button would be survivable.
Having read it, do you now think it could, in fact, work? Or would an iPhone
with no Home button simply be something you'd never buy?.
Posted by AppleVis: Website:
www.applevis.com
