With Apple placing a high priority on accessibility features, it’s no surprise that iOS caters not just for people who have difficulty performing on-screen gestures, but also those who cannot easily press the home button. One of the AssistiveTouch features allows them instead to simply tap an on-screen home button.
But as Business Insider noted, in many Asian countries and elsewhere, you see many more people than you might expect taking advantage of the feature. The reason, apparently, is a fear of breaking the home button. While Apple may have a generally great reputation for product support, the same is not true of third-party resellers in some parts of the world, leading to AssistiveTouch being used as a precaution.
Instructions for switching it on can be found in an Apple support document.
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“While Apple may have a generally great reputation for product support, the same is not true of third-party resellers in some parts of the world”
Well, I’m not sure how third-parties get involved. Apple was the company that designed the devices, including the buttons. It has not been a secret that several iterations of iPhone home buttons were not particularly well-suited for long-term usage. Further, as outlined by iFixit and others, Apple has displayed an ongoing “blindness” towards repairability.
The fact that MANY of the iPhones in Asia are iPhone 4 and 4S (thanks to Apple’s sales decisions early in those regions), coupled with the fact that the Home button is quite nearly the LAST component that comes out of the chassis (requiring the removal of nearly every other piece and screw in it, including the display), it just makes sense that users would be afraid. Further, since the iPhone 5 and later, the Home button IS more easily repaired…but it requires a special jig to lift the screen, a tool many mom and pop shops don’t have access to. Again, a fault of Apple.
Many iPhones in China have historically been bought from third-party resellers.
What are you trying to say? That third-party resellers are tampering with home buttons and it’s their fault? Scott was pretty spot on with his post.
That because people have historically bought from third-parties who offer poor support, they are nervous of anything they think risks breaking it.
Living in the Philippines, I’d have to disagree with what you are saying. Although we do not have any official Apple stores here, we do have a large amount of authorised resellers, some of which are pretty big and offer good support, often better than Apple’s support in the country (Apple generally requires 3-5 weeks to repair anything here as products are shipped to Singapore, whereas local authorised resellers can get the job done in the country).
Additionally, repairing a home button is, in my opinion, much easier to do when Apple is not involved in the process. In fact for 500 PHP (about 11 USD), anyone can get their home button fixed in a couple of hours, in almost any mall.
I cannot speak for the increased use of the assistive touch functions here as I have not actively tried to verify such information, however I am quite positive it is not due to the fear of damage to the buttons as they are more easily repaired here than they would be in the US (when speaking of an out of warranty phone, which is what most users here have).
Non ordan that’s not what he meant. In the U.S. Apple will gladly replace any button malfunction on the iPhone’s but third party sellers don’t have a warranty on the phones so if one does break the buyer will just have to deal with it or replace it themselves
To lift the screen on an iPhone 5 you can use something that is very accessible, like a fueler gauge. As a repair tech i use an iSesamo. You do not need something that is specially designed for it, and if it was a repair shop and you did need something that is specially designed for it all shops would have it. Also, the part to replace the home button is only a few dollars for iPhone 5 and under (iPhone 5S price is dropping on the Touch ID). Also, any repair shop will be able to quickly replace the home button in the phone. I can replace an iPhone 4/4S screen in 8 minutes. Replacing the home button is just a quick. Not everyone knows how quick and cheap it is, so i guess that they can fear of it breaking and having to get it fixed.
Also, i don’t get why it is a fault on Apple, im not sure if you know anything about samsung, but to get to the home button on the Galaxy you have to take the display out of the phone, which will most likely break it, you need to be a great tech in order to be able to do it, i am the only one at my work that can successfully do it.
I don’t know in U.S. but in Asia region most of the iPhone are sold via authorised reseller and cellular network companies which they provide bad after sale services. They will typically rejecting your faulty claim and that’s why Asian are cautious in using iPhone. Of course some don’t care but the assistive touch has become a common practice for people that used from the beginning.
This is kinda old news/rumor. A friend of mine found this out the same was as the business insider writer. Just asked someone on the subway.
the added benefit with the large phones is you can hold the phone higher up to reach all of the screen and not have to shift down to reach the home button at the very bottom. People don’t take the home button into account when thinking about one handed use usually.
Yeah, I’ve seen it in China, just didn’t know why.
Home button issues are gone since iPhone 5. Before that, it was clearly a legitimate concern. I see many of my students using AssistiveTouch and it seems pretty neat, though. Particularly, I’m more of a physical Home button guy anyway.
again, i must say, the home button is completely useless, the only “real” feature is touch id. can bli implemented in another way!
but zephyr!
I’ve always found it a terrible experience to use assistive touch.
Here in the US, people use it when their home buttons, volume buttons, or lock button break. They also use it for different reasons, but i see it all the time at work for broken buttons, when people drop the phone and it falls on the button it can break it or just from over use it can break. Or people will drop their phones, break the screen and continue to drop the phone break it even more and eventually loosing the home button and stuff like that.
I bought my iPhone 5 in 2013 and still use it up until now. At first, I rarely used the assistive touch since I was also afraid that the home button will be a problem like what happened to my friends’ iPhone 4 and 4s. But I thought that if the home button will become a problem then I will just repair it to trusted channel, and of course I will send a complain to the apple authorised reseller where I bought my phone. So I started not to use assistive touch (except if I feel a bit inconvenient in some certain hand position to push the home button) and I still got no problem with the home button. I think apple has upgrade its home button quality in iPhone 5.
This is so true!! I see so many people you assistive touch. I just thought that they were bored with their phone and wanted it to be a bit different from everyone else.
Doesn’t everyone use it? Well everyone I know uses it. Much better alternative to the single point of failure button plus other useful shortcuts