The iPhone 7, expected to debut later this year, is not believed to be a major design overhaul from the iPhone 6s, but that doesn’t mean it won’t include some substantial exterior changes, at least according to one sketchy Chinese rumor site. The reports indicate that the iPhone 7 could feature a digital touch-sensitive Home button, essentially making the iPhone front completely flush, replacing the current physical clicky hardware button. This would help make the iPhone 7 completely waterproof and dustproof, via Storm …
Apparently, Apple would use haptic feedback motors akin to those found in the Retina MacBook Force Touch Trackpad to help cement the illusion of a Home button being there, even if it’s really just a flat capacitive surface. The Chinese report also claims that Apple is considering a matte black color for the chassis, which sounds distinctly darker than space gray and harkens back to the iPhone 5’s ‘slate’ black appearance.
Rumors about the next iPhone being waterproof have been repeated several times over the last few months and it seems like making the Home button digitally synthetic would be necessary to help Apple truly seal the exterior casing from water.
We have already heard numerous reports that the iPhone 7 will lose the 3.5 mm headphone jack, in favor of Lightning or Bluetooth headphones, which could be positioned as another necessary step to make the device truly waterproof. However, it is not clear how Touch ID would work with a non-physical Home button design.
Earlier in March, we saw a barrage of leaks about the upcoming iPhone, although none of them depicted what the front of the device would look like. It was simply assumed it would look similar to current iPhones. Chinese schematics leaks have shown that the backside will feature some changes, including redesigned antenna lines.
The iPhone 7 is also believed to feature a dual-camera, at least on some versions of the 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus. There have also been uncorroborated claims about the Plus phone gaining a Smart Connector for additional input.
As always, Chinese media rumors should be taken with some degree of caution as to their reliability given most do not have track records of trustworthiness. Apple is expected to officially announce the iPhone 7 in the fall.
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Touch sensitive home button? Isn’t it already? Because when you double tap the home button, the screen will come down aka ‘Reachability’…
I think the idea is that the physical click mechanism will be replaced by a Force Touch sensor + feedback system like in the Macbook Pro trackpads.
It will feel like the button clicks when you press it but there aren’t actually any moving button parts.
I was also thinking that but I always thought/hoped Apple was going to ditch the home button when they have found a way to implement Touch ID into the display. Let’s hope this Force Touch home button is just an in-between solution, that the Touch ID embedded display will come soon.
Like the MacBook Pro trackpads? You mean like 3D Touch, the feature already present in the 6s?
I’m aware that the iPhones have 3D Touch. I compared it to the Macbook trackpads because of the application, which is replacing what used to be a physical click mechanism with a pressure-sensitive solution that emulates the physical click as closely as possible.
Right now 3D touch isn’t used in exactly that manor on the phones, but if this rumor is true then they will be using that technology in the same way they are currently using it on the MacBooks.
Gotcha, in which case I agree completely. It makes sense to me that Apple would convert the Home Button from mechanical to pressure-sensitive with haptic feedback, given their recent investment in and embracing of this technology.
With the reason being better water and dust resistance. Combined with removing the 3.5mm jack, there’s two major changes that work toward better resistance.
Apple still might later put Touch ID in the Apple logo on the back, they have a patent for it. They might ditch Touch ID for the retina biometric rumors that keep swirling.
@taoprophet420. Apple spent $400 million to acquire the technology behind Touch ID, plus another 2 years of development. Its at the core of their products, at the core of Apple Pay, and is just starting to grow in 3rd party adoption.
Its not going anywhere, and its not getting built in to the Apple logo.
@applegetridofsimandjack was hoping that too but baby steps are welcome. This year could introducing touch ID behind a capacitive area that’s not the display and then later it could be in the display.
@taoprophet420 I doubt patent will ever happen. It would be so much worse of an experience than what it is now or getting the scanner behind the screen.
this and with iphon 8 they can get rid of mechanical home button and volume buttons with the iphone e8 curved screen
@Serbann There will never be an iPhone with a curved screen. It isn’t good design, it’s a cheap worthless gimmick, and Apple wouldn’t do it.
I hope.. they ditch the physical home button in favor of turning out the lower bezel as touch sensitive track pad with feedback system, just like the MacBooks.
“If you can’t remove them, use them”
It is touch sensitive currently so I don’t know why they said this. What they REALLY mean is the phone will use haptic feedback to reduce moving parts in the phone and allow it to be more water resistant. It will likely not be flush. Similar to how the force touch trackpad looks identical to the mechanical trackpad, the new home button will almost certainly look identical but have haptic feedback. It could also potentially implement 3D Touch. There’s already a patent for that.
Double tapping the home button does nothing. Reachability is activated upon double tapping the Touch ID sensor.
Seriously? Let’s not behave like children. Touch ID is embedded in the home button and so double tapping the home button pulls the screen down.
Actually double tapping brings down reachability. Double pressing brings up app switcher.
Rather fake or not they have been photos of a completely glass front iPhone 7. It surfaced the same time as the raised pill shape dual lens camera model with smart connector on the back.
Everybody says “build Touch ID into the display” but seem to not grasp the importance of the Home Button for virtually everything else besides Touch ID.
Its going to be very very hard to do anything that doesn’t suck. You can’t have a virtual Home Button that hovers over UI elements. You can’t have a Home Button that disappears the way other software controls do, or most users will be completely lost. And there is no purpose in extending the screen, just to have a portion of it reserved entirely for the Home Button…you might as well keep it hardware.
This has become the all-too-common theme, where people say things like “They should get rid of the Home Button” and then offer absolutely 0 ideas on how to resolve all of the problems that creates.
Completely agree. There is a reason for off screen buttons – they are global functions that can be accessed at any time and from any screen.
I think the significance of building touch ID into the display is that it free’s the home button to evolve a little and would be awesome anyway. If users could wake and unlock without the “home button” than I don’t think it needs to be on the front anymore. Maybe it could be on the side like the apple watch (sans scrolling function).
I also wouldn’t a transition where it’s basically the same as it is now UX-wise but moves the technology over to being digital and built under the glass. Maybe it just always stays this way but I really think there are UX benefits to touch ID in the screen and smaller top and bottom bezels.
I can see the Home Button changing from a physical actuator to a digital 3D Touch mechanism. But it would still be a physical object on the front of the display. The activation ring plays a big part, and the lens cover is sapphire, unlike the rest of the display. This, along with removing the 3.5mm jack, would be two big steps toward improved water and dust resistance.
That to me sounds like something Apple would do. And then be lambasted by the online blog hounds for not shrinking the bezels.
The obvious progression would mirror the recent trackpad evolution – so not physical click, you press and it clicks you. Smaller would be good also, to help reduce bezels.
@PMZanetti I don’t think it needs the activation ring really. It’s just a capacitive sensor, which apple has been putting behind non display glass for a while with the trackpads and mice. Forgot about the sapphire part… It kind of defeats the purpose of removing the separate button if you still have a separate section in the cover glass for the sapphire. No rumors of it but they could make a totally sapphire display cover.
meh. not sure.
It would be great to have a integrated home button than could also add additional UI, swipe gestures perhaps. Though what are the implications of not using sapphire glass for the sensor. How likely will scratches interfere with the sensors I’ve no idea!
I understand what you’re saying, and I tend to agree. But if Apple were to integrate the home button into the display somehow, perhaps they intend to do so in a way there the bottom portion of the screen isn’t “reserved entirely” for the Home Button, but instead opens up the doors for new means of interacting with the iPhone?
Like how? This is what I’m talking about. This isn’t complicated, and there is no magic formula. I’m not trying to insult you, but you have a vague idea that matches others’ vague idea…and it stops short of explaining how it could work. And I don’t mean offering a technical explanation for it…I mean describing, purely from a UI and UX standpoint, how it could possibly work.
I’ve provided a short list (which could be much longer) of problems that need solving, to even consider an approach like this. People love to pine for it, even say “Apple needs to do it or else”, but can’t even begin to explain how it would work.
What if the home button and TouchID region were separated?
The home button click could be replaced by just pressing anywhere along the bottom bezel of the device, below the screen.
The TouchID sensor would exist behind the screen near the bottom, and whenever an app or the lock screen was requesting your fingerprint it would show a circle icon where you should place you finger.
That would allow you to perform a home button click from any screen without having an always-on-screen button.
I don’t know that I would like that solution, it would conflict with many years of home button muscle memory, but it might work.
As you say, conflict with muscle memory for what benefit really? Doesn’t sound like much for such a steep change. I kinda like the touch-anywhere on bottom bezel idea, but it certainly wouldn’t be as intuitive.
Larger screen in the same body size.
why would it be in one place on the screen? The entire screen could be capable of scanning your finger.
To answer PMZanetti, the benifit is that touch ID being in the home button has never really be intuitive or the best experience. The home button being separate from the screen works because it’s a global function not really related to what’s on the screen but touch ID is the total opposite. Every time you use it is in context to something on the screen. Apple has to waste all this time trying to teach people with on screen graphics that you need to touch something off of the screen but only do it lightly because if you press it leaves the app.
With it in the display, those graphics just become the buttons you press to scan your finger. The “buy” button just scans your finger – no separate interaction. And think about how stupid the slide to open notification interaction is from the lockscreen now. You need to swipe it and then press touch ID. It’s so unnatural that I keep on wanting to manually input my password after that since that’s what I see on screen. But with touch ID in screen you could just peek and pop on that notification.
I could see the home button becoming virtual using a combination of Touch ID and 3D Touch. I thought I read somewhere that Apple has a patent to use the screen itself as a Touch ID sensor? If that were the case, then the home button could shift depending on the orientation of the phone thus never having a top or bottom. They could even virtualize a bezel that is available when there’s a need to use the home button but then disappears when viewing something full screen. Doing this would allow Apple to have a bigger screen in a smaller foot print phone. Almost like the size of a 6s screen in the footprint of a 5s body.
I’m sure I’m speaking out of my rear end here, so please don’t flame me for some random thoughts.
These are all good thoughts, I just don’t think they end up working well enough with Apps to make this kind of leap. 3D Touch/non-mechanical Home Button, yes. I’d expect it. But unless they are going to all-sapphire displays, I still see the Home Button using/needing a dedicated sensor panel.
I suspect Apple has been contemplating this for some time. 3D Touch integration already gives users another way to open the app carousel – i.e. force press left side of screen. Like other 3D Touch functions, I find once you commit to using them, the old methods feel a little clunky. A simple UI fix could solve a number of issues regarding how it is displayed on the screen. Also lets not forget Android phones have relied on virtual buttons for years. I’m not advocating that this occur in the next iteration or two, but it is certainly in iPhone’s future.
You don’t want to know the stats of users that use the 3D Touch to multitasking gesture. It’s probably less than 0.5%. It’s simply a hidden feature that the overwhelming vast majority don’t know exists, and/or don’t bother using, because double tapping the home button is the memorized action and it is in fact faster unless they make the gesture SOOOO much better.
Here’s how much more intelligent I am than Apple’s engineers: let’s see a gesture on the edge of the screen, should we make a user press very carefully only on the edge, or should the software KNOW that pressure is being applied to both the edge and further onto the screen, and INTELLIGENTLY dismiss the pressure onto the screen, and realize that the intended action is the gesture?
Also they were actually stupid enough to use the worthless peek and pop for that gesture. My god the ineptitude. There should absolutely not be a peek to the multitasking pane. It should instantly pop into it.
In closing, 3D Touch is a disaster due in part by horrible ideas and by horrible software design.
well I hope they make the TouchID sensor a tad slower, because as it is, it is annoyingly fast at unlocking your phone. If I want to actually see whatever notifications are on the lock screen, I have to be extra careful about how I touch the sensor, and still I often unlock the phone anyway. Thing is, after the phone is unlocked, most of these notifications are swept away so I go about hunting for whichever application might have issued them. Argh!
Dunno if it is me, but 3DTouch hasn’t really impressed me yet. There are a couple of places I already find it useful (namely: Shazam and Settings) but I think it’d be a lot more useful if they integrated it in places like the Control Centre (like showing a popup of all paired BT devices when you hard-press the Bluetooth icon).
So, for Apple to entice new users on the next iPhone, I think it’s doing pretty well in going for a good IPXX rating. I’d also improve battery life a bit, but I don’t see this happening while Ive is at the helm.
Battery life is not a problem on the iPhone. Battery life improves with every iteration of the iPhone (that includes giving you 50% better performance with a faster chip and not sacrificing any battery life). And Ive is not the only employee at Apple with no interest in compromising the design for slightly more battery life.
You could always just use the lock button to show the lock screen without unlocking it. I think that’s a much better solution. Slowing down Touch ID makes no sense.
Another solution maybe tap to wake for notifications – similar to Apple Watch
this and with iphon 8 they can get rid of mechanical home button and volume buttons with the iphone e8 curved screen
Great article Benjamin Mayo – I think it is critical for Apple to now offer a waterproof/dustproof solution to restore sales. If Apple expects us to upgrade our phones once a year, they really need to pull up their socks and offer us some strength and durability.
Waterproofing and dustproofing a smartphone should be the absolute last priority. Basically if you can do it without hindering absolutely anything else, great, otherwise, continue to improve overtime.
I’ve had pocket lint get in my Lighting connector slot which prevented my last iPhone from charging, so I would welcome dust-proof casing. Poking around in there with a toothpick to clean it makes me nervous that I’m going to break something.
Make the buttom bezle clickable like the top part of the Siri Remote for Apple TV 4 for a home button and enable other gesture into that area.
Totally agree, this was my thought
What I would like to see is the Touch ID embedded in the display and then use it in conjunction with capacitive and force touch to wake and unlock…
The image used in this article may be misleading here.
Given that Touch ID is an optical System you could not have Touch ID recognised through an LCD screen that is also outputting light. You may be able to have a screen which has a circular cutout in the bottom portion which allows the Touch ID system to receive signals. But that would not be an active screen area.
Given how good the Taptic Engine is a capacitive area acting as the home button could be effective. But why would Apple have payments for using liquid metal in home button mechs? It will be interesting to see how this turns out!
This would all require some genuine innovation in screen tech which feels unlikely at the moment based upon my understanding of yh state of tech in other “spaces”
‘Matte’ & ‘Black’ you say?
If this is the iPhone 7, I’m in.
Did you get Kuo to validate these features? How accurate are they? If so, then Kuo’s out of his mind because there is compelling features if this article is accurate.
Two things, my idea is superior to flush because flush means no tactile awareness of whether your finger is on the home button or not. As I’ve commented multiple times, I think there should be a round indentation cut into the front glass, but not through the front glass, so it is 100% seamless, yet still gives users feedback that they are in the proper place to press.
Secondly, the Taptic Engine in the phone is absolutely horrible compared to the enormous Engine in the MacBook trackpad which is actually able to simulate a mechanical click. The Taptic Engine in the phone simply gives a very quick vibration, it is orders of magnitude from being the feedback that the MacBook gives. This is due to the fact that the MacBook is using numerous large magnets and the Taptic Engine is just a couple tiny ones.
What if they made the bottom bezel of iPhones like touchpad of AT2 except with 3Dtouch
It would be absolutely useless except for swiping backward or forward through pages.
I will ONLY buy the iPhone 7 if it is dustproof.
why? — is your place very dusty?…. have you had issues with dust affecting you previous devices?
Interesting — it would be nice to move away from a physical button… but it’s funny how that mock-up design kept the headphone jack… it would seem whoever made the pic never got the memo about the rumour for no jack…lol
The S7/S7 Edge has a conventional headphone jack, a clicky fingerprint reading home button and a MicroSD card slot, yet has the best water resistance currently available. You can even use the touchscreen underwater. If Samsung can do all that with a conventional design, why can’t Apple?
I do like having a physical home button, but my hands aren’t big enough to easily reach from the bottom of the 4.7″ iPhone all the way to the top. An embedded home button and smaller top and bottom bezels would probably be a better solution than the Reachability double-tap. And it would make the phone fit in a pocket better.
Home button/touch ID will be removed from the current area and it will integrated in the screen. A physical home button (for those that can’t deal with the software button) will move to the side of the phone. one side will be volume up and down buttons, the other side will be home and lock buttons. silent mode will become a software button possibly. User can select which sides they want for power/sleep and volume during setup and in settings.