Why Apple Removed The Home Button

This video is sponsored by skillshare, hey guys, it’s greg with apple explained, so when the iphone 10 was released, back in 2017 apple officially dropped the home button in favor of something called gesture based navigation. Now, since then, they’ve still included home buttons on lower cost iphones. Like the eight, eight plus and se, but it’s clear that the home buttons days are numbered and this major change has many people feeling confused and even a little uncomfortable.

I mean the home button has been around since the original iphone over a decade ago, and users have become so familiar with its functionality that interacting with the home button has become second nature for most people. So there must be a really good reason for apple to remove something that their customers have become so familiar with, and those reasons are exactly what I’m going to explain in this video now, if you want to help decide which topics I cover in the future, make Sure you’re subscribed with the notification bell on so you can receive a notification when I post voting polls like this one, alright. So, let’s start off with probably the biggest reason why apple removed the home button and it has everything to do with space.

The bezels on the top and bottom of the iphone 7 were not only becoming an eyesore since its competitions, bezels were much thinner, but it also limited the size of the iphone’s display. If there was a home button, there had to be a bezel, and if there was a bezel, that meant there wouldn’t be an edge to edge display with the kind of impressive screen to body ratio that other android phones were providing. So, by removing that limitation apple was able to push the iphone x, display all the way to the edge without substantially increasing the overall size of the device, but removing the home button didn’t only allow for more screen space. It also freed up more space internally, primarily because of the smaller taptic engine, which was no longer responsible for simulating the nonmechanical home buttons click and we’ve learned how much apple cares about freeing up internal space whenever possible, since they were the first major smartphone manufacturer to Remove the headphone jack for that very reason, but a larger screen and smaller taptic engine is only the beginning by removing the home button apple had the opportunity to create an entirely new way for users to interact with their iphone and it came in the form of Something called gesture based navigation, where home button clicks were replaced by swipes to perform various functions.

For example, pressing the home button to go back to the home screen was replaced by an upward swipe from the bottom of the display, but introducing something different. Just for the sake of change doesn’t necessarily make the user experience better. So what makes navigating the iphone with swipes better than pressing a home button? Well, some of it can be subjective depending on a user’s preference, but I think most smartphone users would agree that swipe navigation is faster, more natural and easier than using a button.

And although there is a learning curve, most actions have become much more effortless to perform than before. For example, navigating to the app switcher used to require a double click on the home button, but beginning with the iphone 10 that changed to a simple swipe and pause. Gesture, which is not only faster to perform, but gives users an easy way to cancel an action by swiping down if they change their mind, it also allowed for overlapping actions. If an app is launched, you can actually navigate somewhere else, while that app is opening like going back to the home screen or accessing the app switcher.

This allows the iphone to respond to a user’s commands faster than ever before. Now, if you’re enjoying learning about the iphone in this video and you’re wondering how to create similar content yourself, I recommend checking out the classes on skillshare. You can watch video workshops on storytelling, color grading and youtube fundamentals. I actually use the logo type master class workshop with jessica heesch to develop and refine the apple explained logo.

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When it comes to the iphone’s home button, it was responsible for much more than just navigation. It also housed the touch id fingerprint reader. That meant apple needed to introduce a new biometric method of securing your phone and their solution was face id now. This was one of the most controversial changes made to the iphone 10, partly because of the notch, which was required to house all the face id sensors, but mainly because people said they’d prefer using a fingerprint reader to unlock their phones.

But public opinion on face id has changed a lot since its original release. Today, most users appreciate the speed and convenience of using a form of biometric security that requires virtually zero input. All you have to do to unlock your iphone is look at it, something that most people do anyway when waking their devices, whereas touch id required the deliberate action of resting your thumb on the home button, not to mention it wasn’t as secure or reliable as face Id, but still many people wondered why apple didn’t keep touch id as a secondary form of security. Maybe they could have moved the sensor to the back of the phone like many android devices, or perhaps they could have adopted an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that could be housed behind the display.

In both of those cases, the iphone x could still have an edge to edge display and retain face id. If that’s what the user preferred. But what most people don’t recognize is that by not removing touch id, it would have likely sabotaged the adoption of face id, and maybe that wouldn’t be an issue if its only purpose was unlocking your phone, but face id does more than that. It’s what enables any advanced face tracking feature like animoji, and it allows for capabilities like notification, previews, which reveals the content of a notification when the user simply looks at their device.

Also offering two different forms of biometrics would complicate many aspects of the platform. Would customers be required to set up both touch id and face id? If not, what would happen if an app required one form of biometrics that the customer didn’t enable and if developers are required to support both touch id and face id? Wouldn’t that make app creation? A more time consuming and convoluted process, those questions may sound like an exaggeration, but apple is very sensitive to fragmentation of any kind, whether it comes to operating systems, software or hardware and focusing on one great way to secure your device would make things much simpler for Users and developers in the long run now there is one last reason why I think apple removed the home button and it has to do with the original iphone back in 2007, when it was released. Touchbased devices were a very foreign concept to people, although the touchscreen had already been invented.

It was never really used in such a prominent way as with the iphone and for that reason, apple deliberately created a skeuomorphic user interface that imitated reallife objects. The calendar app looked like a calendar and the notes app looked like a lined notepad and buttons were given reflections and shadows to imply that the user could simply tap them and having a persistent physical button that would return the user to their home screen from anywhere. Was a crucial feature, since it was really the only traditional functionality that the radically new iphone had, but, just like the tradition of skeuomorphism could be abandoned.

With the release of ios 7, the legacy of the physical home button could finally be removed with the release of iphone 10, allowing for a larger edgetoedge display, more internal space, a faster swipe navigation system and an effortless form of facial biometric security. Alright guys, thanks for watching and if you enjoyed my explanation, don’t forget to like and subscribe with the notification bell, so you’ll be notified of future explanation. Videos just like this one, you.

Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray is an online entrepreneur and business owner. I have helped thousands of students create their own websites and funnels and make a full-time income online. Reach out if you need help.

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