The rumour mills are working overtime. They’ve pretty much worn themselves out perpetuating all these ‘theories’ about the features we might get to see in the upcoming iPhone 7. These speculations (if you can call them that) range from a hundred percent possible to a hundred percent fantasy. Here’s one that falls somewhere in between.
iPhone 7’s home button will be built into the screen!
Mobipicker, a tech blog, has gotten its hands on a couple of photos allegedly from the assembly line of the upcoming iPhone. And according to them, the new phone is missing a physical home button.
The website says: “the home button […] seems to have dropped the circular metal ring around it as we saw in the previous iPhone.”
In place of a physical button, we might now get to see a “touch sensitive circular plate” that’s almost indistinguishable from the bezels of the phone. If you run your finger over the bottom of the phone, you might not even notice a button, only the ring.
Can’t see it clearly? Maybe a close up shot will help:
Okay, right hand to God, we admit that it’s a bit hazy – both the image and the theory. However, that’s all we’ve got for now. It is possible that Apple might get rid of the physical button. But that doesn’t excite us as much as the reason behind it.
Why does Apple want to remove the physical home button?
Notwithstanding Apple’s obsession with reducing the number of physical buttons on their devices, there seems to be another reason for doing so: 3D Touch.
We’ve already seen the power of 3D Touch on various apps. The ability to peek at the content, to use quick shortcuts, or make content more interactive, everything is now possible thanks to 3D Touch. Apple also introduced a lot of new features with iOS 10 that make use of this new technology.
Therefore, it’s not such a leap to assume that Apple would want to extend the technology to the Home button as well. Think about it – 3D Touch in the Home button. That would be something. How exactly Apple plans to execute this we’re not sure, but we trust their creativity.
However, like we said in the beginning, some things might just turn out to be fantasies. What features actually become a part of iPhone 7 is something we’ll know only in September/October!
