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I think the presence of a hard back button in Android is something that iOS is sorely missing. Whenever I switch from using my Droid X to my iPad I am constantl

I think the presence of a hard back button in Android is something that iOS is sorely missing. Whenever I switch from using my Droid X to my iPad I am constantly looking for the 'back' button, especially when installing an app from inside the Apple App Store (I find it very annoying that iOS kicks you out of the App Store and brings you to a seemingly random home screen just to show that it's now installing an app). The back button in Android does have the fault of not always being consistent, but that is due to it being usable by the developer of individual apps. I find it extremely useful that I can be doing something in Tweetdeck, click a link which opens up my browser (Dolphin HD), view the full article, and then just press the back button to go right back into Tweetdeck. That's just not possible on iOS. Also, long-pressing the back button in certain apps (like Dolphin HD) provide a nice shortcut to quitting the app (instead of keeping it running in the background), which helps on battery life.

zentechen 15y ago
Can't say much about Android, but the Back button on the Windows Phone is unreliable and doesn't always take you back to where it's supposed to be. It's just confusing. I much prefer the simple UI that iPhone has with a single button.
- contextfree 15y ago
  fwiw, I've had completely the opposite experience. I've found the back button a godsend on both WP and Android platforms, and haven't really noticed this unreliability. Actually, as a user I prefer to use my Windows phone over my other devices almost entirely because of a combination of two features: the back button (missing from iOS) and a decent soft keyboard (missing from the Android phone I have, which is running 2.2. I've heard the keyboard in 2.3 is much improved, but unfortunately the upgrade wasn't available for my phone last I checked). There are a lot of things the other platforms have over the WP, but being able to have those two things together is enough to outweigh all of them and ensure that my SIM card stays in my Windows phone 70% of the time ...
  - sandipc 15y ago
    Swiftkey is a decent android soft keyboard.
  - zentechen 15y ago
    What WP do you have? My Samsung Focus soft touch button is so sensitive that I hit those buttons by accident ALL THE TIME. That's just frustrating. I'd rather not having any button at all or replace those with press-down real buttons. Having fewer buttons seem to make interface cleaner and less chance to screw up for users. But again it's a hardware issue for debate rather than software.
    - contextfree 15y ago
      Oh, I hate capacitive buttons too as do all right-thinking people, but I still vastly prefer the capacitive back button (on my Dell Venue Pro - not recommended, btw) over none at all. I don't really hit the buttons by accident myself, but this does seem to be a problem for new users (as I've discovered on the occasions where I lent my phone to someone who needed to make a call).
- pedalpete 15y ago
  I kinda have to agree with contextfree that I can't imagine not having a back button on my wp7. But I also agree with you that it doesn't always take you to where you expect to go. Same problem with the search button. The problem here, I think, isn't so much the button itself, but developers not following the conventions, and Microsoft (and possibly google, I don't have an android) not steering developers in the right direction. For example, the IMDB app on WP7 has a search icon on the top right of the screen which they expect you to use to search. They should have used the already existing search button on the phone, but if you hit the phones search button, you go to bing search, because the app only knows how to use it's own search button. Same with back buttons. If the developer has used it properly, it should take you to the previous screen of that app, but 90% of the time, it goes to the previous app. Hopefully 'app switching' in mango (I don't think multi-tasking is the problem, its that we can't switch from one app to another without going to the home screen) will solve much of the back button issues, and possibly the new Bing/app search integration tools will help with the search button.
  - contextfree 15y ago
    I'm curious what these apps are that don't support the back button. The back stack is an integral part of the Silverlight framework on the phone - unless your app is XNA-based you would have to go out of your way not to support it. btw, IMDB can't support the search button because it's actually not exposed to third-party developers. Use of the search button for in-app search is actually scrapped in Mango because people found it confusing - the built-in apps that support search now have their own on-screen search buttons.
    - pedalpete 15y ago
      Thanks for clarifying on the search button, and now that I'm going through apps on my phone, I can't seem to find the places where before I've found 'unexepected' use of the back-button exiting the app rather than taking me to the apps previous screen. I guess that is really the problem, the majority of apps follow convention, but then every once in a while you get something that doesn't and it is gets confusing.
siglesias 15y ago
The back button on iOS is in the software, which chooses whether there is a back button, where it belongs.
- dolinsky 15y ago
  That's exactly my point. It's a major fundamental difference between iOS and Android. The back button in Android can be contextual, while the back button in iOS only moves back between views in the same application. There are many times during a day where I switch between apps by clicking a link only to want to immediately return to the previous app, which is not possible in iOS (I first have to click the 'home' button or double click it to bring up the previously used apps bar and then select the app I want to return to).
  - siglesias 15y ago
    But doesn't that render the function of the back button ambiguous? Task switching is not the same thing as navigating a stack of views. EDIT (more): I can also imagine many situations in which I want to disallow a back button (like in my own application for example), or in which the back button could be expected to perform, but actually doesn't. Say I'm in a game and have navigated to a level, start the level, but then decide I want to exit. It isn't clear that the programmer has implemented the back function, or what level of destruction the back button will perform. I'm going to have to test the back button every time I press it to see what it even does, or what the implementation is. This is poor UI. In iOS, the developer is free to label the back button or to disable it entirely to remove ambiguity. I would say that this is far more powerful than occasionally switching to the previous app if I haven't navigated at all yet in the stack of the new app.
    - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
      There's no distinction between "tasks" and "views" in Android. Everything is just an activity. When you press back it takes you to the previous activity you were on. When you launch an application you're really just launching the default activity for a given package. The home screen is itself an activity. This also allows you to launch in the middle of an application, to a specific screen, etc. It's better to think about activities as URLs. The back button on Android behaves the same as the back button on your browser.
Encosia 15y ago
The four-finger swipe to switch between apps more or less fixes that issue. I've had the four-finger gestures enabled on mine for a couple months, and they really are a noticeable improvement.
- dolinsky 15y ago
  I find the 3 and 4 fingered swipes, especially on the smaller screens of the iPhone/touch devices to be pretty inconsistent and not very natural from a hand gesture perspective. I'd also suggest that 'more gestures' isn't what the average consumer is going to find as useful. I'm also not looking forward to the first gesture requiring the use of my big toe.
- ConstantineXVI 15y ago
  You can't pull off a four-finger swipe with one hand unless you aren't holding your phone. Maybe on the iPad, but it's practically worthless for handhelds.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

zentechen 15y ago

Can't say much about Android, but the Back button on the Windows Phone is unreliable and doesn't always take you back to where it's supposed to be. It's just confusing. I much prefer the simple UI that iPhone has with a single button.

contextfree 15y ago
fwiw, I've had completely the opposite experience. I've found the back button a godsend on both WP and Android platforms, and haven't really noticed this unreliability. Actually, as a user I prefer to use my Windows phone over my other devices almost entirely because of a combination of two features: the back button (missing from iOS) and a decent soft keyboard (missing from the Android phone I have, which is running 2.2. I've heard the keyboard in 2.3 is much improved, but unfortunately the upgrade wasn't available for my phone last I checked). There are a lot of things the other platforms have over the WP, but being able to have those two things together is enough to outweigh all of them and ensure that my SIM card stays in my Windows phone 70% of the time ...
- sandipc 15y ago
  Swiftkey is a decent android soft keyboard.
- zentechen 15y ago
  What WP do you have? My Samsung Focus soft touch button is so sensitive that I hit those buttons by accident ALL THE TIME. That's just frustrating. I'd rather not having any button at all or replace those with press-down real buttons. Having fewer buttons seem to make interface cleaner and less chance to screw up for users. But again it's a hardware issue for debate rather than software.
  - contextfree 15y ago
    Oh, I hate capacitive buttons too as do all right-thinking people, but I still vastly prefer the capacitive back button (on my Dell Venue Pro - not recommended, btw) over none at all. I don't really hit the buttons by accident myself, but this does seem to be a problem for new users (as I've discovered on the occasions where I lent my phone to someone who needed to make a call).
pedalpete 15y ago
I kinda have to agree with contextfree that I can't imagine not having a back button on my wp7. But I also agree with you that it doesn't always take you to where you expect to go. Same problem with the search button. The problem here, I think, isn't so much the button itself, but developers not following the conventions, and Microsoft (and possibly google, I don't have an android) not steering developers in the right direction. For example, the IMDB app on WP7 has a search icon on the top right of the screen which they expect you to use to search. They should have used the already existing search button on the phone, but if you hit the phones search button, you go to bing search, because the app only knows how to use it's own search button. Same with back buttons. If the developer has used it properly, it should take you to the previous screen of that app, but 90% of the time, it goes to the previous app. Hopefully 'app switching' in mango (I don't think multi-tasking is the problem, its that we can't switch from one app to another without going to the home screen) will solve much of the back button issues, and possibly the new Bing/app search integration tools will help with the search button.
- contextfree 15y ago
  I'm curious what these apps are that don't support the back button. The back stack is an integral part of the Silverlight framework on the phone - unless your app is XNA-based you would have to go out of your way not to support it. btw, IMDB can't support the search button because it's actually not exposed to third-party developers. Use of the search button for in-app search is actually scrapped in Mango because people found it confusing - the built-in apps that support search now have their own on-screen search buttons.
  - pedalpete 15y ago
    Thanks for clarifying on the search button, and now that I'm going through apps on my phone, I can't seem to find the places where before I've found 'unexepected' use of the back-button exiting the app rather than taking me to the apps previous screen. I guess that is really the problem, the majority of apps follow convention, but then every once in a while you get something that doesn't and it is gets confusing.

siglesias 15y ago

The back button on iOS is in the software, which chooses whether there is a back button, where it belongs.

dolinsky 15y ago
That's exactly my point. It's a major fundamental difference between iOS and Android. The back button in Android can be contextual, while the back button in iOS only moves back between views in the same application. There are many times during a day where I switch between apps by clicking a link only to want to immediately return to the previous app, which is not possible in iOS (I first have to click the 'home' button or double click it to bring up the previously used apps bar and then select the app I want to return to).
- siglesias 15y ago
  But doesn't that render the function of the back button ambiguous? Task switching is not the same thing as navigating a stack of views. EDIT (more): I can also imagine many situations in which I want to disallow a back button (like in my own application for example), or in which the back button could be expected to perform, but actually doesn't. Say I'm in a game and have navigated to a level, start the level, but then decide I want to exit. It isn't clear that the programmer has implemented the back function, or what level of destruction the back button will perform. I'm going to have to test the back button every time I press it to see what it even does, or what the implementation is. This is poor UI. In iOS, the developer is free to label the back button or to disable it entirely to remove ambiguity. I would say that this is far more powerful than occasionally switching to the previous app if I haven't navigated at all yet in the stack of the new app.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    There's no distinction between "tasks" and "views" in Android. Everything is just an activity. When you press back it takes you to the previous activity you were on. When you launch an application you're really just launching the default activity for a given package. The home screen is itself an activity. This also allows you to launch in the middle of an application, to a specific screen, etc. It's better to think about activities as URLs. The back button on Android behaves the same as the back button on your browser.

Encosia 15y ago

The four-finger swipe to switch between apps more or less fixes that issue. I've had the four-finger gestures enabled on mine for a couple months, and they really are a noticeable improvement.

dolinsky 15y ago
I find the 3 and 4 fingered swipes, especially on the smaller screens of the iPhone/touch devices to be pretty inconsistent and not very natural from a hand gesture perspective. I'd also suggest that 'more gestures' isn't what the average consumer is going to find as useful. I'm also not looking forward to the first gesture requiring the use of my big toe.
ConstantineXVI 15y ago
You can't pull off a four-finger swipe with one hand unless you aren't holding your phone. Maybe on the iPad, but it's practically worthless for handhelds.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]