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The single home button was such a brilliant UX move. It's been weird to watch them ditch it. Such a genius little safety blanket for ordinary users. "WTF is goi

The single home button was such a brilliant UX move. It's been weird to watch them ditch it. Such a genius little safety blanket for ordinary users. "WTF is going on?!" Press home—the only button visible on the face of the phone—and you're back in familiar territory.

ilamont 5y ago
The other thing I love about the button is the fingerprint reader. Far superior to facial recognition IMHO.
- brimble 5y ago
  I was one of the people who could never get the damn thing to work right. And re-training it a few times a year just to get it back up to a ~50% success rate, because of humidity changes, was no fun. Eventually I just started using a code again, since I'd end up there more often than not anyway. But it seems like it was probably awesome for people who didn't have trouble with it.
  - teekert 5y ago
    Yeah for me it works great. I feel like now everything opens automatically as long as the thing is in the general direction of my face, whereas one used to have to constantly make a conscious action (push the fingerprint reader).
    - brimble 5y ago
      Yeah, to be clear, the fingerprint reader is what never worked well for me. 2-3x a year of re-training because it'd stop working at all if the air (and so, my skin) got too dry, or too wet. Pretty bad success rate even when it was "working". Masks aside, face unlock has worked great for me. [EDIT] But if touch-to-unlock had worked for me, and if I had to take one or the other, I might prefer it.
  - paxys 5y ago
    I am that way with Face ID. Even under optimal conditions I can never get it to work more than 50-60% of the time.
    - hombre_fatal 5y ago
      Face ID, at least on the iPhone 13, is almost perfect for me once I rescanned my face from below since I'm usually peering down at it. Maybe try that.
      - mynameisvlad 5y ago
        You'll have to do that anyway again for the masked unlock feature. It scans the top half of your head more thoroughly, so requires you to look down at the phone.
  - kiwijamo 5y ago
    I'm also one of those who could never get the Apple fingerprint reader to work well--for me it was 50/50 whether it worked or not. Like the parent I ended up switching back to code entry which was usually quicker anyway. So when I moved over to Android I was very suspicious whether the Android implementation would be any better--and in fact it is miles better. My Samsung S21 recognises my fingerprint around 9 times out of 10. It works even in situations (e.g. sweaty fingers) where the Apple implementation would not work at all. What makes me even more impressed is that the S21 has the fingerprint reader embedded into the screen, whereas Apple had the advantage of a dedicated space for the fingerprint reader without a screen getting in the way. YMMV of course but now I understand how nice it is just to press your fingerprint and it just works. Wonder if there are people who have unusual features in their fingerprint that causes Apple's implementation to struggle?
    - brimble 5y ago
      IIRC my touchID phone was one of the early ones to have it (a 7+, maybe? I don't recall for sure). I've used I think three different Apple laptops with touchID, and they've all worked fine. It could be that early versions of the hardware didn't like something about my skin, but later versions (by the time they started putting them in laptops) were fine. I hold on to phones quite a while, so my next upgrade after that had faceID. In fairness to Apple, I didn't try any of their later touchID-equipped models of phones.
      - extra88 5y ago
        There have only been two generations of Touch IDs on iPhones. The 5s and SE gen 1 have the first generation Touch ID and the rest have the second. The second gen was noticeably faster, I don’t know if it was more reliable.
        kiwijamo 5y ago
        I recall that Touch ID on both the 5s and the 7 was equally poor for me so it doesn't seem that the second generation has improved things for me at least.
  - DanTheManPR 5y ago
    I wonder why fingerprint readers act up for some people, is there some sort of physiological reason? It works perfectly for me, but I've seen how much a tech-savvy friend of mine struggled with it (for them, faceid was a godsend).
    - brimble 5y ago
      I suspect it's got something to do with skin oils or natural variation in skin moisture. I know that big humidity swings were guaranteed to ruin it for me. Air gets dry in the winter, touch unlock drops to maybe 20% success rate at best. Fix it by re-training, then in late Spring it does it again when the air gets wetter. The ones on their laptops, however, have been reliable. Possibly there was a generational improvement in the equipment before it hit the laptops, and my problems were just because I had an early model on my phone.
    - extra88 5y ago
      Yes, skin types can affect how well it works. Also age, older people’s fingerprints often become less pronounced and harder to read.
    - 2143 5y ago
      I'm not on an iPhone, but I might have an insight about this. My home country is a very humid tropical country in Asia. When I was in the United States (I was in a cold dry place), the fingerprint reader works perfectly. Instantly. Never had to try a 2nd time. In my home country, it works like 40% of the time. However, if I'm in an air conditioned room in my home country (the AC sucks out all the humidity), then the finger print reader starts working perfectly again. So, humidity and moisture/sweat on my hands might have been a factor.
- javajosh 5y ago
  Better in the back of the phone IMHO.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    Yeah I miss this from my Pixel phones. I wish Apple would build a model that uses this.
- ekanes 5y ago
  yeah especially in an age of masks
- wanderer_ 5y ago
  You can already be unlocking it as you pull it out of your pocket! So much better.
- Arrivest 5y ago
  I've tried some Android phones with fingerprint reader in the back, and it's 10x better than iPhone fingerprint reader in ways you can't imagine until you've tried. Unfortunately I still have to stay with iPhones for other reasons.
lelandfe 5y ago
As someone who used to feel similarly, I've acclimated to the touch system now. I think it's pretty brilliant – swiping up from the bottom gets you the same function.
- brimble 5y ago
  It's fine for me—though I probably fail the swipe-up gesture in one way or another 10% of the time, say by accidentally engaging the task switcher instead, or not quite getting close enough to the edge, which basically never happened with the button—but the button was a great affordance for the less-tech-savvy.
- ginko 5y ago
  Swiping up with your thumb is pretty awkward though.
  - brimble 5y ago
    That's a good point. It doesn't feel good with the case on, and it makes me feel like I'm gonna drop the phone with the case off.
Nextgrid 5y ago
Having a "safe" area to hold the phone by and be guaranteed it won't interact with anything is also nice. Yes, in my experience the touch rejection at the bottom for the new borderless iPhones is very good, but it's still a touch surface that under the right conditions could do something unexpected (and never underestimate non-technical users to break something you thought was bulletproof).

ilamont 5y ago

The other thing I love about the button is the fingerprint reader. Far superior to facial recognition IMHO.

brimble 5y ago
I was one of the people who could never get the damn thing to work right. And re-training it a few times a year just to get it back up to a ~50% success rate, because of humidity changes, was no fun. Eventually I just started using a code again, since I'd end up there more often than not anyway. But it seems like it was probably awesome for people who didn't have trouble with it.
- teekert 5y ago
  Yeah for me it works great. I feel like now everything opens automatically as long as the thing is in the general direction of my face, whereas one used to have to constantly make a conscious action (push the fingerprint reader).
  - brimble 5y ago
    Yeah, to be clear, the fingerprint reader is what never worked well for me. 2-3x a year of re-training because it'd stop working at all if the air (and so, my skin) got too dry, or too wet. Pretty bad success rate even when it was "working". Masks aside, face unlock has worked great for me. [EDIT] But if touch-to-unlock had worked for me, and if I had to take one or the other, I might prefer it.
- paxys 5y ago
  I am that way with Face ID. Even under optimal conditions I can never get it to work more than 50-60% of the time.
  - hombre_fatal 5y ago
    Face ID, at least on the iPhone 13, is almost perfect for me once I rescanned my face from below since I'm usually peering down at it. Maybe try that.
    - mynameisvlad 5y ago
      You'll have to do that anyway again for the masked unlock feature. It scans the top half of your head more thoroughly, so requires you to look down at the phone.
- kiwijamo 5y ago
  I'm also one of those who could never get the Apple fingerprint reader to work well--for me it was 50/50 whether it worked or not. Like the parent I ended up switching back to code entry which was usually quicker anyway. So when I moved over to Android I was very suspicious whether the Android implementation would be any better--and in fact it is miles better. My Samsung S21 recognises my fingerprint around 9 times out of 10. It works even in situations (e.g. sweaty fingers) where the Apple implementation would not work at all. What makes me even more impressed is that the S21 has the fingerprint reader embedded into the screen, whereas Apple had the advantage of a dedicated space for the fingerprint reader without a screen getting in the way. YMMV of course but now I understand how nice it is just to press your fingerprint and it just works. Wonder if there are people who have unusual features in their fingerprint that causes Apple's implementation to struggle?
  - brimble 5y ago
    IIRC my touchID phone was one of the early ones to have it (a 7+, maybe? I don't recall for sure). I've used I think three different Apple laptops with touchID, and they've all worked fine. It could be that early versions of the hardware didn't like something about my skin, but later versions (by the time they started putting them in laptops) were fine. I hold on to phones quite a while, so my next upgrade after that had faceID. In fairness to Apple, I didn't try any of their later touchID-equipped models of phones.
    - extra88 5y ago
      There have only been two generations of Touch IDs on iPhones. The 5s and SE gen 1 have the first generation Touch ID and the rest have the second. The second gen was noticeably faster, I don’t know if it was more reliable.
      - kiwijamo 5y ago
        I recall that Touch ID on both the 5s and the 7 was equally poor for me so it doesn't seem that the second generation has improved things for me at least.
- DanTheManPR 5y ago
  I wonder why fingerprint readers act up for some people, is there some sort of physiological reason? It works perfectly for me, but I've seen how much a tech-savvy friend of mine struggled with it (for them, faceid was a godsend).
  - brimble 5y ago
    I suspect it's got something to do with skin oils or natural variation in skin moisture. I know that big humidity swings were guaranteed to ruin it for me. Air gets dry in the winter, touch unlock drops to maybe 20% success rate at best. Fix it by re-training, then in late Spring it does it again when the air gets wetter. The ones on their laptops, however, have been reliable. Possibly there was a generational improvement in the equipment before it hit the laptops, and my problems were just because I had an early model on my phone.
  - extra88 5y ago
    Yes, skin types can affect how well it works. Also age, older people’s fingerprints often become less pronounced and harder to read.
  - 2143 5y ago
    I'm not on an iPhone, but I might have an insight about this. My home country is a very humid tropical country in Asia. When I was in the United States (I was in a cold dry place), the fingerprint reader works perfectly. Instantly. Never had to try a 2nd time. In my home country, it works like 40% of the time. However, if I'm in an air conditioned room in my home country (the AC sucks out all the humidity), then the finger print reader starts working perfectly again. So, humidity and moisture/sweat on my hands might have been a factor.
javajosh 5y ago
Better in the back of the phone IMHO.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Yeah I miss this from my Pixel phones. I wish Apple would build a model that uses this.
ekanes 5y ago
yeah especially in an age of masks
wanderer_ 5y ago
You can already be unlocking it as you pull it out of your pocket! So much better.
Arrivest 5y ago
I've tried some Android phones with fingerprint reader in the back, and it's 10x better than iPhone fingerprint reader in ways you can't imagine until you've tried. Unfortunately I still have to stay with iPhones for other reasons.

lelandfe 5y ago

As someone who used to feel similarly, I've acclimated to the touch system now. I think it's pretty brilliant – swiping up from the bottom gets you the same function.

brimble 5y ago
It's fine for me—though I probably fail the swipe-up gesture in one way or another 10% of the time, say by accidentally engaging the task switcher instead, or not quite getting close enough to the edge, which basically never happened with the button—but the button was a great affordance for the less-tech-savvy.
ginko 5y ago
Swiping up with your thumb is pretty awkward though.
- brimble 5y ago
  That's a good point. It doesn't feel good with the case on, and it makes me feel like I'm gonna drop the phone with the case off.

Nextgrid 5y ago

Having a "safe" area to hold the phone by and be guaranteed it won't interact with anything is also nice. Yes, in my experience the touch rejection at the bottom for the new borderless iPhones is very good, but it's still a touch surface that under the right conditions could do something unexpected (and never underestimate non-technical users to break something you thought was bulletproof).