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iPhone 7 Serves a Temporary Onscreen Button in Case Home Button Fails

iPhone 7 Serves a Temporary Onscreen Button in Case Home Button Fails

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 17 October 2016 18:40 IST

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iPhone 7 Serves a Temporary Onscreen Button in Case Home Button Fails

Highlights

The iPhone 7 tells you when your Home button needs repair
It serves a temporary onscreen Home button when the 'real' one fails
The iPhone 8 is rumoured to ditch the Home button altogether

Apple let go of the physical press Home button in favour of a capacitive one receptive to haptic feedback. The new Home button on the iPhone 7 reacts to pressure and emits vibrating feedback to give the illusion of a physical press. The reaction to this change has been mixed, but Apple has been prepared for the glitches that may follow because of this change.

Apple has integrated a new feature in iOS 10 that warns users when their Home button fails to work and needs repair. Furthermore, till the time you take the device to an Apple repair centre, the iPhone 7 will provide you a temporary, on-screen button.

One of the members on MacRumors forum spotted this new feature, and even shared a photo of it. The user's haptic feedback unexpectedly started malfunctioning while his iPhone 7 was on charge. The iPhone 7 automatically detected this mishap and served a pop-up stating that the 'Home Button May Need Service'. Additionally, it served a temporary onscreen Home button to enable the user to at least use his phone till it got repaired.

This little process shows Apple anticipated such incident, and has taken efforts to make sure that a secondary Home button option is provided onscreen. Some of the haptic feedback related problems to the Home button can be fixed by doing a hard reset of the iPhone .

Next year, Apple celebrates the ten year anniversary for iPhone, and the iPhone 8 is expected to ditch the Home button altogether.

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Further reading: Apple, iPhone 7, Home Button, iOS 10, iPhone 7 Plus