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The iPhone 7 has a hidden onscreen Home Button

By James Lu - on 22 Oct 2016, 4:27pm

The iPhone 7 has a hidden onscreen Home Button

Note: This article was first published on 18th October 2016.

If you've ever wondered what happens if the solid state Home Button on your iPhone 7 stops responding, here's the answer.

User, iwayne, on the MacRumors forum posted an image of a virtual Home Button sitting at the bottom of his iPhone 7 screen. Above it, iOS displays a warning reading the “Home Button May Need Service,” adding that the “onscreen Home Button” could be used in the meantime.

iwayne said, “So plugged in my iPhone 7 to charge and it turned itself off. When I powered it back up this appeared on screen. Really Apple?”

The iPhone 7 is the first iPhone to use a solid state non-mechanical Home Button, with the benefit that it would be less likely to break due to its non-moving parts. However, many people were rightly concerned about what happens if a software malfunction causes it to stop working. Do note that the onscreen button doesn't have any TouchID functionality so its only function is to bring up the lockscreen where you can key in your password. 

A similar virtual Home Button has been available through Apple’s Accessibility functions since iOS 5. The virtual button is part of Apple's Assistive Touch menu and is designed to help those who might have trouble pressing the Home Button to more easily access its functions with a virtual alternative.

Looking forward, this feature could give users a glimpse at what the future of iPhone Home Buttons might look like. There has been lots of speculation that Apple will eventually remove the Home Button entirely, possibly as early as next year, and replace it with a virtual on-screen one with a fingerprint scanner under the glass display to provide TouchID functionality.

Source: MacRumors

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