Hacker News Reader

Comment by JoshTriplett | Hacker News Reader

Removing the home button would be a mistake.

I know a novice user who sticks with iDevices (as opposed to Android) precisely because they have a physical home button. As they describe it, "it's a magic button that's always there and always gets you back out of whatever you're in". By contrast, they dislike Android devices because of the virtual buttons that are sometimes removed in favor of more content.

Usability is very much about consistency with whatever a user is used to, and I'd be surprised if there aren't quite a few more users with similar sensibilities who find the physical button simpler to deal with.

View on HN

Modern Android phones have a fingerprint scanner that also acts as a home button.

I just got a $130 Moto E4, and its fingerprint scanner can actually be set to mimic the back/home/recents on-screen softkeys, if you swipe left/tap/swipe right. A long press (until you feel a vibration) switches the phone on and off, and a double-long press (two vibrations) launches Google Assistant.

It works well and is very intuitive, allowing me to remove the traditional Android softkeys, making the 5" Moto E screen seem closer to a 5.5". I assume Moto's more expensive models also do this, and possibly other phones as well.

It made me wonder how I lived for so long with the old setup, so I'd be surprised if Apple goes the other way.

Wouldn't the new virtual button use haptic feedback ("Force Touch")? If so, the lack of a physical button shouldn't matter. Today's home button (on the 6 and 7 series) is also haptic -- if your phone is dead, there's no click.

All this means is that they can use the screen real estate for something other than a button in some cases. If you're watching a video, I wouldn't be surprised if the home button still worked, it would just be hidden. (But it wouldn't be a huge loss if it didn't work, either, in my opinion.)

> All this means is that they can use the screen real estate for something other than a button in some cases.

That's exactly what I was describing as a bug, rather than a feature, in this case. A physical button is always there, always works, doesn't make the UI contextual, and gives a novice user confidence that they can always "escape".

I personally do prefer to have as much screen real-estate as possible, at the expense of a physical button next to the screen; however, that's not a universal preference, and I would not be at all surprised if more Apple users are particularly fond of that button.

Pedant corner: The iPhone 6 has a physical home button, with Switch and all (I know this as I am writing this post on one). The haptic home "button" didn't appear until the 7.

> I know a novice user who sticks with iDevices (as opposed to Android) precisely because they have a physical home button.

Numerous Android devices (including, I believe, all the Samsung lines and certainly the flagship Sn and Galaxy Note lines) have physical home buttons. So its kind of odd that one would base a preference for iDevices over Android on a feature on which the two are not differentiated.

Non-Google devices are typically infested with all sorts of vendor junk, so that's not an improvement. The flagship devices don't have a physical home button.

> Non-Google devices are typically infested with all sorts of vendor junk, so that's not an improvement.

Honestly, I'd don't see much making Samsung's “vendor junk” any worse than Apple's, but, sure, if you prefer Apple's software to that provides by the major Android device makers, that's a legitimate reason to prefer iOS to Android. The patently false idea that Android devices, as a class, don't have a physical home key is not.

> The flagship devices don't have a physical home button.

Many Android flagship phones do. Google's Pixel line does not, but while Pixel might fairly be called an Android flagship phone (well, two, the base model and the XL) or Google's flagship phone(s), it's clearly not the whole of the space of Android flagships.

There's a pretty clear difference between stock Android and non-stock Android. Yes, random non-stock devices also include customizations such as home buttons, but that's not the default experience. And the random other inconsistencies of such devices would rather defeat the purpose.

I can't second this strongly enough. Honestly I didn't move to the iPhone 7 solely because of the shift from the traditional button style to the new non press-able button. I don't even want to think about an iPhone without a home button.

I do not think it is just novice users that like the home button.

I used to have Jolla phone and there was no buttons on front face at all. You could get to home screen with swipe. I found it much more handful than Android and iOS home buttons (physical or virtual).

Edit: there was also tap-to-wake which is awesome feature as well. Happy to see it on iOS.

I remember that; I think it's a nice design, if made available consistently and not overridable by apps. There just needs to be some consistent action that always works in any context.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com