Back button, where art thou?

What scenario do you need a back button ?

You have swipe from the edge to go back in many apps. (Wish universal)

Home button.

And double tap home to multitask and choose where you want to go back to.

In most cases you can go back to the previous screen by tapping the selection, at the upper left corner.

swipe from left to right on most apps to go back. So easy a caveman can do it.

I love how people defend Apple and come up with excuses why there should not be a back button.

heycal said:

...or on my Mac Air, both of which offer handy back buttons...

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There's a back button on the MacBook Air?

1. Good apps have built in webview.

2. On platform with back button, the button is not implemented consistently, so it's even more confusing.

3. Where's the back button on your "Mac Air"?

heycal said:

I'm new to iphone after years with Android, and currently using an iphone 4. I like certain things about it very much, other things drive me bananas… I won't get into all my pros and cons here, but will just focus on one issue:

How do you iphone folks deal with the lack of a back button? I thought I'd get used to this after a few weeks and learn to navigate the "iphone way", but it's as troublesome and confusing as ever to me. I'm constantly wanting to go back one step, or two steps, or even three, and so often there is no real way to do so like there is on Android, or on my Mac Air, both of which offer handy back buttons which get a lot of use from me. If Apple has any real system in place for such things, I haven't figure it out yet. Sometimes its obvious how to back out of something, yes, but very often it is not. All too frequently I just have to hit the home button and start from scratch.

Is there something basic I'm missing? If not, doesn't this bother you guys?

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heycal said:

No surprise. I've experienced this often in pointing out the flaws of the iphone… Bad enough dealing with poor design issues, but it's all made worse by people defending those poor designs...

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So you come here to ask a simple question and then attacked ios7. Shame.

I have a nexus 5 and it got flaws too. I also wish that it got swipe to go back because the back button on kit Kat sometimes sit too high and my fat thumb can't reach. Shame.

heycal said:

I'm new to iphone after years with Android, and currently using an iphone 4. I like certain things about it very much, other things drive me bananas… I won't get into all my pros and cons here, but will just focus on one issue:

How do you iphone folks deal with the lack of a back button? I thought I'd get used to this after a few weeks and learn to navigate the "iphone way", but it's as troublesome and confusing as ever to me. I'm constantly wanting to go back one step, or two steps, or even three, and so often there is no real way to do so like there is on Android, or on my Mac Air, both of which offer handy back buttons which get a lot of use from me. If Apple has any real system in place for such things, I haven't figure it out yet. Sometimes its obvious how to back out of something, yes, but very often it is not. All too frequently I just have to hit the home button and start from scratch.

Is there something basic I'm missing? If not, doesn't this bother you guys?

Click to expand...

You should of put this in the alternatives section you will be flamed here To answer your question, there isn't one You just have to push push and keep pushing that home button. You can't even see a missed notification without pushy push push

It's not a problem for use iPhone users because a lot of use have been iPhone users for quite a while now, or just don't know anything else than iphone.

MattMJB0188 said:

I love how people defend Apple and come up with excuses why there should not be a back button.

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It's an "interesting" reply to something that actually hasn't happened in the thread (at least certainly not before this reply)...so what excuses were you referring to exactly again?

Eliminating back button is a classic example of how Apple "simplicity" killed usability. There are many more "simplicity" examples in Iphone that made usability less simple.

heycal said:

You're kidding, right?







I'll try these, thanks.



No surprise. I've experienced this often in pointing out the flaws of the iphone… Bad enough dealing with poor design issues, but it's all made worse by people defending those poor designs...

Click to expand...

if you really hate the iPhone that much, stick with android

C DM said:

It's an "interesting" reply to something that actually hasn't happened in the thread (at least certainly not before this reply)...so what excuses were you referring to exactly again?

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In my time on here and other Apple sites my impression is that many Apple users and supporters are in fact very and surprisingly critical of almost all things Apple, from business decisions to hardware and software.

There might be those who will defend Apple no matter what, but that seems to be very rare. Rather, people are accused of blindly defending Apple whenever they genuinely disagree with a criticism, often due to their own preference.

The fact is that those who make the complaints are often more fanatical than the "fanboys" because they refuse to accept that there are in fact people who like the thing they are complaining about or who do not have the same problems. Ex: I've seen more than one thread saying that those who are not experiencing battery drain on iOS 7 are "lying".

aPple nErd said:

if you really hate the iPhone that much, stick with android

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I hate this type of response.

I admit I do like the back button on my android tablet, and if I spend allot of time on it and go to my iPhone sometimes it takes a few seconds to realize I don't have that feature! But in all honesty having used the iPhone and iPod touch since their inception I've never felt the need. Its almost like the whole right click button issue, when was a windows user a long long time ago the lack of a right click on most Apple computers and accessories freaked me out but now its laughable to worry about that!

TechGod said:

I hate this type of response.

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ok.

I can see how it could be difficult moving from Android, where a back button is a common way to navigate. Apps on Android function with the back button in mind, and the button is used as a matter of habit. iOS devices on the other hand have never had this function, and in turn, apps have been designed to be navigable without it.

While it might be disconcerting to not have this function you've had a habit of using, this doesn't make iOS devices inadequate. In all my years on iPhone I have never once felt the need for a back button.

Coming from Android, I also found the lack of back button incredibly annoying at first also, but now 8 months into the iOS experiment I've just gotten so used to going through the anywhere from 2-8 steps necessary to mimic the back button to go back to where I was, depending on the app, that it's just second nature now and I don't really think about it any more. It's ridiculous really, but true.

However, I'm starting to care less about not having the back button now that "swipe to go back" is being implemented all over the place. In fact apps that haven't implemented it yet are starting to piss me off and I find myself looking for alternatives.

Hopefully iOS8 will just make swipe to go back universal and then it won't matter any more.

Why should apple "improve" the iPhone? Their stock is sky high, their phones sells like gangbusters.

For those who like more flexibility and customization there are alternatives.

I happen to like my phone, flaws and all. There is no perfect platform.

I decided to ignore your pejorative comment about blind allegiance and give a civil answer. Frankly your not so subtle attacks on the phone, (in the guise of constructive criticism) operating system and people who like the products FOR THEIR REASONS, are quite boorish.

C DM said:

It's an "interesting" reply to something that actually hasn't happened in the thread (at least certainly not before this reply)...so what excuses were you referring to exactly again?

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This is nothing, you should see how they argue on the "alternative to ios" forums... I was just argueing with them about "led light" notfications which they all are so proud of..

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heycal said:

I'm new to iphone after years with Android, and currently using an iphone 4. I like certain things about it very much, other things drive me bananas… I won't get into all my pros and cons here, but will just focus on one issue:

How do you iphone folks deal with the lack of a back button? I thought I'd get used to this after a few weeks and learn to navigate the "iphone way", but it's as troublesome and confusing as ever to me. I'm constantly wanting to go back one step, or two steps, or even three, and so often there is no real way to do so like there is on Android, or on my Mac Air, both of which offer handy back buttons which get a lot of use from me. If Apple has any real system in place for such things, I haven't figure it out yet. Sometimes its obvious how to back out of something, yes, but very often it is not. All too frequently I just have to hit the home button and start from scratch.

Is there something basic I'm missing? If not, doesn't this bother you guys?

Click to expand...

I'm sorry , but I think you must be missing something... Back buttons are 99% on the top left corner, of you have difficulty in finding them .. NGO to settings>> general>> accessibility>> toggle on button shapes... I think you might be getting confused with " < name " instead of a button .. If you see anything like that, it's a back button...

Every app if it has different layers will have a back button... Sometimes it might not be placed on the top left corner( like in twitter, if you visit a web page link and keep visiting new ones from them,, to go back to your feeds is "X" which is at the top left corner but to visit the previos web page , the back button is on the bottom left corner) ..

As I said 99% it's always on the top left .. And toggle button shapes, they will help... Once you get used to it , toggle them off...

And as someone mentioned above.. In ios 7 you can go back by swiping from left edge of the screen to right to go back also..

heycal said:

Not a physical one, but anytime one is on the internet, which is 99% of what I use the Mac Air for, there is a back button

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So what you are saying is that there's a back button in your Mac browser? There's also one on your iPhone browser.

And by "Mac Air", do you mean Macbook Air?