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back buttons are complicated.

One button that does different things depending on taps, holds, double clicks, single clicks, etc is much easier.
 
But it could be easier. Why would the back button be in the top left for apps such as settings?

Well, already we have a problem. Some people posting in here say they'd want a back button to go back within the app and others are saying they'd want it to go back to the previous app.

So whatever you do, some people are going to be disappointed.

With the iPhone right now you can double-click-home to go back an app and swipe from the edge to go back within an app. It's great to have both available at all times no matter where you are within an app.
 
For someone who uses both ios and android I'd say back button and menu buttons are extremely useful. I find odd I have to go to settings for each app settings I want to change. Then again, I use my iphone as a second phone and I don't really do any work on it. I can't really imagine doing work on it as it's not really good and handling multiple applications and communication between them is non existent. I mostly use it for imessage and facetime.
 
When I first got my 6, I kept reaching for the back button. Now I'm used to the iOS way again, and I don't miss the button anymore.
 
I don't want it to go back to the previous app.

If I am reading an email, switch to Safari to check something and go back to my email, I want the gesture to take me back to the inboxes, not back to Safari.
No. It doesn't do it like you said. It will go back to your inbox and not safari.

the android back button go back according to screens or windows you opened (not apps).
 
You could always buy an ht.android phone if you want android features? Just a thought....
 
I don't want it to go back to the previous app.

If I am reading an email, switch to Safari to check something and go back to my email, I want the gesture to take me back to the inboxes, not back to Safari.
That's what the back button does...

You are in your e-mail, open up a browser, click back and it goes back to your e-mail, back again and it goes to your inbox. If when you open a browser you check another site, when you hit back it goes to your previous webpage, then back to e-mail.
 
I wouldn't mind Apple incorporating gestures into the Home button, so when you swipe across, it takes you back, just like on Mac Trackpads.
 
I go back and forth between Android and iOS all the time. IOS works fine without back button, but back button gets me where I need to be I'd guess with about 50% less finger motion overall. It's a very inventive and innovative way of getting around a touch based UI, much in the way Swype is a brilliant way to input text on a flat screen. Google is the UI innovator these days, without a doubt. Maybe they poached the most brilliant UI people away from Apple. Or maybe Apple is just being smug and square and stodgy I don't really know.
 
That's why you use pie controls.

They do not take up room on the display and their ugliness does not stand out.

Not sure what you are getting at. If the capacitive key light is turned off it wont show up (but you still can use them as normal). If those keys are ugly to you, now you dont see them.

At least with the much narrower bezel, the Note4 doesnt look as ugly as the huge bezel on 6+ with only a big round button in the center and all the huge empty area on both sides of the home button.
 
Yea, google have better solution(you can go back deeper) :) But still, this feature is nice..
 
Yes it is a software button that appears on the phone when in apps. Of course the big perk is you can go back between apps.

Say you are in Instagram, you get a facebook notification and want to check it out, when you're done hit back and you are back in Instagram.

And in that scenario, if you go to Facebook and then decide you want to go back a page in Facebook before switching back to Instagram, how would you do that? I'd expect the back button to go back a page/step within the app I'm in, not go back to a different app. The task switcher is there to go back to a different app.
 
I don't see the need for a back button at all.

If you never had a device with a back button I can understand. The rest of us that have, know this would be a big improvent to iPhone.

honorable mentions of features that nobody saw the need for but absolutely love now:

Multi tasking
Notification center (iOS still has a long way to go to make this as good as the competion)
Larger display
third party keyboards

See where I'm getting at?

You can't want or like something that you never had before.
 
The swipe gesture was introduced in iOS 7. It's a well-known feature and has been available for more than one year now, I'm not quite sure why this guy made the video.
 
No! Or at least a way to disable it then.. don't want to accidentally swipe out of apps, would become a major nuance.

Being that this is all software (and something that it not even a reality right now), disabling the feature would technically be doable.

I can say that I have literally never accidentally swiped out of an app. And, for what it's worth, you can also (currently) swipe forward (though only within apps, same as swipe back). This is another thing that could theoretically be added as a means of app switching.

Say I am referrencing a page in safari for some notes I am taking in MS Word. Swipe back brings me to my reference article. Swipe forward brings me back to Word. That's just a simply example of the functionality I am suggesting.

I am NOT suggesting that swiping back to different apps should kill the previous app though.
 
If you never had a device with a back button I can understand. The rest of us that have, know this would be a big improvent to iPhone.

honorable mentions of features that nobody saw the need for but absolutely love now:

Multi tasking
Notification center (iOS still has a long way to go to make this as good as the competion)
Larger display
third party keyboards

See where I'm getting at?

You can't want or like something that you never had before.

Larger display? Really?

I can most definitely not want something I've never had before.
 
And in that scenario, if you go to Facebook and then decide you want to go back a page in Facebook before switching back to Instagram, how would you do that? I'd expect the back button to go back a page/step within the app I'm in, not go back to a different app. The task switcher is there to go back to a different app.
It works just like you'd think. If you are in Instagram, switch to Facebook, check a few peoples profiles, when you hit the back button it goes back to the previous facebook pages then back to Instagram. Think of it this way, it goes back each step you make, each press of the back button goes back one step, whether it be app to app or pages within an app.
 
It works just like you'd think. If you are in Instagram, switch to Facebook, check a few peoples profiles, when you hit the back button it goes back to the previous facebook pages then back to Instagram. Think of it this way, it goes back each step you make, each press of the back button goes back one step, whether it be app to app or pages within an app.

I want to know how to go back in Facebook without the 'check a few peoples profiles' bit being added in.
 
I want to know how to go back in Facebook without the 'check a few peoples profiles' bit being added in.
When you open facebook you go to the default timeline view, you can browser throughout facebook and do what you want, I'm really not sure what you're asking.

If you click on a link to someones facebook profile and it opens in facebook, hitting back will take you to the previous step you were, which was the other app. If you want to see peoples profiles in Facebook thats a new task, so you would just click on friends from the menu.
 
When you open facebook you go to the default timeline view, you can browser throughout facebook and do what you want, I'm really not sure what you're asking.

If you click on a link to someones facebook profile and it opens in facebook, hitting back will take you to the previous step you were, which was the other app. If you want to see peoples profiles in Facebook thats a new task, so you would just click on friends from the menu.

Yeah that's the problem, I'd expect the back button to go back a step in the app im in, not back to another app. That's what the task switcher is for.
 
Yeah that's the problem, I'd expect the back button to go back a step in the app im in, not back to another app. That's what the task switcher is for.
If you have opened that screen in the current flow you will eventually be back there. Task switcher doesn't do backtracking.
 
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