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iPhone 15 Pro Leak Reveals Unified Volume Button and Mute Button

JCCL said:
Mute button is not something I’ll ever see as an advantage over the switch, which quickly tells me if the phone is muted or not upon touching it or looking at it. Change for the sake of change.
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I typically don’t look at the mute button to see where it’s at. Instead, I just flip it in the direction I need it to be. If it’s already there, nothing changes. This way, I don’t need to even look at the phone.

With the solid state button, a potential design could be that they will use double press to mute and triple press to ring. We won’t need to check the status, we just press it twice and it’s muted irrespective of what it was before. No need to look at the phone.
 
SactoGuy18 said:
I think this change was done to improve water resistance, since there are no physical switches to cause water leakage problems.
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Because we spend 90% of our time in water... Water resistance is just a cheap excuse to insert cheaper components into iPhone.
 
anshuvorty said:
Fascinating....when you have a mature product, like the iPhone, to differentiate it from year-year, you come up with these minute and ridiculous changes for the sake of change.
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Ios7. Flat design. Replacing function keys with touchbar. Bezel hate.

Beavers build dams, designers design, Jony removes. (Thank goodness he’s gone btw)

Sometimes adding by deleting works (cd-rom, replacing spinning hard drives with ssd’s, replacing phone buttons with glass). It takes a really good designer to know when to stop and look elsewhere. Or focus innovation on fixing a broken design element, and not just changing it.
 
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To everyone saying they like to know if the phone is on mute inside their pockets just by touching the mute switch:
Do you guys use a case?
I have a spigen on my iphone 12 pro (a super thin one) and is super hard to use the mute switch. I have to literally use my fingernails (and because of that I chipped a little bit of the red paint on my prior red iphone 11)
 
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Tozovac said:
I take it you live on an island solo?
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I believe they meant that a software-button (e.g. in the control center) would do the trick just as well - like with most other smartphones…
 
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Let’s see what kind of revolutionary tech is behind the mute button.
The switch is invencible for its purpose and a simple button just wont work so let’s see!!!

Hope it isnt a color dot similar to microphone use
 
ian87w said:
In cars, response time and tactile feel is critical. You don’t want to be distracted with an unresponsive capacitive button when you’re driving (and let’s face it, all these companies always cheapen out on the CPU/SoC for embedded computers, resulting in laggy and unresponsive UI). Tactility and instant feedback is the holy grail.

The physical mute switch on the iPhone is ingenious. It’s very simply, almost anyone understands it, and it’s immediate. Changing it into a non-descript button with no direct feedback (the feedback is presumable done by other things) is confusing, and it’s against good design or usability.
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I agree. I was thinking more about things like wiper stems and volume controls. But you said it better than I did.
 
While I don't really appreciate solid state buttons overall, I have a few observations as to how this design could potentially be better and/or work around some of it's weaknesses:

1) I think the buttons will be pressure sensitive (versus just capacitive). This will alleviate any issues with cases, gloves, etc.. (the volume button could possibly both allow swiping for volume control and pressing, which could account for why they made it a single button again.)
2) With 95% or more of people using cases, a mute button could be significantly easier to operate than the existing switch with a case on (especially the thick ones).
3) I've never memorized which position of the mute switch was which when using it in my pocket. I ALWAYS used the double vibration as the indication that it was in silent mode. This will not change with this new button. The answer to the question "How will I know which mode it is in without looking?" is similar to how it currently is. I'm guessing they will add a distinct vibration pattern for the "ring" mode, so you will be assured that each time you press it, it was registered. Simple solution.
4) Silent/Ring can now be very easily added into Focus states/groups. e.g, automatically turn the ringer on after work from 5PM to 10PM, otherwise switch to vibration mode, etc..
 
cihag said:
I believe they meant that a software-button (e.g. in the control center) would do the trick just as well - like with most other smartphones…
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Unfortunately, "just as well" is debatable, if not pretty much incorrect.

A physical button for the often-used mute feature accomplishes several functions beyond just changing the mute state.

Depending upon where the phone is located, the user does not even need to touch the phone -- its state can be verified instantly and by the quickest glance visually if the phone is already in plain sight, needing no reaching & manipulation.

The mute state can be verified by feel, via a quick, light touch of the phone in your pocket. Often I find myself in a situation where I want to enact mute very "stealthily" so as to not distract others in the situation you I'm in (church, a work meeting, an important dinner, or anywhere I don't want to show others I'm taking my attention away from them).

I've adapted to the removed home button on phones & iPads but there are times I miss it; it was a much more reliable method then swiping up, especially for those of us who don't treat our phones like jewelry fashion statements and use cases in the real world.

I would group a physical mute button into the grouping of items that should never go to solid state, and should be readily available for instant use (and not require shuffling thru menu buttons to accomplish): physical keyboard keys on a keyboard, a physical on/off button, volume, and at least one physical jack for power/data.

Apple often forgets that phones/tablets/computers are not design contests. Not everything on a mobile device needs to be simplified down to the most basic, minimalist implementation.
 
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Tozovac said:
Unfortunately, "just as well" is debatable, if not pretty much incorrect.

A physical button for the often-used mute feature accomplishes several functions beyond just changing the mute state.

Depending upon where the phone is located, the user does not even need to touch the phone -- its state can be verified instantly and by the quickest glance visually if the phone is already in plain sight, needing no reaching & manipulation.

It can be used to verify the mute by feel, by a quick touch of the phone in your pocket. Often I find myself in a situation where I want to enact mute very "stealthily" so as to not distract others in the situation you I'm in (church, a work meeting, an important dinner, or anywhere I don't want to show others I'm taking my attention away from them).

I've adapted to the removed home button on phones & iPads but there are times I miss it; it was a much more reliable method then swiping up, especially for those of us who don't treat our phones like jewelry fashion statements and use cases in the real world.

I would group a physical mute button into the grouping of items that should never go to solid state: physical keyboard keys on a keyboard, a physical on/off button, and at least one physical jack for power/data.

Apple often forgets that phones/tablets/computers are not design contests. Not everything on a mobile device needs to be simplified down to the most basic, minimalist implementation.
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Apple should’ve learnt something from the button less iPod shuffle 3rd gen. But seems like history is repeating itself.
 
ian87w said:
Apple should’ve learnt something from the button less iPod shuffle 3rd gen. But seems like history is repeating itself.
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That was a minimalism design contest product, not a user-focused product.
 
ian87w said:
Not when it’s from over function.
There are interfaces where buttons simply is the ideal interface.
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it's hard to say that when you don't know what they are trying accomplish or new feature that they may be adding that can't be enabled with a physical button. "from over function" has become the the lazy argument to dismiss all changes that people just don't like.
 
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bryantrovati said:
To everyone saying they like to know if the phone is on mute inside their pockets just by touching the mute switch:
Do you guys use a case?
I have a spigen on my iphone 12 pro (a super thin one) and is super hard to use the mute switch. I have to literally use my fingernails (and because of that I chipped a little bit of the red paint on my prior red iphone 11)
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I have a case, even use Spigen, no issues on my iphone 13 mini. No issues on my 13 pro either using the apple leather case.
 
SactoGuy18 said:
I'd almost agree, but people do drop their phones in water by accident all the time...
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Agreed, but a short dunk wont affect the current models with the switches. I've accidentally dunked my own iphone and no issues.
 
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Scipster said:
Completely agree. My guess is that they'll add some sort of indicator, like an always-on mini OLED-display to the top of the button that turns that safety orange color when mute.
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Omg that’s so smart! You should be working on the iPhone 16!! Timmy cook hire this guy!
 
maybe it’s a gift and a curse, but I really just look forward to all of these changes and am able to adapt well. I like the mute switch as is, but welcome this new button.

phone is going to be great either way. 🤷🏾‍♂️
 
FelixDerKater said:
This is going to make case design more complex.

Also, losing the mute switch is not innovation.
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Yes i never use with out case and its gonna be hard to reach the volume and much tactile buttons already hard without fingernail on mute switch now LOL. I can see it will be hard to change volume now if this is true and as flat and close to case bezel surface as some renders are showing.
 
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