iPhone 7 Home Button Requires Capacitive Touch to Work

As if you didn't need to take your gloves off to use the phone already...

 

The use of "~gate" as a throwback to the Watergate Hotel is indicative of a scandal and attempts to cover it up. This issue of capacitive touch and not being able to unlock an iPhone is not a defect which is trying to be covered up by Apple. Therefore the whole"~gate" thing is irrelevant in this context.

 

I have been playing around with a few things today to see what the home button works with and doesn't.......for me...I just want to be able to press the home button to open the phone and return to the main screen as I press the screen when running to switch music etc

Assistive touch is a work around and I don't want to have that dot on the screen all the time

So...my test results....

Finger/skin and it works....so which objects between a finger and the button allows it to work (obviously Touch ID won't work)?????
Paper over the button - Works!
Plastic Carrier Bag - Works!
T-Shirt - Doesn't Work!
North Face Phone Compatible Gloves - Works!
Anker Armband Case (for Running) - Doesn't Work!

So it seems that it doesn't actually need skin contact to work but just some electrical discarge but once the phone is open then ALL the items allow the touchscreen to work

I also was experimenting with the size of hole needed in something like the Armband Case Plastic to allow the Home Button to react and a 1mm wide hole on the plastic allows enough of a capacitive touch to activate the home button

So.....the phone will work in my Anker Case but just needs a 1mm hole over the home button area

 

It was too easy not to.

You see, you're new here, which is cool. Welcome on board. Before the iPhone brought over the masses, these forums used to be filled with intelligent and well thought out posts. Try it sometime.

 

Yes, your response had intelligence written all over it.
Now how about you try not telling people what to write on your poor beloved forum, thats evolved without you?

 

Calm down. It devolved without me. That's not a bad thing, it's just annoying that it happened at all. Like I said, welcome. I look forward to more of your hilarious posts. take care.

 

I was talking about regular gloves, that's what the original test was based on. There are mixed reports about touchscreen gloves activating the home button (including them not working for Mac Rumors), which is similar to my experience with "touchscreen" gloves interacting well with the touchscreen itself. I suspect good gloves will work, and poor ones won't, as the conductivity requirements may be higher. It's winter much more than a third of the year here and touch screen gloves only work as liners, so either way, you're taking gloves off to use the phone.

 

The test was also talking about touchscreen gloves not working:

And yes, when it gets to the full-blown winter especially in January & February, you do need heavier gloves than most touchscreen ones, but they do extend the period where it's easy to use your phone outside for a month or two at both ends.

 

I can do a long press and tell Siri to do whatever I need to. Very useful when it's -20C outside. Mostly it's about skipping an annoying track or something simple like that I wouldn't want to freeze my fingers over. So yes, it's a down side.

 

Just use hey siri. It doesn't require you to press a button.

 

That's an option only with supported apps. Sadly, the Siri API didn't help with this as media apps are not allowed for API access.

 

It works if you use Apple Music Remember, Apple only wants to keep you within their ecosystem.

 

Yep, and for alternative apps it does nothing For me these unnecessary lockdowns can end up having completely different outcome than staying in the ecosystem

 

Almost a non-issue, but... the force touch pad on the MacBook (Pro) line are the same. They need skin to work.