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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! :mad:
North Face Phone Compatible Gloves - Works! :)
Anker Armband Case (for Running) - Doesn't Work! :mad:

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
 
I feel bad that you went through all the comments to pick your favorites and make a lame response.
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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Yes you can with touchscreen gloves. Just tried it on my 6s. Naturally TouchID doesn't work, but you can still type in your passcode and operate the phone after unlocking without ever taking your gloves off. That's a feature in a country where it's a really good idea to wear gloves outside for at least one third of a year. Seems like my likelyhood of getting the iPhone 7 became even lower than before.

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.
 
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:

We tested with a pair of gloves that are designed for touch screens and while we could unlock the iPhone 6s Plus with the gloves and use the touch screen, that wasn't possible with the iPhone 7 Plus -- the Home button wouldn't activate.

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.
 
Not sure how this is really an issue. All you could do before, assuming you have touch ID enabled, is check the lock screen by pressing the button with gloves on.

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