Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
A really beautiful concept, and the idea of having a dynamic home button area to accommodate additional buttons/functionality is clever. However, as others have pointed out, this approach would result in some screen estate wastage. There is also a question about how a virtual home button, occurring throughout the OS, could be accommodated in the case of a user watching a full screen video.

I wonder if moving away from the concept of a home button all together (either a physical or a virtual home button) could be another option. One way of doing this could be to tweak the feature Apple first implemented with the 6S, whereby force touching the edge of the phone brings up the app selection panel. There could be an extra gesture tacked on to this that provides an option to go straight into the home screen (rather than the app selection panel). For example, you could force touch the edge of the phone with your thumb (which would bring up the app selection panel as normal) and then immediately slide your thumb downwards to go straight into the home screen. That actually sounds clunkier than it physically feels (although i'm sure that it's not the most efficient method). The value with this approach is that it would minimise the screen estate wastage associated with permanently displaying a virtual home button in every app.

That said, I would actually be happy if Apple chose to implement your concept. It's a really fantastic effort. And the screen estate lost from permanently displaying a virtual home button would be at least partially offset by the larger overall size of the display in your concept.
 
Last edited:
I'll miss the home button if it goes -- I like the idea of being able to grab my phone out of my pocket and already know where the button is by feel and unlocking the phone without needing to look at it. You lose that completely once the phone is a solid glass surface with no feeling anywhere.
 
I'll miss the home button if it goes -- I like the idea of being able to grab my phone out of my pocket and already know where the button is by feel and unlocking the phone without needing to look at it. You lose that completely once the phone is a solid glass surface with no feeling anywhere.

I think we will get a haptic for lightly pressing the display anywhere to unlock. (Auto authentication with Touch ID being built in all over the front glass panel) it would be touch or double touch to unlock possibly. Hmm I don't like the idea of a virtual button showing ALL the time which is why I'm hoping it's like a slim Touchbar that gives it a Plus size screen but the touchbar can fade when on home and can adapt based on the app being used like in macOS.
 
I basically made a screenshot of my iPhone 6S and added the home button area on the bottom. All iPhones look that crammed on the top actually and all have a very spaced out bottom part where the home button is (only now it isn't part of the screen). [/IMG]

Actually, if you are already on home screen, there isn't any need for the icon to appear. The recent could appear by eg swiping on dock
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.