Since the Home button is no longer a physical button it makes sense that the new button will be more sensitive and prone to much more inconsistencies. Now customers are getting their hands on the iPhone 7, one of the newly discovered drawbacks about this redesigned Home button is that it requires skin contact in order for a press to be recognized. Because you can no longer physically push the button down, you’re out of luck with gloves. In the past, Touch ID wouldn’t function properly when gloves were on, but this issue is far deeper than that. From what I remember about Tim Cook introducing iPhone 7, he said that now Home button works kinda like a track pad.
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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. You can’t simply swipe over to access the passcode entry screen.
Well, Apple did describe the process of turning a Home button into a track pad years ago in a patent application. Because the button requires skin contacts, it’s lead us to believe that the Home button on the iPhone 7 uses Touch ID to figure out if you’re pressing the button.
Are you encountering the exact same issue on your iPhone 7? And even if you were able to get in, you wouldn’t be able to use the Home button at all anyway. There are mixed reports on Twitter from people with capacitive gloves, and while some work, others do not appear to. Because it’s requiring capacitive contact to unlock the device, it’s likely the iPhone 7 is using the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to register touch.
With wintertime fast approaching, this flaw will undoubtedly be an annoyance to those in colder climates.
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Try not to be too alarmed if you see a lot of folks pressing their Home button with their nose throughout the coming months.
