It seems like winters are coming early for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus users, as user report claim that the Home Button on the smartphones doesn’t work without direct touch of a finger. Apple introduced a non-clickable new home button with iPhone 7, which uses Force Touch technology just like its latest laptops. Now, some users are claiming that the home button doesn’t work even with most gloves, including touchscreen-friendly ones.
The issue was first highlighted by Twitter user Myke Hurley, who pointed out that the Home Button on iPhone 7 is not able to recognise touch if there is any material, like a T-shirt, between finger and the button. However, the reports following this initial complaint have been divided.
On one hand, a report from MacRumors claims that the Home Button was not responsive to even touchscreen-friendly gloves in their test. “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 touchscreen, that wasn’t possible with the iPhone 7 Plus — the Home Button wouldn’t activate,” MacRumors said in its report.
While on the other hand, iMore has showcased the Home Button working with capacitive gloves on. In its report, it says, “Touch ID won’t work with capacitive gloves, because they cover your fingerprint, but you can still to bring up Passcode, then tap it in.”
Hurley, in a subsequent tweet, has said that the home button doesn’t seem to be working due to the Touch ID ring present on it.
With the introduction of ‘Raise to Wake’ feature, which allows you to wake the screen up just by picking up the device, with iOS 10, it is arguable how much annoyance this issue will create when winters actually arrive.
For now, we will have to wait and see if Apple will choose to respond to the issue.