Much has been made of Apple’s recent decision to do away with the iconic home button, which has been a hallmark of the iPhone since its inception. Instead the iPhone X relies on facial recognition to grant users access and gestures to allow navigation.
Thankfully, there’s a nifty workaround for those of you who aren’t thrilled with the lack of a physical home button. The hack, which was outlined by Business Insider, allows you to create a virtual home button in its place at the bottom of your iPhone X’s screen.
- First, clear room for the virtual home button on your screen by moving apps away from the bottom.
- Then toggle on the ‘AssistiveTouch’ feature by performing the following steps: Open Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Toggle on Assistive Touch.
- Choose the ‘Home’ option. A white button will appear that you can drag to the bottom-center of your screen. You can use this as a makeshift home button.
While the move to ditch the home button wasn’t universally welcomed, Apple’s chief designer Jony Ive defended it as part and parcel of the company’s approach to innovation and improvement.
“I actually think the path of holding onto features that have been effective, the path of holding onto those whatever the cost, is a path that leads to failure,” Ive said to Time. “And in the short term, it’s the path the feels less risky and it’s the path that feels more secure.
“It’s not necessarily the most comfortable place to be in when you believe there’s a better way,” he added. “[Because] that means moving on from something that has felt successful.”
Another point of criticism has been the iPhone X’s $999 price tag, which is prohibitively high for many. Regardless, sales of the iPhone X have been strong. Initial supplies of the iPhone X sold out within minutes due to “off the charts” demand.
The iPhone X is expected to propel a surge in revenue to a record $87 billion in the quarter ending in December. Apple has also been contending with supply chain and production issues for the iPhone X, which hampered initial supplies.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that his company is working out the delays. Production is “going well, we’re doing more each week and I’m pleased with how things are going,” he said according to Bloomberg. “The initial demand for iPhone X has been very, very strong.”