More Evidence Has Leaked Suggesting a Virtual Home Button Is Coming to Apple’s iPhone 8

Apple’s latest-and-greatest iPhone 7 refresh hasn’t even officially hit store shelves yet, and already rumors are once again swirling about a potential ‘virtual home button’ debuting on the Cupertino-company’s 10th anniversary flagship for 2017.

The latest rumor, much akin to others that have sprouted up over the last few months, seems to echo the sentiments that Apple’s true top-to-bottom, 2017 iPhone refresh will, quite possibly, feature no physical home button at all. But rather, the Touch ID sensor, complete with haptic feedback support (a la the iPhone 7) could potentially be embedded directly underneath an all-new curved OLED glass panel.

What lends a bit more credence to this rumor over similar ones past, however, is that the revelation was casually brought up within The New York Times’ exclusive iPhone 7 review. Check out the following snippet, which was extracted — word for word — from that high-profile piece:

“Apple is likely to continue making iPhones without headphone jacks, and next year’s iPhone will have a full-screen face with the virtual button built directly into the screen, according to two people at the company who spoke on condition of anonymity because the product details are private. Apple declined to comment on next year’s iPhones.”

Well, call me a skeptic — but it doesn’t get more forthcoming than that, now does it?

Remember to keep in mind, though: not only have we heard our fair share of mumblings from the rumor mill suggesting that this alleged full-face iPhone display might be coming next fall, but one can take a hint that Apple is at least laying the groundwork for such a vast transition — simply by looking at what the company employed with the iPhone 7’s home button.

As most of us know by now, there is no ‘physical’ home button on the iPhone 7; but rather, the handset has been outfitted with a flush ‘Force Touch’ (haptic feedback-enabled) touch pad, of sorts, which is capable of carrying out the same functions as Apple’s iconic, clickable home button.

While we still don’t know, of course, what shape or form this purported glass-embedded Touch ID sensor will take, it’s so far been rumored that Apple could be implementing an all-new 5.8-inch, true edge-to-edge display on its 10th anniversary flagship, with other rumors suggesting the Silicon Valley tech-giant will, for the first time ever, adopt a gorgeous OLED or AMOLED display technology for the iPhone by next year.

Several mockups of such a device, in typical fashion, have already begun circulating the web in recent months — giving us perhaps a shimmering glimpse of what a full-faced touchscreen iPhone could look like. However, as we continue to progress into the 2016 holiday season, with 2017 looming just over the imminent horizon, we’re more then likely going to see a whole lot more of them — as anticipation for the ‘iPhone 7s’ (‘iPhone 8’?) — whatever they end up calling it — begins to saturate the inter-webs in full force.

How does an all-glass iPhone with embedded Touch ID sensor sound to you? Let us know in the comments!

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]