Smartphones are in such a sorry state that a single hardware button seems like a big deal.
How much money do you all think Apple paid Will Sattelberg to write this 'article'?
So many people in this thread saying “who cares it’s just a button” without having any idea what it actually does.
Want the mute switch behavior? Well that’s the default thing the button does and you can use it without looking at it.
Want to program the button to do like literally anything? You can do that. For example:
- Launch the camera app, or any other app
- Control your smart home accessories
- Toggle Do Not Disturb, or another focus mode
- Run a command on a remote server via ssh
- Start recording audio in case you’re around cops doing cop stuff
- Or anything else you can program in with a Shortcut
Being able to remap keys is very important, but the thing is that this is basic functionality since forever.
Samsung XCover's have that button. I have never used it for anything and just disabled it as it was just annoying. That little mute switch that apples have though is fantastic used that all the time, when I had an iPhone for work.
Unpopular opinion, but phones these days don't really need more buttons, but less. We have a huge touch screen after all, let's take better advantage of it!
- "Action button" - Android phones have had a long press of power button be the assistant button since Android 12, just set your "assistant" as whatever action you want (e.g. with Tasker).
- Sleep/wake button - can be the power button for now, but also don't forget double-tap on the home screen/lock screen/status bar.
- Power off/on - virtual button since Android 12, physical button for turning on. In case of emergency, I guess hold down for longer or do something like triple-tap.
- Volume keys - every video app should use onscreen gestures, same could be applied for music. In other contexts, statusbar or side swiping gesture could suffice, plus a notification shade slider like some OEMs already provide.
