Of all the phones released in 2024, I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted that the iPhone 16 would lead the industry in the sheer amount of buttons plastered all over a device. While Android phones have mostly abandoned shortcut keys, Apple has added not one, but two new buttons to the iPhone since its 2023 refresh. Meanwhile, most mainstream Android devices have stuck to a simple combination of power and volume buttons, leaving physical shortcuts to the company that previously considered dropping those hardware keys altogether.
The thing is, I don’t think Apple has done a particularly impressive job adding new buttons to the iPhone, leaving a space for its closest rivals to improve and refine what are two good concepts in theory. In fact, I think there’s plenty of space for an Android OEM to take up the mantle and show Apple how it’s done, all by referring back to legacy products from years ago.
The iPhone 16’s buttons are pretty lame in practice
Simultaneously too much and too little control
If you’ve completely removed yourself from the Apple hype cycle — and seeing as you’re reading an Android-centric site right now, that’s totally fair — the entire iPhone 16 series contains two buttons that are both relatively new additions. Both are, on paper, clever ideas that exist to satisfy the power users among us. In practice, however, I found each of them pretty disappointing, and for entirely opposing reasons.
The Action button first arrived on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max in 2023, before making its way to all four iPhone 16 models earlier this year. This button is capable of performing a single programmable task through a long press, with its functionality determined either during the initial setup phase or from the settings menu. You can do things like toggle on your flashlight, identify music with Shazam, run a Siri Shortcut, or enable silent mode, with the latter emulating the mute switch it replaced.
The problem with the Action button is flexibility. There is no way to perform multiple tasks, no option for double or single taps. You are limited to one action at a time, no matter what you select. Considering iOS 18 came and went without any changes to this behavior — and unlike on Android, there’s no way for third-party apps to easily take control of this tool — don’t expect these limitations to change any time soon.
Then there’s Camera Control. Apple’s latest button skipped the usual year’s worth of Pro exclusivity, arriving on all four iPhone 16 models simultaneously in September. This key is both mechanical and capacity, allowing for quick access to the camera through either a single or double-tap (depending on whether the display is already turned on). Once in the viewfinder, you can half-click to focus or adjust image settings like exposure and full-click to snap a shot.
Unlike the Action button, Camera Control is filled to the brim with features, yet fails to add anything beyond what the touchscreen offers. Swiping through image settings using a real button is, in theory, a great idea, one inspired by the sorts of dedicated cameras smartphones have largely replaced in the mainstream. Unfortunately, it’s both too complex and too restrictive to really add anything to the photo-taking experience — in nearly every case, you’re better off just tapping on the display.
Physical shortcuts have a long, varied history on Android
And it’s time to lean back into those examples
Obviously, I think Apple’s current collection of hardware keys is surprisingly flawed, but that doesn’t mean I hate the idea of extra buttons on its face. The iPhone’s Action button and Camera Control pave the way for the leading Android companies — Google, Samsung, and Motorola among them — to consider adding new buttons to their respective smartphones. In fact, I’ve been yelling about this for over a year now, and the addition of yet another middling button on the iPhone has driven me to double down.
There’s a long, long history of hardware buttons and other physical shortcuts on Android, one too detailed to fully lay out in a piece like this. Motorola’s 2023 ThinkPhone kept a customizable shortcut key around, but the company ditched it on its upcoming (and, on paper, disappointing) successor. Samsung’s Bixby button started life as physical access to everyone’s seventh-favorite virtual assistant, before eventually becoming a more standard customizable control. It didn’t survive the turn of the decade, or Samsung’s shifting attention.
Not every example is so obvious. OnePlus phones have never strayed away from a fairly standard button layout, but a three-way alert slider has long given its user base a quick and easy way to toggle between ringer modes — or, on the OnePlus Open Apex Edition, the ability to enable a fairly useless VIP Mode. And then there’s Google, which has employed everything from squeezable sides (a surprisingly useful utility back in the Pixel 2 days, if you ask me) to tappable back glass, a tool Snapchat continues to try to persuade me into using to this day.
Don’t worry, Sony fans — I haven’t forgotten you. While Apple assuredly hopes you think of Camera Control as yet another innovative push into the future, AP readers know all too well that a physical shutter button is a hallmark of the niche-yet-beloved Xperia series. And none of this even takes into account the earliest days of Android, where QWERTY keyboards and physical navigation buttons ruled the land. If you’re a fan of physical controls, you didn’t know how good you had it.
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Buttons should be simultaneously powerful and customizable
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I don’t bring up these examples to make some sort of point about Apple’s sense of innovation (or lack thereof) in its current hardware. Rather, I think an appetite for shortcut keys, shutter buttons, and other physical, tactile controls still exists, and it’s high time Android OEMs lean into it. Apple’s lackluster approach to buttons has left a massive gap for companies like Google and Samsung to return this functionality to their smartphones. I hope they take it up.
These days, phone makers are trying to transform your smartphone into the equivalent of a laptop, whether it’s through the sheer performance of the chip that powers it or a massive display capable of folding into a pocketable form factor. It’s high time for these manufacturers to lean into this power user fantasy, rather than attempting to force every action into an on-display button or gesture.
Take Circle to Search, for example. Google decided to hide its latest attempt at making Lens a thing behind a long-press of the gesture bar. But on devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, this action already accomplished something — hiding the taskbar — and now, I find myself triggering it accidentally all the time. Likewise, Gemini is locked behind long-presses of the power button, like Assistant before it. I can’t help to wonder whether I’d get more use out of a dedicated key, especially if it supported quickly activating Gemini Live. Or, shying away from AI, why not implement a dedicated desktop mode key for foldables and tablets? Imagine if DeX mode on the Galaxy Tab S10+ could fire up with just a long-press of a specific button?
At the end of the day, Android is built to be a platform that works best when it’s centered around customizability and personalization. I can’t think of a better way to deliver those two elements to fans than by reintroducing more hardware buttons on future phones. And while I’ve listed a few examples above, I want to stress that these are just that: examples. In my perfect world, the possibilities of any additional buttons on Android phones would be left entirely up to users.
Whether it’s a shortcut key capable of performing one of several routine tasks — turning on the flashlight, activating do-not-disturb — or a camera button designed to emulate a point-and-shoot, bringing back physical keys can only deliver a more robust experience for Android fans. As long as companies like Samsung and Google learn from Apple’s shortcomings, that is.
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