How To Fix Your iPhone 7 Home Button

The iPhone 7's home button is definitely a whole new experience. For starters, it isn't even an actual button anymore; it's pressure sensitive and can gauge if you meant to force touch, tap, or push it — which means there's nothing to actually push, per se. It's also worth knowing how to fix the iPhone 7 home button, of course, because like all electronic devices, sometimes it malfunctions. It's just a fact of life when you live in a high tech, plugged in world.

The iPhone 7 model is the first iPhone that has a home button that doesn't move. It accomplishes its pressure-sensitive magic via something called the Taptic Engine, an interior function that simulates clicks based on how much pressure you apply to the button. It's super cool, of course; when it glitches out, though, it can be a little frustrating. According to some users on social media, issues might range from touching the home button and getting no response to touching it and getting several responses in a row.

It takes a little getting used to, and the sensation is unfamiliar; but if you're finding that your iPhone 7 home button isn't working, the good news is there are a few things you can try to remedy it:

Make Sure You're Touching It With Skin

The new home button is a bit feisty, and it only responds to your skin. Even gloves made for smartphone touchscreens might not cut it.

Use The iPhone's On-Screen Home Button

If your device's home button really is on the fritz, an error message will pop up, and the on-screen home button will be enabled as a work-around.

Enable The On-Screen Home Button Yourself

While your smartphone will automatically prompt the on-screen home button should the original one poop out, it's also a feature called Assistive Touch you can access and enable on your own at any time. It's not exclusive to the iPhone 7 or iOS 10, either; the feature has been around at least since 2013. There are three ways to do it, the easiest being simply to tell Siri, "Turn on Assistive Touch." You can also find the feature through Settings > General > Accessibility > Assistive Touch, and turn it on from there. Lastly, you can similarly use Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, and then turn it on there. Activating this allows you to turn Assistive Touch off or on by triple-clicking the home button.

There are rumors that the iPhone 8 won't have a home button at all — just the sensor underneath the display, with no superficial button or icon — but we'll just have to wait and see whether that rumor actually turns out to be true. In the meantime, make friends with the new iPhone 7 home button. If yours is busted, don't try to fix it by taking your phone apart — it'll void your warranty! Use Assistive Touch, or if you purchased AppleCare up front, you can return your phone for a replacement.

Images: Giphy (3)