The button could be used to invoke digital assistant Siri

Sep 4, 2017 11:27 GMT  ·  By

Apple will remove the Home button on the iPhone as part of its effort to update the device to a bezel-less display, and consequently, some of the features that were available for users will thus go away.

But while Apple has been rumored to work on gesture support in iOS 11 that make it possible to go back to the home screen and to access the multitasking UI easily, it now looks that the firm is moving the option to invoke Siri to the lock button.

Until now, launching Siri was possible with a long press of the Home button, but starting with the iPhone 8, this could work by simply long pressing the lock button.

Developer Guilherme Rambo explained on Twitter that he did “find a gesture to invoke Siri by holding the lock button,” though it’s not yet clear for the time being if this option would be activated only on the iPhone 8 or on all the other iPhones seeing daylight this year.

Longer power button

Without a doubt, launching Siri will also work with a voice command (Hey Siri), but Apple clearly wants to offer an alternative when this option is not available, so it makes sense to move it to the lock button.

This isn’t the first time Apple is said to be bringing advanced functionality to the lock button, and there were reports that the company even considered integrating Touch ID into this one button, just like Sony has managed to do on the Xperia XZ Premium. While this approach could indeed make sense when the Home button is no longer available on the front fascia, it requires a thicker lock button that would allow for the fingerprint sensor to be integrated.

This won’t be the case on the iPhone 8, though there’s evidence that the lock button will indeed be a little bit bigger, most likely to compensate for the increased dimensions of the device caused by the tall display.