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  • The average person spends more than 3 hours a day looking at their phone. Might not sound

  • like a lot, but that’s more than a month and a half out of every year! With all that

  • time spent staring at it, you mightve noticed your new phone is missing a button or two?

  • It’s not your imaginationthe home button is disappearing, and it might not be the only

  • one! Smartphones have been shedding buttons for years, so it's no big surprise that companies

  • like HTC and Samsung are trying to do without.

  • Don’t believe me? Take a look at the BlackBerry Electron, the first smartphone to take off

  • in a big way. Tremble before it's full keyboard and dedicated call and hang up buttons! Since

  • the screen was so small, it couldn’t show every function at once. Using the BlackBerry

  • meant sorting through menus to find what you need. Instead of a touchscreen, many of the

  • models used arrow keys or a tiny trackball.

  • While it hasn't aged well, the BlackBerry was cutting edge for its time. Early Android

  • phones were similar-looking. The specifics varied, but most featured dedicated home,

  • back, menu, call, and hang-up buttons just like the BlackBerry.

  • All that changed in 2007 when Apple released the iPhone. As hard as it is to believe now,

  • not many people took the iPhone seriously at first. Even Apple’s founder Steve Jobs

  • wasn't 100% on board with their new product. Still, it was only a matter of time before

  • people realized the iPhone’s strengths. Getting rid of the keyboard allowed the screen

  • to more than double in size. This was handy because it meant that your favorite apps were

  • never more than a click away.

  • The main buttons stuck around for a few years, but their days were numbered. It didn’t

  • take long for the call and end-call buttons to disappear. Still, the mostly useless direction

  • buttons managed to survive for several more years. Since menus weren't as important as

  • they used to be, there wasn't as much of a need for a dedicated back or menu button either.

  • They still served a purpose, but it wasn't anything that couldn’t be done using the

  • touchscreen. Sure, getting rid of 2 or 3 buttons isn’t going to free up that much space,

  • but every little bit helps.

  • This only leaves the home button, and its future isn't looking too bright either. A

  • lot of people still like the home button. In fact, it used to be one of the reasons

  • many customers preferred Apple to Android. Unfortunately for button fans, companies can't

  • resist that extra half-inch of space.

  • Removing the home key also makes the phone’s surface smoother, giving it a sleeker, more

  • seamless look. Some manufacturers will tell you that doing away with buttons is also a

  • practical decision, and they don’t plan to stop with ditching the home key. If they

  • get their way, the power and volume buttons might be next!

  • HTC’s U12 replaces its buttons with touch sensors, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 got

  • rid of the power button completely. You can still change the settings so that the voice

  • assistant button works as the power button, but that stops you from using the voice assistant.

  • The argument goes that since fewer buttons mean fewer moving parts, there aren’t as

  • many pieces that can randomly break from wear and tear. Unfortunately for HTC, there's no

  • real evidence to back this up. There’s also the fact that some customers found their buttonless

  • buttonsdifficult to use.

  • And we still haven't talked about the biggest problem with button-free phones. Most people

  • simply don't like them. Without physical feedback, it can be hard to tell if you pushed a button

  • right. Not to mention that there's just something satisfying about the click of a real-life

  • button. This is what people are talking about when they use the phrasehaptic feedback.”

  • Many devices vibrate to simulate the effect of pressing a real button, but it’s just

  • not the same thing.

  • That’s why more than a few people think buttonless phones are just a fad, but I want

  • to hear your opinion. Are flat surfaces the way of the future, or is the home button what

  • makes it feel like home? Sound off down in the comments!

  • If it is just a passing trend, it wouldn’t be the first one that didn’t quite work

  • as intended. For example, look at the Sony Experia, which comes with a slide-out game

  • controller. The Experia isn’t necessarily a bad phone, but how many people were asking

  • for one that was also a PSP? Customers were promised a phone that could double as a portable

  • gaming console. That mightve been a good idea in theory, but very few game developers

  • believed in Sony’s new product. It’s a pretty big problem if youre trying to sell

  • a phone for gaming, but no one is interested in making games for it!

  • Sony isn’t the only company to struggle with a new idea. Take a look at Samsung’s

  • Smart Scroll, Air View, and Galaxy Beam. They all looked great in the ads and wouldve

  • been fantastic had they worked as intended. Buuut that just wasn’t the case

  • Smart Scroll was a feature included in the Samsung Galaxy X 4 that allowed your phone

  • to scroll up and down automatically. It worked by using the phone's face camera to track

  • the movement of your head. That was the idea, but it went to market before the engineers

  • were able to iron out all the kinks. You sometimes had to move your head really far to get it

  • working. Too many customers lost patience with what they thought was an unnecessary

  • feature.

  • Some people felt the same way about the Air View. This was the feature that allowed Samsung

  • users to preview notifications without having to touch the screen. You did this by hovering

  • your finger over the app in question. Air View was usually alright at figuring out what

  • you were pointing at, but it only worked with a handful of apps. As with the Sony Experia,

  • developers wanted nothing to do with it. The Air View feature still lurks in the settings

  • menu of many Samsung phones. But the company has stopped actively promoting it, so many

  • people don’t realize it’s even still there.

  • As for the Galaxy Beam? Samsung’s Galaxy Beam and Beam 2 were the only phones that

  • came with a built-in projector. Now, even I can admit that's kind of cool. It cost more

  • than other Samsung phones at the time but still mightve been successful if not for

  • a few issues with the projector itself. The main problem was that it drained the battery

  • too quickly, which discouraged people from using the Beam’s signature feature.

  • Motorola tried something similar with one of their Moto Mod phone attachments. It had

  • most of the same problems as Samsung’s, but the fact that it was an optional attachment

  • helped to soften the blow.

  • Now, I have to mention the brand that got the ball rolling: the BlackBerry Storm. It

  • was BlackBerry's first touch screen phone, and the company knew they needed something

  • big to stand out from the crowd. How were they going to make it click with consumers?

  • By making it click! The screen featured a system called SurePress that was designed

  • to mimic the sound and feel of a physical keyboard.

  • BlackBerry was on the right track with this idea. Remember that term I used earlier, haptic

  • feedback? People really like it when devices give them a physical response. Part of what

  • made the original Play Station popular was that it was the first console to include a

  • vibrating controller as part of the standard package. In theory, the same idea should apply

  • to typing on a phone.

  • Unfortunately, BlackBerry mightve flown a little too close to the sun when they tried

  • to simulate the exact feeling of a keyboard. Their SurePress mostly accomplished what it

  • had set out to do, but it came with the side effect of slowing down people’s typing.

  • On its own, this might not have been too big a deal. The real problem was that it used

  • time and money that couldve otherwise been spent fixing the issues with the Storm’s

  • performance.

  • A realistic keyboard is nice to have, but not if it gets in the way of a phone being

  • a phone! So there.

  • Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a

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  • or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!

The average person spends more than 3 hours a day looking at their phone. Might not sound

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