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Wait, are we really at the point where physical buttons are viewed as a revolutionary feature?
wait until they hear about headphone jacks!
Smartphones are in such a sorry state that a single hardware button seems like a big deal.
Huh? In the exact same place on this Pixel and my last three Pixels is the Power button, Double tapping the Power Button on my Android phone opens the camera. Press and hold to talk to Assistant. Hold a long time to open Emergency and eventually call 911 automatically. It's been a option for a long time. It would be nice if Google made these use assignable actions but they already exist.
I have butt dialed 911 because of that. Total misfeature
The power button on my wife's old phone (Pixel 3, I think) started to flip it's shit and we got woken up by police knocking on our door because of it one time.
You can turn it off now. I think it's the Feature called Crisis Alert in Safety and Emergency
This is what I don't get. Well obviously they want to push usage of their own services, but shortcut stuff like this should always be customisable. To a degree I even understand it for assistant, but why would you want to push the usage stats of the camera app? Android has been about choice for such a long time, but they have been fucking this up for so many years now, letting Apple get the points here.
I know basically nothing about the Action Button, but fwiw, iPhones use the power button in a similar manner already. Double press opens Apple Pay, press and hold for Siri.
I'm fairly certain that on some Android phones it is programmable. I could have sworn it was on my OnePlus 5, anyway.
Samsung and Google were literally ahead with a Bixby button and the Edge Squeeze. Too bad they didn't make it more functional than just an assistant macro. I had a rooted 2 XL and I still miss squeeze for flashlight.
I always was sad to see people bashing the Bixby buttons existence. I never used Bixby ever but it was so useful as a macro button. Now they took the button away.
On my s22+ you can double tap the power button to open up the camera or any app that you'd like automatically.
Motorola shake flashlight was the best. Just a quick chop chop and you'd have a light
I now have a little flashlight button on my lock screen I can slide to turn on the flashlight. Not as convenient but way better than not having it there.
I was so in love with the first two pixels. The lines really not lived up to expectations.
so like Samsung had the Bixby button for half a decade now? No, thanks.
also, a mute button is pointless when we can just hold the volume down for a second.
The Bixby button sucked because for so long you couldn't remap it to do anything else. And even when they finally relented at the end, they only allowed it to have the functions of press and hold or double tap to activate extra features, but single tap was always still reserved for Bixby.
Having a dedicated mute button is good when your default volume controls are for media volume. Not that it makes a difference for me because my phone is forever on vibrate, but I get the utility.
You could always just download an app to remap it with far more functionality. Used to love that feature.
I have a Note 8, they've now had it for a while where you can single tap to open an app or run a command. But if you choose to do that, double press opens Bixby. So sadly you get Bixby no matter what.
The mute toggle on iPhone doesnβt mute media if you play something with it enabled, and you can still increase/decrease the volume of that, you just donβt get any notification sounds. So bit different than just turning the volume down for the whole device.
I keep mute enabled all the time because I get the notifications on my watch, and I forget itβs on because media still plays with sound. Itβs actually really nice. One of the few things I actually like about iPhone.
This volume button pair is actually configurable on my phone, that's why I brought it up. I can choose whether the buttons affect notifications or media by default, and when media is playing it'll always change the media volume.
Yeah, it wasn't used much so they removed it ig. But its apple so now its new and innovative and everything needs it! ffs
Gimme expandable storage and 3.5mm ports back first.
I hope the 16 has a headphone jack so that "everyone should steal this revolutionary new feature from apple" as well.
My S23 Ultra does this now. It no longer has the bixby button, but the power button can be remapped. I have it now so that double clicking the power button opens my camera app, but long pressing it shuts off my phone.
It's been like this for at least a few years using the stock Samsung OS.
You can do it on pixel too. I have it open assistant on long hold or double tap cam.
It is a good concept tbh. I even miss the physical ringer switch when Im on Android (unless it's a OnePlus)
Many Android phones already have had buttons and more. My phone has an assistant button which I wish would become a shutter button when I open the camera, and do something else when I double tap. But it's not programmable sadly.
Now that Apple has done it, maybe it will make a comeback on Android...
At least I have really useful ports like a headphone jack and SD card slot. iPhone doesn't have that yet.... Lol
So many people in this thread saying βwho cares itβs just a buttonβ without having any idea what it actually does.
Want the mute switch behavior? Well thatβs 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:
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.
Pixel 6a does this... calm yourself young one.
Any time Iβve switched to android over the years that little switch is one of the biggest, yet smallest features on the iPhone that I end up really missing. It is so convenient, and now that itβs reprogrammable with different taps it will be even better.
It will be the think I probably miss the most when I eventually upgrade. The brilliance of the switch is that it is a switch - which means can be verified by feel or by sight to be in the silent position without needing to wake or even take you phone out of your pocket.
How much money do you all think Apple paid Will Sattelberg to write this 'article'?
Reminds me of this thing I bought a long time ago, back when phones still had headphone jacks. It was a button that plugged into that, and you could program it to do whatever you wanted. It was neat, but often didn't work too well. I wish I could remember what it was called.
Anyway, Pixels have the feature where you can tap the back of the phone and map that to an action, so we already kind of have that. Mine is mapped to the flashlight.
My Pixel 7a nearly has this. The "Power" button by default does:
In order to actually get the power menu to pop up, you hold the power button + volume up. You can switch the behavior so that a long press can either be the assistant or the power menu, but otherwise not fully configurable. Feels like that would be an easy win to let us do whatever we want with it.
Ah yes Android Police. A site I used to know.
I thought that we only required one button.