When the iPhone 8 launches this fall, it’ll be the first iOS device in Apple’s history to lack a physical home button. The iconic component is tied to a variety of critical functions which means Apple isn’t really ditching it. Instead, the company will likely introduce a virtual home button and new screen gestures to replicate the features of the physical home button. A fresh iOS 11 leak gives us a glimpse of some of the gestures Apple may have been working on.
Discovered in the latest iOS 11 beta image by developer Guilherme Rambo, two videos show a few new gestures that are meant to reproduce the multitasking effect of the home button.
Double tap on the home button of an iOS device right now, and it’ll bring up a scrollable list of apps that are currently open. If it’s an iPhone with 3D Touch enabled, and running iOS 10, then you can also long press along the left edge of the phone to obtain the same effect.
However, these features won’t be available on the iPhone 8 — there’s no home button, and iOS 11 kills that particular 3D Touch gesture.
The video below shows what multitasking would look like if paired with a swipe upwards from the bottom of the screen:
Currently, swiping upwards will get you access to the Control Center. But Apple’s concept above also gives you access to the Control Center, which is available on the right side of the handset.
This is also interesting pic.twitter.com/JdYDhZDkev
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) August 21, 2017
Rambo also found a second video that shows screen gestures on an unlocked iPhone. Swiping downwards pulls the lock screen cover. Swiping right after that gets you to the widget screen while swiping to the left get you the Control Center. In iOS 11, only the left swiping gesture is different, as it brings up the Camera app.
This is interesting 🤔 pic.twitter.com/X4GLiMy1c5
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) August 21, 2017
The videos were created in May, but it’s unclear whether we’re looking at discarded iOS 11 features or iPhone 8-only features. Apple did unveil iOS 11 in June and then released in beta version. But the iOS 11 build that Apple showed to the world did not include any specific iPhone 8 features in it.
