iOS 17: New iPhone update changes location of ‘end call’ button, causing controversy

Move is a range of small tweaks in new update

APPLE-BOTÓN ROJO (AP)

Apple is making a small but already controversial tweak in the upcoming iPhone update.

The company revealed iOS 17 at its Worldwide Developers Conference, in June. It showed off a range of features: new images that will show when you call someone, redesigned messages and stickers, and a new “StandBy” mode that allows the phone to be used as an ambient display when turned on its side.

But another change has already received as much discussion as those more substantial updates. And it relates to the button you use to put the phone down.

Until now, that button was in the middle of the screen, on its own. That meant among other things it was easy to press without accidentally hitting anything else, and that you could be confident of doing so.

But a recent update to the iOS 17 beta – which allows users to test out the new software as it is developed, before everyone else – moved that button to the bottom-right of the screen, and put it alongside other buttons.

Then another update to that beta arrived this week, which moved that back to the middle of the bottom of the display, but still left it among other buttons.

The relocation is already proving controversial among users who are adjusted to knowing where to press to end their call.

Moving the buttons together at the bottom of the display is presumably an attempt to leave more space for the new Contact Posters that show when someone calls. But it is not clear why Apple moved the button around, and then replaced it.

The change is just one of a range of alterations to the usually neglected Phone app in iOS 17. The update also brings new Contact Posters that people can design to show on others’ phones when they call, the option to leave a message when someone doesn’t pick up FaceTime calls, and a new live voicemails tool that answers the phone on your behalf and transcribes what people say.

The full release of iOS 17 is expected to come next month, just before the launch of the iPhone 15. That too will make a change to the real buttons on the device: widespread rumours suggest that the toggle on the side of the phone that switches into silent mode will be replaced with an “action button” that can be configured by the user.