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The iPhone 7S may ditch the iconic home button

iPhone 6S

With seemingly few mysteries left surrounding the iPhone 7 attention is already turning to the iPhone 7S, and one big change we might see in next year's phone is the removal of the home button.

This is a rumor we've heard before, but now Bloomberg is making the same claims, citing "a person familiar with the matter."

The site doesn't go into any more detail, other than to say that the changes to the phone are designed with a focus on the display in mind, with possibly ultrasonic frequency used to identify the finger.

This adds up with earlier rumors, which suggested that a future iPhone would have a fingerprint scanner built into the screen, allowing the display to be bigger, with less bezel above and below it.

It sounds like an ambitious change, but with the iPhone 7 likely to be a fairly modest upgrade we're expecting big things from the iPhone 7S, especially as it will mark the iPhone's tenth anniversary.

One step at a time

And the removal of the home button might not be a sudden change, as there have also been rumors that Apple will redesign the button for the iPhone 7, making the button pressure-sensitive rather than having it physically click.

That's one of the things we're less sure we're going to see on the iPhone 7, as it's not been as heavily rumored as other changes, like the removal of the headphone jack, but it would make sense as a step towards the total removal of the button.

We'll know soon, as the iPhone 7 is expected to launch on September 7. The iPhone 7S is likely still over a year away, so we'll have a much longer wait to find out whether Apple is getting rid of the home button entirely, but one way or another the iPhone 7S is likely to be a big change, with a massive curved screen and a glass back also rumored.

James Rogerson
James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps.