Apple

Many people never use Reachability on iPhones, yet it takes up a critical shortcut (poll results)

posted by Victor H.

Oct 17, 2016, 9:32 AM

Many people never use Reachability on iPhones, yet it takes up a critical shortcut (poll results)

Apple has a long history with small phones: up until late 2014, its biggest phone was a 4" device, a size that seems too small for most people these days. There was a seemingly sound argument behind keeping screen sizes small and that was the fact that you could easily use a small phone with just one hand.

In order to retain that one-hand functionality in its newer iPhones, Apple introduced a feature called 'Reachability': double tap on the Home key on your iPhone, and the app you're using slides down so that you could easily reach the top part.

More than two years after the introduction of Reachability, we live in a world, where big phones are not a rare sight, but the overwhelming majority. And we wondered: do people even use this shortcut on their iPhones these days?

Just as we suspected, the majority of users never or very rarely use this shortcut: more than 40% of our readers don't use it, while some 31% still do use it on a regular basis.

So having such a key shortcut occupied by something that is not used by many people just seems like a waste. After all, imagine if you could fire up the camera by double tapping the home button, a shortcut that we're sure many iPhone users would appreciate. Or maybe have the option to set your own shortcut for the double tap action, Apple?