I know lots of Apple fanatics are extreme minimalists but I really think iOS should also steal the back button from the Android. I very much dislike when one app causes another app to open, and then I have to press the home button and find the original app to go back to it. And if I'm lucky, it's still in the same state as before.
> I really think iOS should also steal the back button from the Android.
There are many potentially interesting things in Android (although I think WebOS would be a far better source of ideas to steal, it's always been).
But not the back button. The back button is probably the worst part of Android's UI, it's the embodiment of "mystery meat" navigation and interface: a hardware button which behaves in a completely arbitrary and essentially random manner without providing any clue as to what will happen when it's tapped.
Android's back button is its single best feature. Without it, I might not still be using Android. What it should do: go back to the screen you were previously on. Android apps are generally full-screen apps; there's little mystery there (IMO).
Unfortunately, Google is mandating that it acquire "up button" semantics rather than back button semantics - for many apps, it's supposed to go to the "top" level before it exits out. That I'm not a fan of, and I'm afraid it's going to encourage its "mystery meat" nature, because it'll no longer act like a browser back button.
Have you ever used a palm pre? Being able to go forward, back, alt-tab and multitask all with a directional swipe beats the back button on any android device i have tried. Though I think either way beats iOS style.
> what it should do: go back to the screen you were previously on
At the time I used Android (1.6) this promise was broken nearly all the time, so you'd skip or just be unable to get to the exact screen you were looking for... removing that is very wise.
>Unfortunately, Google is mandating that it acquire "up button" semantics rather than back button semantics - for many apps, it's supposed to go to the "top" level before it exits out.
You have a source on that? I know of only one Google app that does this if called from an outside Activity or notification.
"If your app was reached via the system mechanisms of notifications or home screen widgets, Up behaves as described for app-to-app navigation, above.
"For the Back key, you should make navigation more predictably by inserting into the task's back stack the complete upward navigation path to the app's topmost screen. This way, a user who has forgotten how they entered your app can safely navigate to the app's topmost screen before exiting it.
"For example, Gmail's Home screen widget has a button for diving directly to its compose screen. After following that path, the Back key first returns to the Inbox, and from there continues to Home."
I got bitten by it just yesterday. I was setting an alarm. I pick the alarm, click on 'Time', set the time, hit the 'set' button. Then the time goes away and I'm back on the alarm screen, and I hit the back button to exit the app. But that 'cancels' my change and the alarm goes back to the old time.
It's a combination of setting alarms having too many screens, and android having trained me to hit back-back-back when I'm done with an app.
Hmm. When I'm done with an app, I usually hit the home key. I usually use 'back' when I'm taken to another app by some other means: an email notification, a link starting the browser, opening a file in a file browser. Perhaps the confusion lies in different usage behaviours?
And FWIW, I just tried doing what you describe with the ICS clock / alarm app. It worked as expected for me: after tapping "set", the alarm was set, and Back took me back to the clock, and another Back exited the app.
One practical way the new semi-broken approach affects me is with JustPictures, a photo viewing app. I use it in conjunction with ES File Explorer. It used to be that when you launched a photo from the file explorer, it would come up in JustPictures, and then you'd return to the file browser when you tapped Back. But now, after JustPictures was updated to better conform with guidelines a month or two back, it goes into its own "tile" view of the folder before sending me back to the file browser. This behaviour is according to the new guidelines, but I find it quite upsetting. I launched JustPictures not because it has its own top screen and file system navigation etc., but because it has more reasonable photo viewing functionality (specifically, file-based rather than media library based) than the gallery app.
The new Android approach seems focused on becoming more like iOS, where each app is its own silo, rather than how it started out, with activities blurring the distinction between apps and enabling a higher level of integration. But the more Android becomes like iOS, the less reason I have to prefer it over iOS.
There's actually a similar dynamic going on with Firefox. Firefox is slowly cloning Chrome's look and feel, and I have to work harder and harder to get the menu bar, status bar etc. back in place. The day I can no longer do that, is the day in which I might as well give up on Firefox and use Chrome. (Well, that and Chrome's text selection algorithm. It's absolutely hideous for this compulsive text-highlighting reader.)
"I just tried doing what you describe with the ICS clock / alarm app. It worked as expected for me: after tapping "set", the alarm was set, and Back took me back to the clock.."
Are these the screens you see?
- Clock with alarm time
- 'Alarms' page with list of alarms and 'add alarm' button
- 'Set alarm' page with time, repeat, ringtone, etc. and cancel/delete/ok buttons at the bottom
- Set time - with the dials for hour and minute, and cancel/set buttons at the bottom
I'm talking about adjusting the time dials, hitting 'Set', returning to the 'Set alarm' page, hitting back, which simulates hitting 'cancel', throws away my change (without asking for confirmation), and returns me to the 'Alarms' page.
Does this make more sense? I'm on Ice Cream Sandwich if that helps. (Being forced to upgrade a device with a smaller viewing area to an OS that assumes a galaxy-sized screen, that's a whole separate rant.)
I'm starting to realize it's partly because backing out of an app was a way in my mind to close the app. But ICS doesn't seem to pay attention to that anymore, so you're right, I should just hit the home key.
That's a problem of the app you're looking at, not the button itself.
The design guidelines clearly state that you _shouldn't_ hijack that button to change the default of 'back to last activity' unless you have a very good reason to do so.
If you constantly see apps behaving unexpectedly - file a bug/complain to the developer/search for a better suited alternative? That actually adheres to the platform guidelines.
It if confusing, but having been forced to use an Android device for the last two months, and now back with the iPhone, it did have some advantages. Sure, you wouldn't know what it would do, but before having to go home and you just press the back button, and sometimes it takes you where you wanted, sometime it doesn't. Then you just rerun the app.
> And yet, many iOS apps end up using screen space on a Back button.
I did not say "back" is a bad idea (seriously, read what's written, not what you think would be the easiest to pithily reply to). "Back" is a good idea when it is coherent and/or explorable. Which the android "Back" button is not, because it's mystery meat navigation.
iOS apps use screen space with a "Back" button, and that back button generally tells you where you're going to go back to[0]. Android's back button does not, you might go up in the application's hierarchy, you could go sideways into an other object of some sort from which you originally came, you could go to an other application, and you have no way to know without learning how each and every application hooks into that button.
[0] that's Apple UI guidelines, although even when applications don't implement it they won't just drop you into an other application "at random".
On Android you always go to the last Activity, whether that activity is from the same application or a different application. When you get something other than the last activity, that's because the developer is overriding the button's purpose.
> iOS "back" button is generally an "up" button, not a "back" button.
So's it on Android[0], except when it's a back button, or something else entirely.
Which, you may want to note, is the very issue I originally outlined with it: Android's back button behaves inconsistently and provides no way to discover its behavior in advance.
> For that reason, it's not nearly as useful as Android's.
Inconsistent behavior precludes usefulness. The iPhone's "back" buttons behave consistently (and explain where the user will land, if Apple's HIG are followed). Theoretically the Android back button could be more useful than iOS's, practically that is not the case.
> If your app was reached via the system mechanisms of notifications or home screen widgets, Up behaves as described for app-to-app navigation, above.
> For the Back key, you should make navigation more predictably by inserting into the task's back stack the complete upward navigation path to the app's topmost screen. This way, a user who has forgotten how they entered your app can safely navigate to the app's topmost screen before exiting it.
> For example, Gmail's Home screen widget has a button for diving directly to its compose screen. After following that path, the Back key first returns to the Inbox, and from there continues to Home.
You're quoting the reference I myself quoted elsewhere in these comments. I quoted it as evidential support for a trend in Android that I decry - one that may drive me away from Android, along with its movement away from the menu button towards cryptic app-specific icons and inconsistent menu button placement.
Moved from the Palm Pre (1st gen.) to Android on EVO 3D 6 months ago. AFAIAC, both the Back button and the Home button are crutches. I use it w-a-y to much b/c there is no card implementation (like webOS had). It was very easy to go back & forth between open apps and cards within the same app. Backswipe=last screen viewed.Simple. The inability to easily, definitively close apps (upswipe/throw off screen on webOS) is maddening. I never know if an app is "still" running or really closed (& don't know until I go home & pick app.... Sloppy, messy, maddening. I REALLY miss webOS.
That's like saying that the 'T' letter key on the keyboard behaves unpredictably and should be removed just because any program could map it to any other character or action.
As my iPhone ages, the double click on the home button is becoming harder and harder to do. The physical button itself just isn't very responsive anymore. Devoting this essential function to something that can degrade over time seems like a big oversight for a company that puts such stock into industrial engineering.
Actually it isn't. When your button wears out you can just buy a new iPhone. Same goes for fraying wires in Apple power supplies and USB cables. They have no economic incentive to provide longevity beyond the warranty period as they are primarily a hardware company.
Actually, due to a class-action lawsuit[1], Apple has to replace frayed MagSafe power adapters with the newer L-shape ones for free. I just got mine replaced a few weeks ago. I agree that Apple should have done a recall, or even notified users.
That's a step in the right direction, but the cord still frays at the brick end unless you leave a big loop before wrapping the cord around it. And the USB iPhone connector still frays. It would be nice if they'd adopt the standard flexible nubs designed specifically to avoid this fraying problem, but when aesthetics and practicality come into conflict at Apple, aesthetics usually wins.
Many have had some luck spraying a bit of WD40 on the 'home' button to get it working smoothly again.
I agree, however, that the home buttons on iPhones (and I assume iPod Touches and iPads) wear out too quickly. My 3Gs's home button was getting pretty bad after two years of use, even with lubrication, though I will admit to having gotten a fair amount of sand and possibly a bit of seawater in it, and having disassembled and reassembled it several times, so that may not have helped things.
I have only seen the problem of the home button becoming unresponsive on the iPhone 4. I didn't have that problem on any of the previous generations. Try taking the phone into an Apple Store and see if they will replace it for you.
In that case, you're either stuck with another physical button that will have the same problem, or one of those capacitive back buttons that I find extremely frustrating.
I agree with fragsworth -- the back button is almost a necessity and double-clicking the home button and clicking the first task switcher icon is a poor substitute.
It's missing so much that I find myself expecting the in-app back button to go back to the previous app if I click it enough. BTW, I've never owned an Android phone so my expectations aren't carried over from another OS -- it just seems natural and it's jarring when it's missing.
The back button isn't that great in Android. I'm never sure if back is going to take me back to another screen or out of the app completely. Sometimes if the app is launched from another app pressing back doesn't take you back to the originating app.
As an iOS and Android user the Home button is still my favorite. It's what I'm used to and for the most part they work the same on both platforms.
The back button should follow the users path; if I'm in an email, then a click a link, and then get an SMS then the back button should take me from the SMS message, back to the browser, and then back the email.
However, applications need an additional bit of UI so that from the SMS message you could go "back" to the list of all messages, etc within the app. It sounds like, on Android, there is some confusion between these two use cases and other issues that make it unreliable. It's a shame because the concept is sound.
Speaking of which: double-click is (IMHO) the worst possible solution for this. I keep accidentally getting to the search screen. "Home" button design is partially at fault here (why it's concave?) but the whole thing is clearly an after-thought addition to the system. Long-touch or some kind of a gesture would be way more convenient.
> Long-touch or some kind of a gesture would be way more convenient.
Precisely. And we already have the solution at hand, it just lacks implementation:
swipe up from the bottom of the screen
This would reveal the task switcher the same way it reveals the Notification Center, smoothly and progressively. It would thus give both instantaneous feedback and trivial cancellability. What's more, once the move is complete your finger will end up being very close to the switcher's row, so going back one step (or up to four steps, really) would be a swift swipe-tap.
Re "why it's concave?": Concave buttons are less likely to be pressed while sitting in your pocket - waking the screen, waking some background processes, draining the battery unnecessarily throughout the day.
To solve this problem, non-concave buttons (flat or convex) live in wells. These buttons in wells carry unnecessary aesthetic weight - lots of angles and short surfaces in a small space. Apple's hardware rarely carries such adornment - they do smooth, "authentic" surfaces.
As such, the Home button simply _is_ the well - and it's rarely pushed by accident.
I've learned this myself from someone else like you who has passed this on. When I bought my iPhone the manual was extremely vague on features like task switcher. Where did you learn this? (Sorry for going OT, I just wonder if there is a "Secret Guide" somewhere that I've missed.)
Safari has a bookmark to a pretty extensive "iPhone User Guide". It's been there from the start, but I'm sure almost no user knows it. I don't get why they didn't just pin it on the springboard or something (well I do, it'd look kind-of ugly and you should be able to use the phone without a manual, still...)
My favorite is actually the back swipe on the Veer (WebOS). It's a left moving swipe on the bottom bevel. It took me a little while to realize it existed, but now that I've learned it it's a joy to use.
If you turn on Multitasking Gestures (Settings -> General -> Multitasking Gestures -> ON) you can go "back" one app by four-finger swiping the current app off the screen to the left (i.e. swipe your fingers from right to left). iOS automatically puts the apps "beside" each other so the swipe works even if the apps were previously not launched consecutively. I do this when reading www.jimmyr.com to return to Safari if it launches the YouTube app. I also use this if I forget I'm in Airplane Mode and I get the 'Turn Off Airplane Mode or Use Wi-Fi to Access Data' error message that gives me the option to jump directly to 'Settings'; once I turn Wi-Fi back on I four-finger swipe to get back to the app. It's on iOS 5 on my iPad-1 but I think you might need a iPhone 4 or 4S to get Multitasking Gestures on an iPhone (I can't find how to turn it on in the settings for my iPhone 3GS). Edit: thanks to baddox for pointing out this is an iPad-only feature (confirmed here: http://www.apple.com/ios/features.html), or on iPhones that have been jailbroken.
You can double-click the home button, or use a four-finger swipe gesture, to pull up the list of “recent” applications along the bottom of the screen, and then tap one. Also, you can four-finger swipe right and left between applications.
The four-finger swipe only works on the iPad. That said, I love those gestures. I feel nearly as fast and as comfortable multitasking on my iPad as I do when doing similar light tasks (web browsing, music listening, IMing, etc.) on either of my desktop operating systems (Windows and Ubuntu).
... especially when you are typing in a form on safari, switch to something and then try to go back only to have safari reload your page (because of memory limitations). boom goes the form.
Having used an Android phone for a while, the back button was definitely a "feature" that I'm glad isn't on iOS - it very rarely does what you expect, and has a very odd feeling to it. It's probably the only button I've ever used where you never know quite what it will do.
Perhaps with the ICS interface guidelines being more heavily read this has improved, but on the phone I have it's a very bad interface.
> I very much dislike when one app causes another app to open, and then I have to press the home button and find the original app to go back to it.
While a bit more cumbersome than a back button, you can double-press the home button and the previous app will be on the left of the list of apps that appears on the bottom of the screen. No guarantees it'll remember its state, though :(
The back button doesn't make sense in Angry Birds. If an interface element is superfluous or unpredictable in Angry Birds then it makes no sense to bog down a touch interface with it.
Angry Birds may seem to be a silly little game, but it is not an edge case. It's an exemplar of interaction paradigms going forward.
