We have seen tons of leaks and rumors claiming something different is going to happen on the rear side of the upcoming iPhone 7, but the front of the device will remain unchanged. However, a recently leaked photo of purportedly iPhone 7 front side claims to reveal that the iPhone 7 might have a touch-sensitive home button instead of a physical one.
The leaked photo of an alleged iPhone 7 reveals that the front side of the device remains almost identical to the iPhone 6s/6 with slight changes to the upper and bottom of the bezels that appears to be narrower in the leaked photo. The most notable change visible in the leaked photo is the touch-sensitive home button instead of a physical one that has been found on all the iPhone devices launched by Apple to date.
This alleged iPhone 7 leaked photo has been published by MobiPicker and the sources tell the publisher that the home button now sits in flush with the front panel of the device and will continue to feature an integrated Touch ID sensor. Everything that users were able to do with the physical button would be achieved with a touch interaction, such as tapping and holding the touch button to bring up the Siri double tap for app switcher
Please note that Apple made its iPhone home button touch sensitive in iPhone 6 or later models, but it is only used for toggling the Reachability feature.
It is not the first time that we are hearing of a touch-sensitive home button for iPhone 7 models. We have also seen some mockups of how Apple can implement touch-sensitive button into the front panel of its iPhone 7.
iPhone 7 and the larger iPhone 7 Plus are expected to be launched in September this year. These upcoming iPhone models are expected to have a design similar to the current iPhone 6s / 6s Plus with minor changes to the location of antenna bands. The upcoming iPhone model is also expected to be water and dust resistant, incorporate a slightly larger battery, lack of 3.5mm audio jack.