The findings come via iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who you may recognise from his attempts to port Siri to the iPhone 4. He’s sure to be causing a stir at Apple once again with his digging into the HomePod firmware.
An outline of the iPhone 8 was found in the firmware with no home button in sight to accommodate a “bezel-less” design. Further analysis found references to new features such as facial recognition and tap-to-wake.
For developers, however, they’ll be wanting to know how the virtual home button works and how it can be utilised.
For those excited to make innovative use of this new space, or have some customisation over it, prepare for disappointment.
The code indicates the home button indicator will be resizable, or hidden, but that’s as much as Apple is allowing currently. Unfortunately, apps cannot even be extended into this space.
