Last night I realized that I am a left-handed person in a world of right-handed iPhones.
I’m used to living in a right-handed world. It’s full of right-handed things—scissors, bread knives, clothing, the locks on exterior doors, so many things presume the user is right handed. We lefties just learn to adapt.
But the right-handed iPhone presents a challenge. Like many people, I keep my phone on “silent.” But my new iPhone 16 doesn’t stay on silent. To my surprise, suddenly it rings. So I put it back on silent. That’s fine for a bit, but then it rings again. And last night I figured out why: it’s a right-handed phone and I’m a lefty.
My older iPhones didn’t have this problem. You put the phone on silent by sliding a switch on the left side of the phone, just above the volume buttons. Here’s what that looks like on my old iPhone 6s.
But instead of that slider switch, the iPhone 16 has an “action button.” Here’s what that button looks like.
To perform an action, you press the action button. To turn on the ringer, press the action button. To put the phone on “silent,” press the button again. Elegant. Simple. This is supposed to be an improvement, because a button is easier to access than a slider switch, especially when you put a case on the phone—that makes the slider harder to access.
Except the action button holds a special surprise if you’re a lefty.
Here’s how I typically hold my phone to talk or to read something onscreen.
It’s in my left hand. Notice that I brace the phone with my thumb, which basically covers the action button on the left, and I grip the right side of the phone with my fingers.
So when I hold the phone in my left hand my thumb keeps pressing the action button by accident, which causes it to switch from "ring" to "silent" or from "silent" to "ring"—I’m just trying to hold the phone, not press the buttons.
A right-handed person will hold the phone in their right hand, as it was meant to be held: fingers grip low on the left side of the phone, below the buttons; thumb braces high on the right.
I can solve the problem of the randomly activated “ring” by reprogramming the action button. I can set it to turn on the camera, or to activate “do not disturb” mode, or to record a memo, or to activate some other function which I don’t want it to do.
But the only way to avoid inadvertently triggering whatever the action button is supposed to do is by setting it to “No Action.”
So in order to stop my right-handed iPhone from randomly switching from “ring” to “silent” I have to turn the action button into an “inaction button.” Thanks, Apple.
Another thing about right-handed iPhones: while holding the device I also inadvertently raise and lower the volume, because those buttons are on the left side as well, but that’s another issue.
