5 Older iPhone Features Users Want Back

Apple continues to iterate on the iPhone, its flagship smartphone that Steve Jobs introduced in 2007 at the Macworld Conference and Expo during his keynote address. As we embrace newer generations of iPhone and upgrades to iOS, the iPhone operating system, there are features we must say goodbye to. Sometimes, Apple includes features that people love, such as Face ID, AirDrop, Math Notes, FaceTime, the Back Tap, and seamless integration with other Apple products like Macs and Apple Watches. Other times, Apple removes features that some people can’t do without, such as 3D Touch, Touch ID, the headphone jack, and the ability to disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from the Control Center.

As phones got smaller, technology got better, and digital safety standards changed, among other things, Apple has had to make some tough decisions on what to include. Maybe someday Apple will bring some of them back, as it did with the battery percentage when it removed it and got a ton of backlash.

In many forums asking people what iPhone features they miss the most, 3D Touch is usually mentioned. This short-lived feature was introduced with the iPhone 6s in 2015 and was removed with the iPhone XR in 2018. 3D Touch allowed for pressure-sensitive gestures. For example, you could hard-press an email, photo, or link to see a preview. For some app icons, such as Netflix and Google Chrome, hard-pressing them would reveal a submenu with more actions. A Reddit commenter said that they miss 3D Touch because it allowed them to aim and shoot without lifting a finger in first-person shooter (FPS) games.

Retiring 3D Touch meant that Apple removed the hardware that allows for pressure-sensitive presses. It’s probably gone for good. It’s likely that Apple removed it because it wasn’t a popular feature. In its place, you have Haptic Touch, a software-based solution that uses long presses followed by vibration feedback for gestures. This gives you something similar to 3D Touch while being easier to use and implement.

However, for that particular FPS example, this would not work because some games implemented that feature specifically for 3D Touch. People also preferred 3D Touch because it was faster than Haptic Touch. Maybe if more people used it, Apple would have kept it.

When the iPhone had a Home button, it also had one of the best biometric security features around: Touch ID. All you had to do was register your fingerprints in Settings, and you could unlock the iPhone, authenticate logins, or authorize payments quickly, easily, and securely. You just had to place your finger on the Home button, where the fingerprint scanner is located, to use Touch ID. It wasn’t perfect, though, as it was a pain to use when fingers were wet or covered in gloves. When edge-to-edge displays became a thing, the dramatic redesign that came with the iPhone X completely removed Touch ID and introduced Face ID.

Face ID allows you to do pretty much everything you used to with Touch ID. The front camera scans your face when you look at it and authenticates you to access locked content. It’s not just any regular face-scanning technology, either. The iPhone’s TrueDepth camera creates an in-depth 3D scan of your face, allowing for a more secure and convenient way of authentication that works in various scenarios and can’t easily be tricked.

Many users love Face ID and have moved on from Touch ID. Others bemoan the removal of Touch ID because it was more reliable. Besides, not everyone wants to provide facial scans of themselves. Luckily, passcodes still exist, but they’re much slower and can be guessed (something that’s not a problem for biometrics).

Before the iPhone 7, iPhones included a 3.5mm headphone jack for inserting all manner of wired earbuds and headphones. With its removal, Apple was pushing forward with a wireless future, introducing the AirPods alongside the iPhone 7. But as we have come to know, the quality of Bluetooth audio cannot match the quality provided by wired audio. It’s something the average person will not notice, but audiophiles know it too well, which is why they prefer wired headphones over wireless headphones.

One reason Apple said it removed the headphone jack is that it wanted to make more space inside the iPhone. While the connector looked small on the outside, it took a lot of valuable internal space, which could be used for other features. Furthermore, removing the jack also meant that the iPhone became more water-resistant, something which is a massive positive.

People can still use wired earbuds and headphones on the iPhone using a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter on iPhone 14 and older or a USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter on iPhone 15 and newer. However, it removes the seamlessness of the built-in audio jack, creating friction when it comes to scenarios like buying the adapters (these can be easy to lose), the inability to charge the iPhone while using wired earbuds and headphones, and the need to charge the wireless listening devices.

The Control Center has also undergone some major changes over the years. It used to be the case that you could completely turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from the Control Center by just tapping the icons. However, that all changed with the introduction of iOS 11. The icons were still there, but tapping them just disconnected the phone from devices and networks instead of turning them off. The iPhone will then automatically turn them on again at 5 AM in your local time or when you restart your device. Wi-Fi will also be re-enabled when you move to a different location.

There are people who don’t want to keep Bluetooth on all the time. It’s a security risk that can trick people into allowing unknown connection requests and let hackers see what devices the iPhone has recently paired with. To turn off Bluetooth completely, users have to go to Settings > Bluetooth and toggle it off. For Wi-Fi, they have to go to Settings > Wi-Fi and do the same. This is less convenient to the point that some would rather just keep these settings on.

With the release of iTunes 12.7 in September 2017, Apple removed the ability to organize apps in this popular media player and device manager. Before this, you could connect your iPhone to iTunes and organize apps across your iPhone’s pages on the Home screen using the “Apps” tab. People found it easier because all the iPhone’s pages were visible within this screen, allowing them to click and drag apps between them quickly. Doing it on the iPhone is clumsy and tedious if there are a lot of apps since you have to drag the app across various pages before placing it where you want to.

Deleting apps was much faster, too. You could just click the “X” button in the top-left corner of the app icons you want to delete and then click “Sync” to get rid of them all at once. Now you have to do it one by one, even when in Edit mode.

Apple has even moved on from iTunes entirely by completely removing it from macOS when it released Catalina in 2019. What iTunes could do was split into separate built-in applications, including Apple Music for managing the music library and Finder for managing devices. It’s an indicator that this feature is never coming back. iTunes is still available on Windows, but Apple is encouraging users to migrate to standalone apps, with Apple Devices being the go-to for device management.