When Microsoft first announced Windows Phone, one of the bullet points on its many lists of "must haves" was the inclusion of a physical camera button. It didn't matter which phone ran Microsoft's mobile operating system, whether it was a high-end flagship or a mid-range daily driver, one of the things it had to have was a physical camera button.
There are a lot of reasons why Microsoft's mobile OS didn't take off, but over the weekend I was talking with a friend, and he brought up that demand for the physical camera button as being one of the reasons. He pointed out that, despite having the backing of Microsoft, the market was never really busy with Windows Phone handsets.
This friend of mine was a big fan of Windows Phone back in the day, even owned almost as many devices running the platform as I did, and he was ultimately sad to see it go, too. Of course, he had abandoned the platform himself long before Microsoft effectively gave up on it, saying he needed app support, but I have a feeling that's the case for a lot of fans of the OS.
We wanted so much more, but, ultimately, we had to find solace in other platforms.
I never really put any thought into that physical camera button. At the time, when I was using phones that featured it, I was a fan of it, at least more often than not. Some phones just didn't make it worthwhile to use, because it was too slow to launch, or the button didn't respond quickly enough. Those things basically made the button itself pointless, which was always frustrating when it cropped up.
But when it worked it was pretty great, and I was okay with having a dedicated physical button taking up space on my phone. And now I'm back wondering if a dedicated button on the phone, one that isn't for turning the phone off and on, or controlling the volume, is a good idea because of the Samsung Galaxy S8.
Samsung's got their dedicated Bixby button, and while the obvious question for many is whether or not Samsung might let owners some day map that button to things like Google Assistant, I have started to wonder if, maybe, they'd let us map that button to any app on the phone we want. And, if that's the case, how many folks out there would map it to the camera?
I'd certainly give it a shot. Companies have tried a variety of different ways to make it easier and faster to launch the camera over the years. We've seen camera icons land on the home screen, or just being able to slide the lock screen to one side to access the shooter. We've seen companies try to tell us twisting the phone in mid-air is an easy way to launch the camera. Quickly double pressing the home button on a Galaxy S7 will launch the camera, too.
The placement of the Bixby button on the Galaxy S7 might make it more frustrating than anything else to use for the camera, though. But what about the idea in general? Do you think the physical camera button should make a return to our smartphones? Or do you think it's better off staying away? Let me know!
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