Microsoft Planning on Losing the Hardware Back button on Windows Phone?

According to all things Windows guru, Paul Thurrott; Microsoft might be ditching the hardware back key with Windows Phone 8. Claiming that most people still don’t seem to understand how the back navigation works (hell I still get confused all the time). The issue with the back button is that you’re never really sure if it will exit to the homescreen/previous app or just to the previous screen of the app you’re in (Pop Quiz: clicking on a toast notification from Twitter for a DM will open the app, after replying the back button will…..?).

Of course the back button is also used for multitasking in WP, as keeping it pressed brings up the app switcher; it’s unclear how this will work once the back button is gone (especially with the home button getting more functions such as double tapping if the rumors are true). The other major question is how will this affect the current generation of devices who already have this hardware key, and should be getting WP 8.1 *hopefully*?

There’re still plenty of things that are unclear at the moment, but right now ditching the back button doesn’t seem to be the end of the world to me. Provided Microsoft find an elegant solution to navigating the OS that is.

Source

Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone