As nifty as your brand-new iPhone 16 Pro may be, there may be a few bugs to iron out on the software end.
Per Macworld and Reddit, a number of iPhone 16 Pro owners are complaining that the handsets are failing to respond correctly to touchscreen gestures. Certain actions appear to be setting off the touch-rejection algorithm, causing the screen to reject all or nearly all valid taps and swipes for a short period of time.
The issue could be related to the new Camera Control feature. In the words of one Redditor, “If one’s skin accidentally touches the area next to the new Camera Control button first, the whole screen becomes unresponsive until released, except for the home bar.” The subsequent behavior could vary according to context, but the end result is the same in that there is no tapping or swiping in Settings, and no swiping on the home page although tapping into apps may be possible.
The Redditor also commented that the zone around Camera Control “is the only area that causes the issue.” Other users have commented that a similar “dead spot” was found on the left-hand side of the phone, and a 9to5Mac article reported that the bugs have been spotted on all four edges of the touchscreen.
The issue itself seems to be sporadic among iPhone 16 Pro units that have been sold, and a number of users said they couldn’t replicate the issue, while others replicated it, but with some difficulty. Other users were seemingly able to replicate the issue with older models, but those instances were less common.
It’s theorized that this could be due to the bezel redesign which might be triggering the problem. This, along with a software issue, indicates that the fix could be found in a forthcoming software update.
Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge the issue, and it’s unknown as to when a fix might be forthcoming.
If you’ve seen this issue on your own iPhone 16 Pro, please let us know about your experience in the comments.