Why don't many phones have a mute button?

"Why can't Android phones basically have a physical button on the side that can mute the sound with one click, like Apple does?"

Many netizens have also discovered that every generation of iPhone phones has a mute button, but few Android phones have this function. I believe many netizens are also puzzled by this. Could it be that the iPhone applied for a patent that prevented Android phones from adding a mute button on the side? Today, a netizen happened to raise a question about this issue, and the editor will answer it here.

In fact, setting a mute button on the side is not an iPhone patent. This technology was first created by Palm, and there is no patent threshold, so you can rest assured in this regard. Without the patent factor, why don’t many Android phones add a mute button on the side? This involves the difference between Android and iOS systems.

Simply put, because the early iOS lacked a control center, Android had a unique widget desktop. That is, before iOS7, because there was no control center, iPhone needed very complicated operations to mute the phone without a physical button, which is the main reason why iPhone has always had this mute button. Android's open source makes Android much better than iOS in this regard, and it does not require very complicated operations to mute the phone, such as long pressing the volume "-" to mute, sliding the screen to mute, muting the status bar tool, turning the phone over to mute, and customizing the button mute and other functions, resulting in Android having no need to add a physical mute button. In fact, it can be summarized in one sentence that "Android sells open source, iPhone sells design" is precisely this reason, which also makes Android much better than iPhone in many practical small functions.

Secondly, relatively speaking, adding physical buttons requires increasing the corresponding design costs, maintenance costs, etc. Moreover, the function of this function key itself is small. Since it uses the Android system, there are simply too many mute functions, and users have more ways to replace this physical mute key. Therefore, when designing a new mobile phone, many mobile phone manufacturers consider that user demand is not great, so they rarely do this thankless task.

Although the iPhone is still a benchmark in the mobile phone industry, and many mobile phone manufacturers have followed suit, the iOS system of the iPhone itself has both advantages and disadvantages compared to Android. Therefore, even when many mobile phone manufacturers imitate the design of the iPhone, they will not blindly imitate all of it. After all, Android has its own advantages. Why not use the advantages and be accused of copying? Although a physical mute button is more convenient in some cases, Android phones can be customized!

In summary, there is not much demand from users, and the advantages of the Android system itself mean that there is no need to spend extra money to add a mute button on Android phones.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.