Sometime last week, we brought you a particularly disturbing rumor that Microsoft could very well ditch the hardware “Back” button in Windows Phone 8.1, and this rumor certainly did not make any Windows Phone users happy. That bit of news hailed from a report that can be found on Paul Thurrott’s Winsupersite page, which touted that the whole reason to remove the physical Back button in Windows Phone 8.1 was because Microsoft claimed that users “don’t realize what they’re doing” when the Back button is pressed many times. Still, the folks over at Microsoft have yet to step forward with an official confirmation or denial on the situation at hand.
Windows Phone users have certainly not taken this particular rumor well, and they have started an online protest with hopes to keep the Back button in existence. There was even a post on Microsoft’s official Windows Phone forums which enabled folks to cast their votes on feature suggestions, and just to get a better idea on the overall sentiment, one commenter on a forum thread stated, “I get that some people don’t get how to use the Back Button. Don’t disable it though. It’ll look awkward for those of us who have older models to have a non functioning button. Make it an option to disable it in the settings ! Please don’t make it a mandatory feature!”
Do you agree with the removal of the physical Back button?
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