Looks like Apple is working on Reachability support for iPhone X

Journalists have noticed that iPhone X doesn’t have Reachability but Brazilian iOS developer Guilherme Rambo‏ is suggesting that Cupertino may be bringing Reachability support to the upcoming OLED handset after all, and he posted video evidence to prove it.

His Twitter video shows Reachability in action on a virtual iPhone X, courtesy of the latest version of iOS Simulator. The new Xcode beta released yesterday comes with a more fully-fledged iPhone X Simulator so it’s quite possible that Reachability for iPhone X is part of the upcoming iOS 11.1 update or one of the subsequent updates.

“I don’t know which button you use [to invoke Reachability] though,” Guilherme added. Keep in mind that this could be nothing more that just some code residue.

I’ve tried many different gestures in iPhone X Simulator in the hope of invoking Reachability on the fly—from double-tapping and pulling down both the bottom line and the top bar, to two-finger taps and what not—but none of them worked.

For what it’s worth, Apple has always advertised Reachability as an assistive feature so perhaps this is something iPhone X owners could only find in the AssistiveTouch menu?

Like other assistive features, Reachability is available in the AssistiveTouch menu.

Reachability is an awesome feature that makes one-handed iPhone navigation way easier so I was kinda bummed to find out that it’s nowhere to be found on iPhone X. For the uninitiated, Reachability makes reaching the top of the screen as easy as double-tapping the Home button.

This slides the screen down so that you can reach everything with your thumb (works only in portrait mode). I’ll be be pleased if Apple adds Reachability to iPhone X via an iOS 11.x update.

Available on iPhone 6 and up, Reachability can be toggled in Settings → General → Accessibility.

According to comScore’s “2017 US Mobile App Report,” on average 55 percent of people said they used Reachability, with 76 percent of millennial iPhone users taking advantage of it. 39 percent of those aged 35-54 used Reachability versus 32 percent of those aged 55 and up.

The latest iOS Simulator has also revealed the new iPhone X Lock/Home screen experience.

For example—and not present in Apple’s current iPhone X marketing materials—a new indicator in the Lock screen’s top-right corner gives a cue that pulling down on the right side of the status bar invokes Control Center (as evidenced by the screenshot above).