Some iPhone 16 Pro owners are complaining that their brand-new, extremely expensive phones are failing to perform one of their most basic functions: responding properly to touchscreen gestures. Certain actions seem to trigger the touch rejection algorithm, causing the display to reject all or nearly all valid taps and swipes for a short period of time.
The problem can This may be related to the new camera control feature. As one Reddit user explains, “If the skin accidentally touches the area next to the new camera control button, the entire screen becomes unresponsive until released, except for the home bar.” The subsequent behavior varies depending on the context, but is consistently annoying: no tapping or swiping in settings, no swiping on the home page, although it is possible to tap on apps.
The affected Redditor adds that the area around the camera control “is the only area that causes the issue,” but that doesn’t quite match other users’ experiences. One commenter on the same thread claims to have found a similar “dead spot” on the left side of the phone, and 9to5Mac reports that the bug has been spotted on all four edges.
It’s worth noting, however, that not all devices are affected. Many users surveyed on the Reddit thread said they couldn’t reproduce the issue; many others said they could, but only with difficulty, especially when using a case. Other users have apparently managed to reproduce the issue with older models, but these cases were less common.
It appears that users are accidentally triggering the iPhone’s palm or touch rejection system. This is an important part of a touch interface that allows the device to ignore skin contact with the hands holding it rather than trying to control it. But in this case, we’re getting false positives and it’s rejecting valid contacts. 9to5Mac also speculates that the 16 Pro’s particularly thin display bezels could be partly to blame, as this would result in more skin contact with the active display.
Despite the possible implication of the bezel design in triggering the issue, the good news is that this appears to be fundamentally a software issue rather than a hardware one, which should make it easier to fix with a regular iOS 18.0.1 update. Once Apple has identified the issue and found a solution, users can simply install a software update; they won’t need to take their phone to a repair shop or send it back for replacement.
However, Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge the problem, let alone offer a fix. So the answer for now may be to be patient. And, of course, don’t keep it that way.
