I can’t claim any credit for coming up with the idea for this feature request – it just seemed such a no-brainer to me that I’m endorsing John Gruber’s suggestion.
Apple had a problem with early iPhones. The screen – and therefore the keyboard – was tiny, so there was very little space to play with. It wasn’t really practical to use some of that extremely valuable real estate for an Undo button.
The company came up with an innovative solution to this: shake-to-undo. Gruber says that the way he heard it, the idea actually began as a joke.
The benefit of shake-to-undo is that it’s system-wide, so can be used in any app. The main drawback is that hardly anyone outside the tech world even knows that it exists – and I suspect that even many Apple fans may have forgotten all about it. I must say that I had.
Additionally, as Gruber adds, it can also be a little risky with today’s larger phones. Sending your phone flying across the room and breaking on the floor would be one way to undo something, but not the ideal way.
Gruber’s suggestion strikes me as one with no downside. There’s plenty of room on today’s iPhone screens for the tiny space needed for the Undo icon.
Just out of curiosity, I’m including a poll on shake-to-undo.
