iOS extremely cumbersome slide to answer

Apple has multiple different interaction patterns to prompt someone to unlock their phone. There’s the green answer button with red decline button, the chaotic lockup of multiple buttons that you can tap, and the iconic slide to answer screen. All of these have their place (I think?) though Apple is arguably best known for the slide-to-answer feature.

I’ve killed a few hours on planes recently playing games on my phone. Sometimes those games involve swiping or drawing specific shapes for any number of reasons within an app. It always amazes me how good the iPhone is at picking up where you are swiping, tapping, or sliding on a phone.

This got me wondering… what if answering your phone felt more like a game and less like a simple interaction? You could imagine dragging the little answer button through a maze until it unlocks and picks up the call. Sure, this would be annoying if you missed the call initially and are frantically trying to answer, but it’d also be quite fun. I doubt this would get implemented, but an opt-in game/maze experience could be pretty interesting.

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