Apple's long -rheumatted haptic button design surfaced in a patent application. Image Credit: Apple / Uspto
We can see the Haptic button on the future iPhone, as the Bongo project before Apple has recently surfaced in a patent application.
In 2022, Apple came up with the idea of adding Happy Volume and Power button to the more expensive iPhone model. Relative to the standard button used on the iPhone 14 range, the new HAPTIC button would have included a dedicated haptic engine for the vibration response.
This change was also to facilitate a visible difference between the base model iPhones of Apple and the more expensive “pro” lineup. In April 2023, the hardware was suddenly removed from the iPhone 15 Pro, and it was believed that all the work on the Bongo design was stopped. Surprisingly, however, it turns out that Apple filed a patent application for its haptic button design.
Although it was filed in September 2023, Apple's patent application was made public only in April 2025, which is the first time when Apple has accepted the Bongo design in any size or form. Patent filing contains depiction and details of the Hyptic button design, but otherwise it does not have an unknown information already.
Project Bongo, as it was known within Apple, created it in relatively development, in which the functional prototype was created. Nevertheless, Bongo design has not been used on mass production versions of any iPhone so far.
Appleinsider As an EVT-stage prototype iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple's haptic button on real-world hardware was the first to show. It was the final version of the iPhone 15 Pro showing the project Bongo, as it was suddenly removed from CRB and DVT-stage unit designs in April 2023.
Apple also tested the design on the pre-production prototype of the iPhone 16 range. Later, the Bongo design was seen on the drop-test prototype of the iPhone 14 Pro, with a thick, non-functional version of Apple's haptic button.
How Apple's HAPTIC FOUNG DEARS
Before making Apple's patent public, the details of the Bongo module design were already known. In our report, giving details of the EVT-stage prototype, we explained that Apple's haptic button used flexor and strain gauge to detect pressure changes. In short, once a press is detected, an electrical signal will be sent to “Bongo Haptic Engine”.
The patent application of Apple underlines a button with an integrated is an integrated engine. Image Credit: Apple / Uspto
The Bongo haptic engine was an electromagnetic reluctance motor, which included a ferromagnetic core and copper coil, which forms a solanoid together. This produced the heptic feedback in the same way as regular taptic engines, by oscillating in relation to an attraction plate located below.
Apple's patent application effectively describes Bongo Haptic Engine:
The haptic engine may include a core and an electric coil that is dealt with at least one part of the core. The core can be formed from a ferromagnetic material, ferrimagnetic material, or other suitable materials (eg, iron, ferrite, steel, iron material, a permanent magnet, iron alloy, etc.).
The patent application also explains how the whole process works, which we have returned in 2024:
When a user presses the button, the core attraction can move slightly towards the plate. One or more force sensors associated with heptic module (eg, one or more stress gauge) can be used to detect the user's press. In response to a processor or other circuitry that detects the press, the electrical signal can be applied to the electric coil. To produce a haptic output on the button, the electric coil around the core can be activated (eg, by a circuit that applies a current or current wave to the electric coil), which is attracted to the core attraction plate.
Apple's hardware details eventually come as no surprise, given that we have seen a completely functional prototype of the same technique. However, what is yet to be seen is whether the Bongo design will be rebuilt for the future iPhone, or perhaps completely something else.
Will future apple products include Haptic Volume and Power buttons?
While Apple's patent application eventually does not give any new information about its haptic button design, it includes an interesting tidbit. In part, it mentions that the Bongo design painted throughout the document can be used in “various electronic devices”, including smartphones, tablets, and more.
-xl.jpg)
Apple's Happy button design was used on the prototype of the iPhone 15 Pro. Image Credit: Appleinsider
The patent application suggests that it can also be used on wearballs, wrist equipment, head-mounted devices and “electronic pencils”. This means that the haptic button module, in theory, may appear on a day an Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro, or Apple Pencil.
Although it seems like a distant possibility on the inscribed value, it aligns with a rumor since April 2025. Licker Instant Digital claimed that Apple “still adjusting their reliability after touching and long-term use of the solid-state key.” At that time, he also said that “there was a problem of false touch”, and that “accountability could not be completely guaranteed.”
Given the claims and information of leakar Appleinsider Received about the Bongo project, Apple's haptic buttons have long been associated with technical difficulties. We were told that the project was originally given shelter due to the results of unsatisfactory testing and high hardware failure rates, and it still seems to be the case.
Nevertheless, Apple went through the problem of filing a patent application for its point-prone haptic button module, and the company tested the design in three different iPhone generations. There is a possibility that the Bongo design will one day revival in some size or form, and the company's patent application is a strong sign that it is not left in its entirety.