I Thought We Buried the AI Button Until It Showed Up on This Phone

The Honor Magic 8 Pro is a phone most people outside China might never hear of, and that’s a real shame. Despite its limited release, Honor’s upcoming flagship deserves attention. Not only will it feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, but it also boasts a refreshing design in a world where most smartphones look nearly identical.

However, this otherwise impressive device comes with an unwelcome surprise — an AI button. In this age of generative AI, you’d think phone makers would have learned from the past, yet here we are again. Everyone hates AI buttons, and it’s worrying to see them creeping back into new designs.

The Long History of Alternate Buttons

Dedicated buttons for digital assistants have existed for years, and almost nobody remembers them fondly. The first major example was Samsung’s infamous Bixby button on the Galaxy S8. Back then, the idea seemed harmless: press a button to summon Samsung’s own voice assistant for quick tasks and information.

In reality, it was a constant source of annoyance. Accidental presses were common, and Bixby wasn’t exactly known for its reliability or usefulness. Developers quickly made apps to remap or disable the button, and eventually, even Samsung gave up and allowed users to turn it off. The feature quietly disappeared by the time of the Galaxy S20.

Yet, that didn’t stop others. Motorola introduced the Moto AI Key. Nothing released its so-called Essential Key — a name that’s ironically misleading. Even Google’s Active Edge feature let users summon Assistant by squeezing their phone, leading to frequent misfires. And now, OnePlus has removed its beloved alert slider entirely to replace it with an AI key.

What do these have in common? A quick Google search for any of them almost always begins with: “How to disable...” or “How to remap...” That should tell manufacturers everything they need to know.

When Is a Power Button Not a Power Button?

Recently, some companies stopped adding new AI buttons — instead, they’ve started hiding them. Many phones now trigger a voice assistant when you long-press the power button, instead of, well, powering off the device. It’s a subtle shift, but one that frustrates users every time it happens unexpectedly.

To be fair, reusing the power button makes accidental presses less likely, but it introduces a new kind of confusion. You expect it to turn off your phone, not launch an AI. When it does, it feels less like innovation and more like a trick. It’s a small bait-and-switch moment that can sour the user experience.

Sure, we rarely turn off our phones these days, and maybe that’s the justification. But replacing something as iconic as a power button’s function might just be a step too far. People want new features — not new frustrations.

Stop Trying to Force Change

Innovation should make life easier, not more complicated. Nobody’s asking for fewer features — we just want them to feel natural and optional, not mandatory. The Bixby button and other AI keys failed not because of what they offered, but because of how they were forced onto users.

They became the digital equivalent of an annoying younger sibling tagging along — always popping up when you least need them. Press the wrong spot, and suddenly your assistant interrupts whatever you were doing. It’s not fun, it’s not convenient, and it’s definitely not clever.

Replacing useful hardware — like OnePlus’s alert slider — with an AI button only makes matters worse. It’s a clear example of change for the sake of change, rather than meaningful progress. Users value consistency and control, not gimmicks dressed up as innovation.

So, what’s the right path forward? Keep AI integration software-based. Make it visible, easy to access, but never forced. Let users decide when and how they want to use AI tools. That’s how you build trust — not by sneaking assistants into hardware functions people already rely on.

Conclusion: A Mistake That Refuses to Die

AI buttons were a bad idea years ago, and they remain one today. Despite the rise of powerful models like Gemini, ChatGPT, and others, dedicated AI keys feel unnecessary and intrusive. The irony is that as AI gets smarter, the buttons built for it seem dumber than ever.

Manufacturers need to stop forcing these “innovations” onto consumers who never asked for them. If companies truly want people to embrace AI, they should focus on improving usefulness, accuracy, and integration — not on creating yet another button to press by mistake.