iPhone 16 Pro users are reporting unresponsive touchscreens

Some iPhone 16 Pro owners are reporting problems with the phone’s touchscreen.

According to 9to5Mac, a number of people online have claimed that their new premium iPhone (whether it’s the regular Pro or Pro Max) is not correctly registering every tap and swipe it should be registering. Obviously, this is problematic for a phone that almost entirely lacks real buttons. Having this problem would make it difficult to perform even basic tasks on an iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max.

The good news is that there seems to be a consensus on what’s happening and how to fix it. The predominant theory right now is that the problem is software-based, specifically that the accidental touch algorithm in iPhones (which is meant to disable the screen from unintended taps and swipes) is too sensitive. With the very small bezels on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, it might be a little too easy to accidentally have part of your hand on the screen without realizing it, which would disable taps and swipes on the rest of the screen.

9to5Mac also pointed out that this doesn’t happen when the phone is locked, and is much harder to replicate if the phone is in a case. In other words, this is almost certainly a software problem that is fixable on Apple’s end, and even before that happens, you can avoid it by putting your iPhone 16 Pro in a case or being more careful about where you touch the screen.