The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max originally featured haptic buttons as part of Project Bongo
Haptic buttons are coming not just for the iPhone, but also devices including the iPad and the Apple Watch, as Project Bungo is said to have been revived.
In 2024, AppleInsider exclusively proved that Apple had intended for the iPhone 15 Pro to feature haptic buttons, replacing its physical ones. The design even reached Apple’s EVT-stage prototyping, and was later revealed in a patent application.
The so-called Project Bongo was reportedly cancelled because of continuing technical problems. Reportedly, test results were unsatisfactory, and there were high hardware failure rates.
Now, however, leaker Instant Digital has claimed on Chinese social media site Weibo, that Project Bongo has been revived. It’s not clear when Apple now hopes to introduce haptic buttons, but according to the leaker, the company is no longer planning to confine the technology to the iPhone.
“Apple [has begun] to explore the tactile button scheme for the whole production line,” claims the leaker (in translation), “including iPad and Apple Watch.”
There are no further details in this latest leak, but it does bring into question the same leaker’s April 2025 claim about the future of the project. In that leak, Instant Digital said that Project Bongo had been shelved, and that Apple was instead focusing its engineers on display and battery technology.
Specifically, the earlier leak said that Apple was facing problems of false touch recognition, and issues to do with the responsiveness of the haptic button.
Instant Digital has a mixed track record with Apple leaks. Sor ather than a month to month cancellation and revival, it seems more likely that Apple has just continued to work on the project.
That would at least imply that there has been some progress and that Apple is serious about replacing the physical buttons on now its iPad and Apple Watch, as well as the iPhone.
Should Apple replace the iPhone’s physical buttons, it would mean that it was getting closer to the idea of a portless iPhone.
