Ahem, lefties have a bone to pick with the iPhone

Lefties may represent about 10% of the population, but this 10% is definitely not having an easy time when it comes to all things iPhone.

If you take a moment to look at your iPhone, you’ll realize that plenty of features favor right-handedness. Right away (pun intended), when you go to unlock your iPhone, what do you do? You swipe right. There’s also the new app-switcher, which requires users to swipe right when they want to clear out the apps they are no longer using.

“The iPhone has never really been designed for lefties,” said Mic copy editor Kaitlyn Jakola. And then… iOS9 came into the picture and things got even worse. “Before, it seemed like the iOS was designed for everybody,” she explained. “Now it seems expressly meant for use by right-handed people.”

Since there is no way to fix this issue on the iPhone itself, Jakola has had to come up with her own solution.  She uses both hands to operate her phone, has downloaded a Swype keyboard (which allows consumers to type with one continuous motion across the screen), and taps with her right hand instead of her left. Since technology is supposed to make our lives easier, it seems that the iPhone is having the opposite effect on lefties.

“The only problem that I really run into is the ‘close’ button [on apps] is never on the left side,” software developer Bryan Liles told Mic. “And that’s just really for app developers to understand that you don’t know what hand the phone is going to be used in. I usually hold my phone in my left hand, not my right hand.”

It’s not the first time Apple has come under fire from lefties. The official Left Handers Club cried discrimination when the iPhone 4 model debuted, and the Apple Watch received similar criticism for its decidedly right-handed design.

While many are putting the blame on Apple, Liles also believes that software developers could be doing more to include lefties. “It’s not the iPhone, it’s the application developers,” he said. “Most people are right-handed, and a lot of people just don’t think about it as they’re building the apps.”

To fix this issue, Apple could add a mirror feature to iPhones. This would allow users to customize their phone so that it’s easier (and more comfortable) for them to use it. This feature, or any lefty-friendly addition, can’t come soon enough. As one Twitter user put it, “I’d celebrate in the streets for a ‘leftie’ mode on my iPhone.”

[Images via Apple]