With the development and advancement of mobile phones, this button no longer needs to appear next to smartphones. Many Android phones feel that this button is useless to many users, so they do not imitate Apple phones and add this button. The mute button on the side of the mobile phone was first invented by Palm, so it can be excluded from patents. The reason why Apple started to set up this physical button is mainly because before iOS7, the iPhone did not have a control center, so it required a very troublesome operation to mute the sound through the software. For business people and office workers who often have meetings, they often need to mute the sound, so Apple must add a physical button.
Another reason is that compared to the open source Android system, Apple's closed system does not have as many silent modes. But Android users can set mute in a variety of ways, such as turning the phone upside down or customizing the mute. This is possible, but Apple phones are very limited. That's why Apple phones have to have a specific mute button, but Android phones don't have such considerations at all. That's why Android phones don't need a mute button next to them.
But now Apple’s mobile phones are also in the process of gradual changes, and many iPhone users have also said that Apple’s current buttons are very inconvenient. It is often encountered by chance, so Apple is currently in the process of gradual progress and improvement. The bottom line is that the key to an Apple phone isn't very useful to many people right now.
Summary; With the continuous development and improvement of mobile phone systems, Apple ios and Android will learn from each other, and the systems will become more and more similar in many functions. As far as current or future mobile phone designs are concerned, the setting of the mute button actually increases the difficulty of making a thin, waterproof, and hot integrated screen for mobile phones. As a result, Apple may soon remove the physical mute button from the iPhone as well.