10 weird Android phone features we’ll never see again

Modern Android smartphones are incredibly refined, powerful, and capable. In the high-end segment in particular, handset makers are able to squeeze incredible compute power into sleek, luxurious chassis. That being said, to get to this point, we’ve also had to sacrifice a number of hardware features that were once a staple of the Android mobile ecosystem.

Looking back, my first Android phone from 2011 featured several hardware additions that, in the year 2026, have gone all but extinct. I’d personally love for these elements to make a comeback, though I don’t see this happening anytime in the short-to-medium-term future. Here are ten phone features in particular that are, in all likelihood, destined to remain relics of the past.

3.5mm headphone jack

For wired audio connectivity

When Apple axed the 3.5mm headphone jack from its iPhone 7 series back in 2016, the writing was on the wall for the century-old analog port. Initially, there were plenty of teething pains in the mobile space — which was quickly dominated by dongles and adapters — but fast-forward to today, and most of us now rely on Bluetooth-powered true wireless earbuds and headphones for all our audio-consumption needs. Nevertheless, the loss of the headphone jack remains a pain point for audiophiles the world over, and it unfortunately also spelled the end of the “pass the aux” road trip era.

microSD card slot

For inexpensive storage top-ups

While some phone makers never offered a microSD card slot to begin with — I’m looking at you, Apple and Google — others like Samsung relished in its utility. Expandable and user-replaceable storage was a mainstay of the early Android world, allowing users to top up their ROM capacity without breaking the bank in the process. While it’s true that the average microSD card is slower than the latest UFS flash storage built into modern handsets, the convenience factor alone has me longing for the good old days when memory card slots were a given.

Hot-swappable battery

For refueling in an instant

Back in the day, most Android phones had removable back plates that provided immediate access to their respective battery packs. This was highly convenient, as it allowed users to carry around charged-up secondary batteries for swapping out as needed. It also meant that old, worn out batteries could be easily replaced without having to disassemble the phone, which was a nice bonus. While the European Union has legislation in place to require manufacturers to outfit products with user-serviceable batteries starting in 2027, it doesn’t look like hot-swappable power packs themselves are a part of this legislation — though we’ll have to see how this pans out in the years to come.

Notification LED

For staying on top of alerts and status updates

Before we had always-on displays (AODs), notification LEDs were the go-to way of keeping tabs on missed notifications from across the room. Most Android phones featured a basic LED within their bezels, but some models included more advanced modules with RGB colors, unique pulsing effects, and more. Today, the spirit of the notification LED lives on through Nothing’s various Glyph Interface and Glyph Matrix displays, though there’s something about the simplicity of a basic LED light that no modern handset can quite measure up to in my eyes.

IR blaster

For controlling infrared accessories

For an (admittedly brief) period of time, just about every Android phone shipped with a dedicated IR blaster. This small module allowed users to control various household appliances using a dedicated app on their phones, even working as a substitute TV remote control in a pinch. Some phones still feature IR blasters today, but, aside from the OnePlus 15, the vast majority of these handsets aren’t available in the North American market. For better or worse, the days of pranking your friends by changing the TV channel remotely are probably over for good.

Rear-facing fingerprint sensor

For unlocking before your phone is out of your pocket

For a while, the trend within the Android space was to ship phones with rear-facing capacitive fingerprint sensors. This placement made a ton of sense, allowing you to essentially unlock your device with your index finger while simultaneously pulling it out of your pocket, and even acting as a makeshift trackpad for pulling down the notification shade when unlocked. These days, under-display optical and ultrasonic fingerprint sensors rule the roost, and it seems unlikely that rear-facing units will ever make a comeback. Capacitive fingerprint sensors themselves still exist on foldable phones and on tablets, but they tend to be embedded within the power button, instead.

Capacitive keys

For navigating in the pre-gesture era

In Android’s infancy, capacitive keys were the de facto control paradigm for navigating across the operating system. These touch-sensitive keys often lit up in the dark, and featured haptic feedback when tapped for added tactility. For a while, the standard configuration was home, menu, back, and search, but some manufacturers bucked this trend by implementing their own button layout instead. Capacitive keys were superseded by on-screen navigation keys, and later by gesture systems. Going back to tapping and prodding feels both retro and warmly familiar today, but such buttons are unlikely to ever return to the mainstream.

Home button

For going home the old-fashioned way

For the longest time, a dedicated, physical home button was commonplace on Samsung Galaxy phones, as well as on some other Android brands’ handsets. Similar to Apple’s iPhone home button of the time, the button did exactly what you’d expect it to do: it took you back to your home screen. In today’s gesture-based navigational paradigm, the home button feels rather antiquated, but there’s also something oddly satisfying about pressing down on a physical switch to exit a mobile application.

Trackball / Trackpad

For scrolling and panning without screen smudges

Early Android phones followed in BlackBerry’s footsteps by offering a dedicated trackball for navigating their interfaces without having to rely on their touch screens. To avoid display smudges, the trackball (and later the optical trackpad) was an ideal tool that got the job done. Of course, capacitive touch screens and multi-touch gestures would quickly conquer the tech world, and trackballs soon became a vestigial hardware component that eventually stopped making the cut entirely.

Physical keyboard

For efficiently typing out your emails

Before the release of the original iPhone, the notion of shipping a smartphone without a physical keyboard was an absolute absurdity (just ask then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer). Business professionals loved clacking on their BlackBerry keyboards to churn out emails on-the-go, and early Android phones embraced this same ethos. Of course, once it became clear that on-screen virtual keyboards could get the job done without sacrificing on-screen real estate or chassis thickness in the process, the physical phone keyboard’s days were numbered.