That article was published in 2015, and the HN submission ends with "(2015)".
> But the back link is system controlled when you open an app from another app on iOS. It is not controlled by the app.
That's the back link to switch to the previous app, but it does not let you navigate within an app.
Having said that, yes, that criticism mostly applied to the "flat" iOS 7 (released in 2013), and some of the problems Apple has fixed in the intervening years, fortunately.
Unless I am going crazy, the (2015) wasn’t there originally.
The functionality of a universal back button was never consistent with Android.
Besides, the entire tenant of the original iPhone and every smart phone thereafter was to get rid of buttons and let the UI decide what made sense in certain contexts.
> But the back link is system controlled when you open an app from another app on iOS. It is not controlled by the app.
That's the back link to switch to the previous app, but it does not let you navigate within an app.
Having said that, yes, that criticism mostly applied to the "flat" iOS 7 (released in 2013), and some of the problems Apple has fixed in the intervening years, fortunately.