Q: So, I have kind of a weird problem. Touchscreen phones don’t work very well for me. When I touch the screen of a smartphone, it often doesn’t recognize that I’ve touched it. The strange thing is my mom has the same problem with touchscreens. We’ve always figured it had something to do with our circulation or something, but neither of us has cold or clammy hands. Why don’t touchscreens like us?
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A: Good question, Britt! For starters, please know that most touchscreens don’t really work the way you’re describing them. Virtually all smartphones now have capacitive touchscreens. Basically that means that when your finger makes contact with the screen, or even just gets near it, it creates a tiny electrical disturbance on the surface of the screen that sends signals to the phone. That’s why you can?t operate most touchscreen phones while wearing gloves. So, don’t worry, it has nothing to do with poor circulation or clammy skin.
Now, Britt, you’ll be relieved to hear that you and your mother aren’t the only people in the world that suffer from this problem. We did a little research, and we found out that it’s so common that some people have actually taken to referring to this condition as “zombie fingers”. There aren’t really any official diagnoses of what causes “zombie fingers,” but there are few possibilities.
One is how you touch the screen. Most people use their index finger to touch phone screens, but based on the length of your other fingers they might also be dragging on the screen. As we hinted at earlier, you don’t actually have to touch a capacitive touchscreen to get it to react; you just have to get really close. So if your other fingers are close to the screen while you?re interacting with it, that could cause it to think it’s being touched when it’s not.
But what if you are just touching the screen with one finger and it’s still not working? Well, it may have to do with what you do for a living or even what your hobbies are.
We don’t know for sure (and let us know if we’re wrong), but we’re guessing that you may be a musician or in a profession where you work with your hands a lot. Why? Because another possible cause are calluses. As you know, calluses are dead skin, which means that they aren’t very electrically conductive. So when your calloused fingers touch the surface of the screen, it can’t detect the tiny disturbance in its electrical field that it needs to operate. You could try using a different, maybe less calloused finger and see if that makes a difference. If it doesn’t, you do have other options.
One really out-there suggestion we’ve heard is to use a piece of cold sausage to operate your touchscreen. We haven’t tried this, and we aren’t really recommending it (unless you want your phone to smell like sausage).
A more practical solution might be to purchase a capacitive stylus. Now, it has to be a capacitive stylus because they have a special nub on the tip that carries the electrical charge from your whole hand down to the screen. You can buy one online for cheap and operate any touchscreen phone with it. They actually work really well, although keeping track of one might be inconvenient.
Basically, Britt, don’t let a mysterious case of “zombie fingers” stop you from enjoying a nice new smartphone.
I’m heading out to find a capacitive stylus. I can’t use touch mouse’s either. Not only do I have hot and often clammy hands, (no callused fingertips though), as an energy healer, I have an inordinate amount of electrical current in my hands…I get shocked on nearly everything I tough…including water…and weird stuff like produce. I’m wondering if it might have more to do with our own electric conductivity more than any of the other things you’ve mentioned. Wonder if there is a study for that?
My index finger tips are scarred from my pre-IT work in mining and machining, not only do most touch screens require work to operate, I have to modify keyboards so I can feel the F and J nubs to touch type.
I have zombie fingers. Newer devices like the iPhone and iPad that use “predictive capacitive” touch can detect my fingers, but older cheaper devices that use “Surface capacitive” touch panels do not work for me. From my understanding, surface capacitive devices need to send the electrical charge into my body in order for the device to determine when and where it is being touched.
in addition to zombie fingers.. I can detect electrical currents in devices by touch. I can feel when my cell phone is plugged in and charging. The same goes for some laptops.
They don’t work for me, either. Zero calluses, clean hands, and my other fingers aren’t close to the screen. Very frustrating. I exchanged a new iPad Air 2 because of it. Same problem with the replacement. I have fingerprints so fine that the naked eye can barely detect any, but I’m told that’s not it. I am physically sensitive to many things, require less frequent and less volume of food than others, my BP is 85/58. Do I put out less electricity than others? Beats me.
I am unable to use Apple products. iPhone, iPad….none of the issues listed. I really think it’s my own electrical conductivity. People act baffled when I demonstrate. Zombie finger mystery.
Thank you for this article. I am sending people here that don’t believe me when I say I cannot operate a phone. I have never been able to operate a touchscreen. They very seldom respond to my touch, and when they do, they go crazy. I have never owned a smartphone and never will as I cannot use them. A stylus is a fair work around, but is difficult to use for me. I only use the stylus as my job bought me an iPhone 6 and insisted that I have to use it, so a stylus-ing I go! Everything these days is going to touchscreens, and it’s a little frightening as I will be left out due to a physical issue that I cannot correct. In ten years, I am going to have to buy those pens on chains and swap them out for styluses, then mount them all over my house, and in my car too…….. sucks!
I dont have what look like any different fingers, but i do play guitar and that hands fingertips did take years of abuse to get used to being abused daily. So there is probably areas where the skin is indeed tougher but not as in the normal ugly callous. However this does nothing to explain why the side of the fingers seem to respond the same.
The other side of touchscreens that don’t react to my fingers is that sometimes they will over-react, doing several (additional, unintended) things from a single touch… That’s why I have a non-smart slider phone.
This feels like vindication to me. My wife got me a smart phone and I hate every second of it. It frequently takes three to five attempts to make it register each command, making texting, gaming, even answering the phone a nightmare. She just thinks I’m clumsy and/or don’t understand technology, despite me assembling her computer from scratch, building a few RPGs and shooters as a hobby, and am a jeweler as a profession. I think I know how to aim my finger. To make matters worse, I’m on a family plan and can’t exchange or replace my phone for about 6 months, since I have to go back to where my parents live and have them present, in the store, at the time. yay. I’m not exited about having to use special gloves or a little wand just to answer the phone. I guess they only thought various hipsters and millennials would use smartphones, not hard working folks with calluses.