Apple Quietly Fixes a 26-Year-Old Mac Keyboard Inconsistency

Apple has quietly fixed a small but long-standing issue with its Mac keyboards that had been around for 26 years. The problem was related to the mute button icon. For over two decades, there was a mismatch between the symbol on the physical mute key and the icon that appeared on the screen when the key was pressed.

This inconsistency dates all the way back to 1999, when the PowerBook G3 ‘Lombard’ was introduced. Now, with the release of the new MacBook Air featuring the M4 chip and the updated iPad Air’s Magic Keyboard, Apple has finally corrected this issue.

In the past, the physical mute key showed a basic speaker icon. However, when you pressed the key, a different icon appeared on the screen: a speaker with a strikethrough, which clearly showed that the sound was muted. While the key worked perfectly fine—toggling the sound on and off—the symbol on the key itself didn’t match what appeared on the screen. This mismatch caused confusion for users, even though the function itself was working correctly.

The new design, which is now featured on both the latest MacBook Air and the iPad Air’s Magic Keyboard, fixes this problem. The mute key now displays the same strikethrough speaker icon that appears on the screen when you press it. This change makes it much clearer and easier to understand, providing a consistent visual cue for users. It’s a small but important update that brings harmony to a basic keyboard feature.

This fix is a meaningful, though subtle, improvement to the overall user experience. While the issue might seem minor, it highlights a design oversight that persisted across many generations of Mac keyboards and models. The fact that it took 26 years to address shows how challenging it can be to maintain consistency across a wide range of products over such a long period of time.

This kind of careful attention to detail is typical of Apple’s approach to design. The fact that the updated mute key icon has been included in both the new MacBook Air and the iPad Air’s Magic Keyboard suggests that this change will likely be applied to all future Mac models. This includes the upcoming MacBook Pro with the M5 chip, which is expected to be released around October and will probably feature the updated key icon. This fix brings an end to a surprisingly long-standing design issue, offering a welcome resolution that users have been waiting for.