Your iPhone has three ‘hidden buttons’ – it’s life-changing once you know them all
MILLIONS of iPhones have “hidden buttons” that can perform very clever tricks.
There are some iPhone hacks that you may have missed – you just need to know where to look.
The Sun has revealed three hidden iPhone buttons that can instantly upgrade your smartphone.
iPhone hidden button #1 – Virtual Home button
Apple scrapped the Home button on most iPhone models years ago.
But you can get it back “virtually” with a simple iPhone hack.
It’s thanks to an accessibility hack called Assistive Touch.
“When you turn on AssistiveTouch, you’ll see a button appear on screen,” Apple explains.
“You can drag it to any edge of the screen, where it will stay until you move it again.
“By default, tapping the button once will open the AssistiveTouch menu.
“Tapping once anywhere outside of the menu will close it.”
To turn it on, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch.
Now choose Assistive Touch to turn it on.
You could also say “Hey Siri, turn on Assistive Touch” out loud.
It’s possible to use this feature to quickly access lots of gestures and settings on the iPhone.
And it’s customisable, so you can change how Assistive Touch works at any time.
iPhone hidden button #2 – Back Tap
The back of your iPhone might seem like a barren wasteland – but it’s got a magical secret.
In fact the Apple logo on the back of your device doubles up as a button.
It’s called “Back Tap”, and it was introduced with the iOS 14 software update rolled out to iPhones in 2020.
Scroll down and tap “Accessibility” and then hit “Touch”.
Then scroll down to “Back Tap”.
You’ll have the choice to turn on “Double Tap” or “Triple Tap”.
For instance, you could see a Double Tap to take a screenshot.
And you choose choose to Triple Tap for Shazam, allowing you to identify songs in an instant.
Bear in mind that Back Tap might not work very well if you have a thick phone case.
iPhone hidden button #3 – Side Button
You might think the button on the side of your iPhone is just for locking.
In reality it’s far more powerful.
If you’ve got an iPhone with Face ID, you can turn certain features on using by triple-clicking the side button.
It’s also possible to do this with the Home button if your iPhone has one.
You can set lots of different features to the “triple click” depending on you needs.
To find this clever iPhone hack, go into Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut.
Then choose the feature you want the most.
You can also change the activation speed of the clicks so that you don’t accidentally engage it.
The trick can be used to activate a Zoom function, or launch the iPhone’s built-in Magnifier camera.
And you can also use it to kick-start the Voice Control feature that lets you use the iPhone hands-free.
It’s also a great way to access Background Sounds.
This is a clever trick that plays white noise, rain or ocean sounds to help you get to sleep.