How to Enable a Virtual Home Button on iPhone or iPad with AssistiveTouch

Table of Content

• Stop unexpected (and embarrassing) photo popups on your iPhone screen
• How to Enable a Virtual Home Button on iPhone or iPad with AssistiveTouch
• Customize the AssistiveTouch menu
• How to Add AssistiveTouch to Accessibility Shortcuts
• Top 5 Graphic Intensive FPS Games for Android in 2016
• Checking if the site connection is secure
• Use AssistiveTouch on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Apple has included a visible ‘Search’ button on the Home Screen of modern versions of iOS 16 and newer, that when tapped will bring up the devices search function. Alternatively, you can tap the - button to remove any menu button you don't want to use. Don't worry if you accidentally delete the Home button. After removing all the controls you don't want, you can edit one of the remaining buttons to be the Home button again. You can customize the default AssistiveTouch menu to meet your specific needs.

However, the same doesn’t hold true for accessibility settings. Many accessibility settings add a floating button or icon on the phone’s screen. If you have accidentally enabled it, here’s how to remove the floating button from iPhone and Android screen. If the floating button keeps appearing on your iPhone, you might have linked the AssistiveTouch feature to Accessibility Shortcuts. Basically, Accessibility shortcuts let you enable or disable the selected accessibility settings by triple-clicking either the side or the home button of your iPhone. If the floating button continues to show up on your Samsung Galaxy phone, you can try resetting accessibility settings.

Stop unexpected (and embarrassing) photo popups on your iPhone screen

With the Search button hidden, you’ll see the familiar string of dots across the bottom of the screen instead, which indicate pages of icons and the number of home screens that are available. Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since 1994. Her work has appeared in Computerworld, PC Magazine, Information Today, and many others. To put it in perspective, let’s take the example of the Color correction shortcut. So, after tapping on Accessibility, go to Color and motion followed by Color correction.

For example, if you want to change the options that appear in the AssistiveTouch menu, you can do that. Or, you can remove all the options except the Home button. Newer iPhone models no longer have a Home button, but if that's a feature that you would like to have back, you can add an onscreen Home button to your device using an AssistiveTouch feature. It's not the same experience, but it can still be helpful all the same. There are countless cases where the home button becomes unresponsive because of extensive use by the users. Apple probably encounters numerous issues from its customers, which is why they come up with a home button on the touch screen itself.

How to Enable a Virtual Home Button on iPhone or iPad with AssistiveTouch

Tapping once anywhere outside of the menu closes the AssistiveTouch menu. I swear I'm just about ready to give up on this company that builds computers with no connectivity to anything, and ruins the user experience with poorly designed UI updates and failed features. Now you can tap the onscreen virtual Home button to mimic a real Home button, it will perform the same actions as you’d expect, like returning to the iOS Home Screen from any app. Even if you remove the Search button, you can still access the feature by swiping down from anywhere on your home screen. Fortunately, most of these iOS 16 features and settings can be disabled or removed altogether.

I think it is an alternative to the actual home button to minimize its usage and also to slow down the wear and tear of the home button. Her love for Android and gadgets made her develop the first Android app for Kashmir. Known as Dial Kashmir, she won the prestigious Nari Shakti award from the President of India for the same. She has been writing about technology for many years and her favorite verticals include how-to guides, explainers, tips and tricks for Android, iOS/iPadOS, Windows, and web apps. Recording starts automatically when you touch the screen, so you can tap or swipe whenever you're ready.

Customize the AssistiveTouch menu

If you're accidentally ending calls by pressing the iPhone's side button, learn how to turn that feature off. For what it’s worth, you can still swipe on the Search button too to flip between home screens on the iPhone, so this setting adjustment is really for those who like to customize their experience. With AssistiveTouch on, a gray dot appears onscreen; tap this grey dot to access the Home button. There will appear a white huge dot on the screen of your iPhone which can be used as your alternative home button. To activate it, you have to follow the three simple steps below in this post. I remember the last time I was able to activate the home button to show up on the touch screen was on her iPhone 3GS, which is probably years ago.

After I gave an iPhone to my wife as a gift for this holiday season, one question she asked me is how can she activate the iPhone home button on the touch screen. That question got me scratching my head because I could not give her an exact answer. So, you might be unknowingly triple-clicking the side or home button and that could be activating the AssistiveTouch feature aka the floating button.

How to Add AssistiveTouch to Accessibility Shortcuts

His work has also been published on Lifehacker, iPhoneHacks, Zapier's blog, MakeUseOf, and Guiding Tech. Khamosh has nearly a decade of experience writing how-tos, features and technology guides on the internet. Your iPhone or iPad will tell you that once you enable the Accessibility Shortcuts feature, Emergency SOS will no longer work by triple-clicking the Side/Power button. Instead, you’ll now have to press and hold the Side button and one of the Volume buttons. Apple eliminated the Home button to accommodate larger screens without having to increase the size of the iPhone.

You can even create custom AssistiveTouch shortcuts for iPhone. Check out all AssistiveTouch features on Apple's website. If your phone is still under warranty or you have AppleCare, take your phone to an Apple Store. If you don't have a warranty or AppleCare, find a reputable phone repair shop.

Since there are multiple ways to access the Home screen, Apple decided that a physical button was superfluous. If you remove all of the AssistiveTouch buttons except the Home button, then it becomes a one-touch Home button that you drag around to any location on your screen. Since you want the home button function to show up on the screen, you need to go to ‘Touch’ which is under the ‘Physical and Motor’ feature. You will immediately see ‘AssistiveTouch’ toggle the designated button to turn it on. The latest iOS, particularly version 5.0 and above, introduced the assistive touch which may help prevent this problem from happening.

All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the Apple Support Community Terms of Use. The virtual Home button will disappear immediately when you turn off AssistiveTouch. You can also pinch the notifications to switch between the three Display As options. This feature is hidden in the Accessibility section of your settings. With iOS 16, you can now prevent Featured Photos, as well as curated collections known as Memories, from appearing in photo widgets on your home screen and the Search and For You sections in Photos.

Checking if the site connection is secure

Just by the way, you enabled the "stupid fake home button", not Apple. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site.