The iPhone X swaps out the Home button for a software Home bar. It also does away with the 3D Touch shortcut for quickly switching between the most recent apps. But it replaces it with something much better.
If you find that accessing the App Switcher is a bit too frustrating for you, or that you can’t always get it right, this new feature might be your savior.
How to Switch Between Recent Apps Faster on iPhone X
Instead of swiping on the Home bar, swipe sideways on it – left or right. You’ll instantly jump to the all you were using previously. Thanks to Apple’s A11 processor, this animation is butter smooth and oh so fast. Even after switching to the previous app, there’s no waiting for it to load back up from memory. No, it’s all there. Ready to be used.
And it gets better. You can keep swiping right to keep going back to the app you used before this one. And the one before that. And the one before that.
Start swiping left and you’ll start going back through the apps you just came from. For a couple of minutes, iOS remembers the sequence of the app and doesn’t overwrite the recent apps list after you switch between 2 apps (this is similar to how the four-finger swipe gesture works on the iPad).
This is a great feature for the real-life use case when you’re using two to three apps together and need to quickly switch between them. For me, it’s usually Safari, WhatsApp, and an email app. Just swiping sideways left or right to switch to Safari, seeing the information there and then switching back to WhatsApp happens so quickly it seems straight out of the future (like many things about the iPhone X).
Pro Tip for Using App Switcher
Using the App Switcher is cumbersome. Especially Apple’s official suggestion that you need to swipe up a bit and then pause. Instead, try swiping up at a 45-degree angle, to the right. This will get you to the App Switcher quickly and reliably, every single time.
What do you think of the new gestures on iPhone X? Share with us in the comments below.
Must read: Top 25 iPhone X Tips and Tricks
