There’s no Home button on the iPhone X. This means you need to relearn more than a dozen new gestures. Maybe you don’t like some of them. Maybe they’re a bit too awkward for you, at least for now. If you’re looking for a stop gap, you’ll find the answer in AssistiveTouch. Apple’s accessibility feature essentially behaves as a software home button that can do a lot more than just take you home.
In the past, users have used AssistiveTouch when their home button was broken or in the era of iPhone 4s when they didn’t want the Home button to break after repeated use.
Once AssistiveTouch is enabled and set up, you can assign 3D Touch and long press shortcuts to the floating on-screen button. And when you tap on it, several shortcuts will show up – including things like accessing Siri, App Switcher, taking a Screenshot and more.
The 3 steps to get a virtual Home button on your iPhone X are as follows:
Step 1: Enable AssistiveTouch
Go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> AssistiveTouch and turn on the feature from the top. Now, you’ll see a floating home button. Frick it wherever you want.
Step 2: Customize AssistiveTouch Menu
Tap on the Customize Top Level Menu. This will show you a wheel of options that show up when you press the AssistiveTouch button. You’ll find the usual suspects like Control Center, Siri, Home, and Notifications. You can add more icons here. Tap on an icon to switch its behavior. Consider adding features like Multitasking and Screenshot.
Step 3: Customize Icon Actions
You can assign what happens when you single tap, double tap, long press and 3D Touch the AssistiveTouch icon.
You can use put the four most important actions here and let go to the menu altogether. For example, a single press can take you Home, a double press can open Multitasking, Long press can open Control Center and 3D Touch can bring up Siri.
And just like that, your on screen, software Home button is ready to use.
Gestures All Around
What do you think of all the new gestures in iPhone X? Do you think that some of them are a bit too awkward or will you get used to them in a week? Share with us in the comments below.
