How to Use the Back of Your iPhone to Access Helpful Functions

How did we not know this?

If you’re a die-hard Apple fan, you might think you already know your way around the iPhone like it’s the back of your hand.

Well, we’re about to drop a bomb because we’ve just discovered another iPhone hack that even has us shook.

In a viral Instagram reel posted on 4 January by @tenilleserpa, she revealed that you can turn on a feature in the ‘Accessibility’ section on your phone to double or triple-tap the back and get it to perform a series of super helpful tasks.

I’ve been an Apple fan for years and I defs did not know this one.

All you have to do is head to the ‘Settings’ app in your phone and scroll down the ‘Accessibility’ tab.

From there, you’ll need to scroll down to the ‘Touch’ tab and then scroll to the bottom where the ‘Back Tap’ tab is.

In there, you can choose to turn on double-tap or triple-tap and select a function from the system.

There’s actually a pretty decent list of functions that you can choose from too. These include: 

• App Switcher
• Control Centre
• Home
• Lock Screen
• Mute
• Notification Centre
• Reachability (this brings content further down the screen for those with a iPhone plus)
• Screenshot
• Shake (undo)
• Siri
• Spotlight
• Volume Down
• Volume Up

If you’re a bit of a tech guru, you can also use back tap to access special features, like ejecting water from places in your iPhone where water definitely shouldn’t be.

Of course, we tried it out and it works like a charm. I’ve even got a case and a Popsocket on the back of my iPhone and I had no issues.

This means that you don’t need to tap the apple logo on the back of the phone (even if that’s what you were hoping for), you just need to tap the back.

The feature seems to work on anything above the iPhone 7, so if you’ve got an older model our hearts go out to you.

Apparently the feature snuck into the iPhone with the iOS 14 update some time in 2020 but we clearly missed it.

Header Image: Columbia Pictures