Apple’s iOS software has a few intelligent features built into it, some of which you’ll find in our iPhone tips and tricks, but Back Tap is one of our absolute favourites. We love it so much that we felt it deserves a separate explanation.
The Back Tap turns the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone into a secret button. Yes indeed. You can program a logo to take a screenshot on double-tap and launch Shazam on a triple-tap, for example, or you can set up a Siri shortcut to double-tap and triple-tap, for example, to call your partner.
However, backpressure is not enabled by default. Here’s what you can do with the Apple logo secret button and how to set up a Back Tap.
What is Back Tap, and what are the options?
The feature which turns the Apple logo on the back of an iPhone into a secret button is the Back Tap. It’s hidden in your iPhone’s accessibility settings and is disabled by default. If you turn it on, you choose several options that will occur when you double or triple-tap the logo on the iPhone’s back.
Standard options available for both double and triple touch:
- Nobody
- Accessibility shortcut
- Application switcher
- Control center
- House
- Lock screen
- Dumb
- Notification Center
- Reachability
- Screenshot
- Shake
- Siri in the spotlight
- Turn down the sound
- Increase the volume
- Auxiliary touch
- Classic invert
- Magnifier
- Smart inverting
- Speak on screen
- VoiceOver
- Enlarge
- Scroll down
- Scroll up
There are also Siri shortcuts at the bottom of the list of options. If you’ve created Siri shortcuts, they’ll appear here. If you haven’t, you can create a Siri shortcut, for example, send a WhatsApp message to your partner, show your newsfeed today, or call your friend. You can use any of the shortcuts you create as an option to double or triple tap the Apple logo.
What are Siri shortcuts, and how do they work?
How to set up the Apple logo as a secret button
To turn the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone into a secret button when double-tapped or triple-tapped, follow these steps:
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- Chris Hall, April 2021
- Open the settings on your iPhone
- Click on availability
- Click on touch
- Click on Back Click on the bottom
- Click on double tap
- Select the shortcut that should happen when you double-tap the Apple logo
- Click Back. Tap at the top of the screen.
- Click on triple-click
- Select the shortcut that should happen when you triple-click the Apple logo.
How to use the Apple logo as a secret button
Once set up, Back Tap is very easy to use. It would help if you doubled or triple tap on the iPhone’s back where the Apple logo is. In our experience, this works even if you have a case, although we certainly haven’t tried it with all instances.
You don’t need to press the logo, double or triple tap the logo with your finger, and the shortcut you have chosen for this action will happen immediately, be it a call or a screenshot.
Note. If you have a case, perhaps you need to note where the Apple logo is on your device. For example, the iPhone 11 and 12 have it in the middle of the back, while the iPhone XR has it above the average in the top third.
