Through the years, Apple has built an extensive list of tools that can make getting around your iPhone a whole lot easier, and the rather blandly named Back Tap is one that tends to fly under the radar. It may not be flashy, but this accessibility shortcut can give you quick access to a number of features that you might otherwise find it annoying to open. All you need to do is double or triple tap on the back of your phone.
That’s right, the back of your phone. If you’re familiar with this shortcut or iOS accessibility settings in general, that’s not exactly news: Back Tap has been available since Apple released iOS 14 in 2020 and works on iPhone 8 and all later models. But no matter your experience, it’s always good to know what your device’s built-in tools can do, and Back Tap can do a lot.
How to find and use Back Tap
To get started, open your iPhone’s Settings app, tap Accessibilityafter Playscroll down to find touch backand touch it to set or edit your shortcuts. You only get two: Double touch Y triple tapand you can assign a task to each. Choose from around 30 options by tapping on each one.
Once you set up some back tapping actions, you’ll have to get used to tapping on the back of your phone, and doing so can be a bit finicky. If you play with the wrong rhythm, it may not work; we found that proper pacing was akin to double-clicking a mouse or knocking on someone’s door. You also won’t have to hit your phone too hard, even with a case. Fairly light taps with the right timing will work, but if your finger taps are too strong or, yes, too weak, nothing will happen.
With that in mind, we have a few favorite shortcuts among the many options.
More accessibility shortcuts
Right at the top of the Back Tap options list is Accessibility shortcut. Link this to your taps, and you essentially get a bunch of shortcuts for the price of one. When you touch the back of your phone, the accessibility shortcut menu will appear at the bottom of the screen, and you can store it with all the shortcuts your phone has to offer.
To do this, go back to the main screen. Accessibility settings page and scroll down to Accessibility shortcut (under the General Vault). From there, you can tap your chosen shortcuts to add them to your list (a blue tick means they’re there), and tap and drag the three lines next to each one to rearrange the order they appear.
screen rotation
Anyone who prefers to use their phone in portrait mode but likes to watch videos in landscape mode knows the difficulty of navigating to the little orange screen rotation lock icon. You can add a shortcut to Control Center, but it’s not the easiest to access. With Back Tap, you can quickly lock or unlock your phone’s screen rotation at will.
Camera
There are many ways to access your iPhone’s camera (swipe left on the lock screen, for example), but it can be a bit difficult to access when you’re inside an app. Link Camera to Back Tap, and you can double or triple tap on the back of your phone to start taking photos.
text last image
Speaking of photos, the text last image The shortcut is a quick way to send the last photo you took to one or more of your contacts. The first time you use it, your phone will ask if you want to allow the shortcut to send a photo once, always, or never. Once you allow it to do its thing, the familiar Messages window will appear, with the image preloaded in the draft. Just add some contacts, any text you want and send it.
magnifying glass
Apple’s magnifying glass is another accessibility shortcut you can access in other ways, but tapping the back of your phone may be the fastest. Back Tap makes this especially useful if you use the tool frequently. When it’s open, use the slider to zoom in and out, and the other options to adjust the brightness, contrast, and color of what you’re seeing on the screen. You can even turn on the flashlight to illuminate whatever you’re trying to look at if the ambient light is too dim.