How to get assistive Touch on iPhone

Assistive Touch is an impressive feature which comes under Accessibility. Once activated, you can use the virtual home button to find and adjust certain settings on your device, such as volume, rotate the screen, lock the screen, and more. There are several ways to enable Assistive Touch (show the virtual home button).

Option 1: Turn on Assistive Touch in Settings App

With this option, you can easily show or hide the virtual Home button.

Step 1: Go to Settings > General > Accessibility.

Step 2: Scroll down to the Assistive Touch.

Step 3: Turn on the Assistive Touch button. You will see a white icon with an overlay. The virtual Home button is disappearing when Assistive Touch is turned off.

Option 2: Tell Siri to Turn on the Assistive Touch

Before using this option, make sure your device has Siri enabled. You need an Internet connection via Wi-Fi or cellular data.

Press and hold the Home button until Siri asks: "What can I help you with?". Then you can say "Turn on Assistive Touch". When it opens then Assistive Touch, you will see the Assistive Touch menu.

Option 3: Enable accessibility shortcuts to enable Assistive Touch

There is a handy iOS setting that allows you to turn accessibility on or off by clicking the Home button three times. Apple does not enable this feature by default, so you must first set up an accessibility shortcut for Assistive Touch before it can be used.

Step 1: Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and scroll down to Accessibility Shortcut.

Step 2: Under the triple-click the Home button for option, select Assistive Touch.

Now, you can turn the Assistive Touch on or off by holding down the Home button three times.

You can adjust the speed of triple-click as follows:

Step 1: Go to Settings > General > Accessibility.

Step 2: Tap on Home Button then choose the Speed you want.

Related Articles

Not everyone is as comfortable pressing buttons or performing different actions on the touchscreen. Limited strength in the fingers or reduced mobility can make some tasks that others find trivial almost impossible. Thanks to Assistive Touch in iOS, there are other options to make those tasks easier.

What’s That White Dot On Your Screen?

I’ve had a few people ask about the white dot on my iPhone screen. This is an Accessibility feature that can help you use your iPhone despite problems you might have pressing buttons or touching the screen. It works without any extra accessories. At the same time, the feature can make use of adaptive accessories, like joysticks, if you prefer.

With this feature enabled, a simple tap on the screen can accomplish tasks that would otherwise require multi-finger gestures, double taps, pressing buttons, etc. In my own case, I use it to activate Apple Pay, take screenshots, lock my screen, and restart my iPhone. There are many more possibilities.

Turning On Assistive Touch

Enabling this accessibility feature is as simple as asking Siri. Just activate the voice assistant and say, “Siri, turn on Assistive Touch”. Your iPhone will show a white dot on the screen, which you can tap to activate a menu of options.

Alternatively, you can activate the menu through the Settings app. You’ll also take this route if you want to customize the menu to change which tasks you use it to complete.

• In the Settings app, tap Accessibility > Touch > Assistive Touch
• Turn on Assistive Touch
• Now you can customize the menu, adding additional buttons or removing ones you don’t need.

You should explore the various options here, since the possibilities are so numerous. Assistive Touch can even launch Shortcuts you’ve created. In addition to configuring the icons shown when you single tap the Assistive Touch menu button, you can also set up what the iPhone does if you double tap our long press the dot.

The below video shows enabling Assistive Touch and changing the menu choices.

• Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch and move the slider to On.
• A virtual on-screen Home button appears on the screen. Tap the icon to open the menu.

This article explains how to add the AssistiveTouch button to iPhones running iOS 12 and up and how to use AssistiveTouch. Still, these tips apply to all iPhones, not only ones with a Home button. That means they work with the iPhone X and newer, even though those models don't have a Home button.

To add a home button to your iPhone screen by enabling AssistiveTouch, follow these steps:

1. In iOS 13 and up tap Settings > Accessibility.

   If you're using iOS 12, go to Settings > General > Accessibility.

2. Go to Touch > AssistiveTouch to find the button to turn it on.

   If you're using iOS 12, just tap AssistiveTouch from the Accessibility screen.

3. On the AssistiveTouch screen, move the slider to on/green.

4. A new, round icon appears on your screen. That's your new virtual onscreen Home button.

With AssistiveTouch touch turned on, here's how to use it.

Tapping the icon brings up a menu with the following options:

• Notifications: Provides quick access to Notification Center.
• Custom: Lets you access any custom shortcuts or actions you've created.
• Device: Offers one-touch access to common features like locking the phone, raising and lowering volume, mute, and more.
• Siri: Launches Siri (big surprise, right?).
• Control Center: Reveals Control Center (another surprise).
• Home: The equivalent of clicking the Home button. Just like the physical Home button, you can also double-tap it. 

When you select any of these options, you can go back by tapping the back arrow at the center of the window.

You drag and drop the AssistiveTouch icon to move around the screen to a position that's most comfortable or useful to you. 

Want to change the actions that are triggered when you tap or double tap the AssistiveTouch onscreen Home button? You can. Just follow these steps:

1. In iOS 13 and up, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch.

   In iOS 12, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch.

2. You can control what happens for a Single-Tap, Double-Tap, or Long Press. Tap the menu for the action you want to customize.

3. Select the action you want from the available list.

4. For Double-Tap and Long Press, you can also control the amount of time required for the action before it times out. Control this in the Double-Tap Timeout and Long Press Duration menus, respectively.

You can also make the virtual Home button more or less opaque when it's not in use. Tap the Idle Opacity button and move the slider to your desired transparency.

Don't want your onscreen Home button any longer? Turn off AssistiveTouch by following these steps:

1. In iOS 13 and up, tap Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch.

   If you're using iOS 12, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch.

2. Move the AssistiveTouch slider to off/white.

AssistiveTouch puts a virtual Home button on your iPhone's screen. This virtual Home button allows you to perform the same actions as pressing the Home button, but by tapping an onscreen icon instead. It also contains shortcuts to common tasks that involve the Home button and allows you to customize the shortcuts triggered by tapping it.

AssistiveTouch was originally designed for people with physical conditions that make it hard for them to press the button. Since then, it's also been used as a workaround for broken Home buttons (for instance, it can help fix an iPhone that won't turn off), by people who are worried the Home button will wear out if they click it too much (that's not true, by the way), and by those who like the convenience of the feature.

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