Do you know the secret “button” on the back of your iPhone? It lets you turn on your camera or flashlight, or instantly activate Shazam to recognize a song before it changes, or bring up your iPhone’s Control Center or Notification Center without having to swipe down from the top of the screen. In fact, with a little imagination, you can perform almost any function on your phone with this feature.
The feature is called Back Tap, and like the Action button on newer iPhones, it gives you another way to interact with your device without touching the screen. You can activate it by tapping anywhere on the back of your phone, including the camera module. And the best part is that it works even if your iPhone has a pretty thick case.
Back Tap is available on iPhones starting with iPhone 8 and running iOS 14 or later. We’ll show you how to enable it and use it with your Shortcuts app for nearly endless possibilities.
What is the iPhone Back Tap feature?
Back Tap is an iPhone feature introduced in iOS 14. It allows you to execute shortcuts on your iPhone by double or triple tapping the back of the device.
You can customize Back Tap on your iPhone to easily perform common actions like bringing up Control Center or Notification Center – especially useful if you have a larger phone and can’t swipe down from the top of the screen without some complicated finger acrobatics. You can even enable two separate functions at once: Back Tap can distinguish between a double and a triple tap.
Depending on how often you touch the back of your iPhone, you can set double-tap to open the Camera app and triple-tap to take a screenshot. Or you can set double-tap to open Control Center and triple-tap to launch the Magnifier app. Experiment with back tapping to find the right combinations of taps and functions that best suit your needs.
And you’re not just limited to the Back Tap options available by default. Thanks to the Shortcuts app, you can set up Back Tap to perform specific functions or launch any app. For example, you can create a simple shortcut that opens Shazam or starts a voice recording, then activate it with a quick double or triple tap. You can also use Back Tap to trigger a more complex shortcut, like automatically sending photos and videos to specific photo albums.
How do I set up Back Tap on my iPhone?
To enable Back Tap, go to your Settings app. Then go to accessibility → Touch → Tap backThere you will find a list of options for configuring Double Tap and Triple Tap.
Here is the full list of functions you can map to a double or triple tap:
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None
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Accessibility link
system
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App switcher
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camera
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Control Center
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flashlight
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Home
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Lock rotation
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Lock screen
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Mute
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Notification Center
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Accessibility
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Screenshot
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shake
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Headlights
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Decrease volume
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Increase volume
accessibility
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AssistiveTouch
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Background noise
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Classic inversion
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Color filter
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Control nearby devices
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Weak flashing lights
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Live subtitles
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Live speech
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Magnifying glass
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Intelligent reversal
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Speak screen content
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VoiceOver
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zoom
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Zoom Controller
Scroll gestures
At the bottom of the menu you will also find a list of Links; these options vary depending on what’s available in your Shortcuts app.
The only potential downside to Back Tap is that you don’t get any tactile feedback when you use it, so you could accidentally trigger it at the wrong time and not realize it until later. For example, you could accidentally double tap and accidentally trigger your flashlight, in which case you should remap Double Tap to a less noticeable function. Or you could leave Double Tap off and just use Triple Tap, which you probably won’t trigger as often.
