iPhone X tips: Miss the home button? Here's how to add a virtual one

The removal of the home button on the iPhone X is a bold decision by Apple, but some customers may find themselves pining for the way things once were. Thankfully, the home button is not gone entirely, as iOS allows you to add a customizable virtual one to your screen. AppleInsider explains how to do it.

AssistiveTouch is nothing new in iOS, and many users have taken advantage of this accessibility feature for years. But AssistiveTouch takes on a new role in the iPhone X, which lacks a home button in favor of a gesture-based home bar.

Using the home bar is an adjustment, and requires users to relearn how to interact with their iPhone. While most users will adapt, some may find themselves preferring the way things worked before.

Here's where AssistiveTouch fills that role: It not only allows you to have a home button-shaped virtual icon on the screen, but it can be customized to function just as the physical home button did before, including long pressing for Siri and double-pressing for multitasking.

To enable AssistiveTouch, open the Settings app and then navigate to General, then Accessibility, and scroll down to find AssistiveTouch. At the top, flip the switch to turn it on.

If you want it to work just like your old iPhone's home button, you'll need to dig into the custom actions. For Single-Tap, choose Home. For Double-Tap, select Multitasking. And for Long Press, choose Siri.

In addition, if you don't like the new location of Control Center (it's now accessed by swiping from the upper right corner), you can use AssistiveTouch to offer quick access to that, too. Under 3D Touch, choose Control Center, and then you'll be able to access it without having to swipe down from the top of the screen.

You can also adjust the opacity of the AssistiveTouch virtual home button so it's more subtle and does not obscure content as much. iOS 11 lets you reduce the visibility of AssistiveTouch to as little as 15 percent when not in use.

Finally, if you want your iPhone to function just as before, you'll want to press and hold on the AssistiveTouch button to drag it around. Place it at the bottom of the iPhone X display in the center, and you'll have a familiar experience. You can even leave the app dock empty so it doesn't obscure any apps on the home screen.

For more, see AppleInsider's ongoing iPhone X Tips series, some of which are featured below:

Got an iPhone X? Here are the tips and techniques you should know to get started

How to use animoji on Apple's iPhone X

How to invoke Control Center and Notification Center on iPhone X

How to enable and use Reachability on iPhone X

These low-cost wireless Qi chargers will juice your new iPhone X or iPhone 8

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25 Comments

JFC_PA 7 Years · 947 comments

About 7 years ago

I’ve used assistive touch for fast, convenient screenshots for a long time now.

Useful tool.

wood1208 10 Years · 2938 comments

If iPhone X and IOS 11, virtual home button appears under screen as picture and explanation suggested, it is like a home button under screen !!!. Tell you the truth, i played with iPhone X a bit and the black thin bar at the bottom for swipe up to get to the Home screen is awesome. I wish Apple just add that to the rest of iPhones so I don't have to click Home button to get to Home screen. Double tap to wake up screen and should do the same double tap where no apps are located to put the screen to sleep.

rrrize 13 Years · 38 comments

wood1208 said:

If iPhone X and IOS 11, virtual home button appears under screen as picture and explanation suggested, it is like a home button under screen !!!. Tell you the truth, i played with iPhone X a bit and the black thin bar at the bottom for swipe up to get to the Home screen is awesome. I wish Apple just add that to the rest of iPhones so I don't have to click Home button to get to Home screen. Double tap to wake up screen and should do the same double tap where no apps are located to put the screen to sleep.

I agree. I got used to the "home bar" after just a few hours yesterday. I really like it. But on another note, I don't know about the notch at top. I've heard all kinds of reviews of people saying they don't even notice it, but my experience has been quite the opposite. It really stands out like a swolen nose, especially when the screen is completely white like in iMessages, Mail, Contacts and I even notice it and cannot help but feel a bit annoyed by it when looking at video. ...sigh. Otherwise I love the size and feel and spped and I really like FaceID. Still playing with it so will discover more - but the notch is a no-g0 for me.

nhughes 15 Years · 768 comments

wood1208 said:

If iPhone X and IOS 11, virtual home button appears under screen as picture and explanation suggested, it is like a home button under screen !!!. Tell you the truth, i played with iPhone X a bit and the black thin bar at the bottom for swipe up to get to the Home screen is awesome. I wish Apple just add that to the rest of iPhones so I don't have to click Home button to get to Home screen. Double tap to wake up screen and should do the same double tap where no apps are located to put the screen to sleep.

rrrize said:

wood1208 said:

If iPhone X and IOS 11, virtual home button appears under screen as picture and explanation suggested, it is like a home button under screen !!!. Tell you the truth, i played with iPhone X a bit and the black thin bar at the bottom for swipe up to get to the Home screen is awesome. I wish Apple just add that to the rest of iPhones so I don't have to click Home button to get to Home screen. Double tap to wake up screen and should do the same double tap where no apps are located to put the screen to sleep.

I agree. I got used to the "home bar" after just a few hours yesterday. I really like it. But on another note, I don't know about the notch at top. I've heard all kinds of reviews of people saying they don't even notice it, but my experience has been quite the opposite. It really stands out like a swolen nose, especially when the screen is completely white like in iMessages, Mail, Contacts and I even notice it and cannot help but feel a bit annoyed by it when looking at video. ...sigh. Otherwise I love the size and feel and spped and I really like FaceID. Still playing with it so will discover more - but the notch is a no-g0 for me.

lightvox said:

Nope. Not for me. Already used to not having a Home button after less than a day, and I prefer not having a home button now. Much easier using the phone one-handed without a home button.

Notch is also fine and doesn't bother me one bit. Now that I've had the phone, I realized that without the notch, and with no home button, it would be really difficult to tell which side is top or bottom. The notch helps me easily orient the phone.

I'm very happy with the home bar and swipe gesture, but I hate, hate, hate the new multitasking view/interface. The app icons/windows feel unwieldy, like they are slipping on ice when I interact with them, not quite doing what I want. I also find myself instinctively wanting to swipe up to force close, even though that no longer works. And force closing is now done by long pressing and tapping a tiny icon, which takes longer and is less convenient.

I wonder if Apple did this to discourage people from the bad habit of needlessly and obsessively force closing all of their apps.

Either way, I think it's a step backwards. Hopefully a future iOS update brings back swiping up to force close. Apple actually did something similar already with the iPad multitasking/control center view on iOS 11. Early betas required a long press and icon tap to close, but later betas (and the eventual final release) brought back swipe up to force close.

Regardless, swiping up to return home is great. And left and right to jump between apps is a pleasure too. But the rest of the multitasking experience, not so much.