iPhone’s ‘secret’ button lets you take screenshots even faster – and there’s a long list of other perks too

CHECK the back of your iPhone right now – if all you see is a flat surface, you’re missing a trick.

That iPhone’s rear is actually a giant button with almost endless uses.

AFP

Double-tap on the back of your iPhone – it’s actually a ‘button’[/caption]

Apple has built a special setting into your iPhone that lets you tap on its back to activate certain features.

For instance, you can set it up so that a double tap on the rear takes a quick screenshot.

It’s generally faster if you’re using your iPhone with just one hand.

Similarly, you could set your iPhone to launch Shazam with a triple tap.

This makes it extremely easy to very quickly find out what music is playing nearby.

The feature is called Back Tap, and it’s available on millions of iPhones for free.

How to use Back Tap

It’s easy: just go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap.

Then simply choose from the long list of functions for both Double Tap and Triple Tap.

You can also set Back Tap to activate an action from the Shortcuts app.

Shortcuts lets you create quick-tap functions that do almost anything you want.

So you could have it create a GIF from a video, navigate straight to a web page, or play a music playlist.

Then you can assign any of these Shortcuts to Back Tap, just like you would with screenshots or Shazam.

Bear in mind that you might struggle to activate Back Tap if you have a very thick phone case.

Make sure to tap two or three times very clearly, or it won’t work.

The other downside is that you might sometimes find yourself activating it by accident.

You can change your Back Tap settings at any point, so try a few out a few combinations to see what you like best.

One more thing…

There’s also another secret button press that you may have missed.

You can set your iPhone’s Side Button to activate a feature when you triple-click it.

Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut.

Then you can tap on a feature to assign it to a fast triple-click of the Side Button.

For instance, you could set it to switch on Background Sounds, giving you a gentle rain noise to fall asleep to.

Or if you’re constantly having to look at very small things (like tiny instructions), try assigning the feature to the Magnifier app.

Just like Back Tap, you can change this at any time – and as often as you like.