Latest news with #iOS14
CNET
5 days ago
- CNET
Want to Open an iPhone App Without Touching the Screen? Here's How
If you don't have an iPhone 16, you might think you're missing out on the new Camera Control button that lets you quickly open the camera app. Luckily, if you have an iPhone from the past few years, there's already a hidden "button" that can open the camera -- or any other app. To access it, all you need to do is tap the back of your device. The feature is part of the Back Tap tool in your iPhone's accessibility settings. Once enabled, it can trigger almost anything your phone can do, from turning on the flashlight to opening Shazam before a song ends. You can even set it to open the Control Center, take a screenshot or run a custom Shortcut with two or three quick taps. It's fast, discreet and surprisingly powerful once you set it up. The feature is called Back Tap and, like the Action Button on newer iPhones, it gives you one more way to interact with your device without touching the screen. You can activate it by tapping anywhere on the back of your phone, including on the camera module. The best part is that it works even if you have a fairly thick case on your iPhone. Back Tap is available on iPhones as old as iPhone 8, as long as they're running iOS 14 or later. We'll show you how to enable it and how to use it with your Shortcuts app for nearly endless possibilities. Read more: All the Ways the iPhone 16's Camera Control Button Will Change Your iPhone Photography What is the iPhone Back Tap feature? Back Tap is an iPhone feature introduced in iOS 14. It lets you perform shortcuts on your iPhone by double or triple tapping on the back of the device. You can customize Back Tap on your iPhone to easily perform common actions like pulling up the 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 complex finger gymnastics. You can even have two separate functions enabled at the same time: Back Tap can distinguish between a Double Tap and a Triple Tap. Depending on the number of times you touch the back of your iPhone, you can set Double Tap to open your Notification Center and Triple Tap to take a screenshot. Or, you can make Double Tap open the Control Center and Triple Tap launch the Magnifier app. Experiment with Back Tap to find the right combinations of taps and functions that best fit your needs. And you aren't limited to just the Back Tap options that are 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 Tap or Triple Tap. You can also use Back Tap to trigger a more elaborate shortcut, such as 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 → Back Tap. There, you'll find a list of options for configuring Double Tap and Triple Tap. Here is the full list of functions that you can map to a Double Tap or Triple Tap: None Accessibility Shortcut System App Switcher Camera Control Center Flashlight Home Lock Rotation Lock Screen Mute Notification Center Reachability Screenshot Shake Spotlight Volume Down Volume Up Accessibility AssistiveTouch Background Sounds Classic Invert Color Filters Control Nearby Devices Dim Flashing Lights Live Captions Live Speech Magnifier Smart Invert Speak Screen VoiceOver Zoom Zoom Controller Scroll Gestures Scroll Down Scroll Up At the bottom of the menu, you'll also see a list of Shortcuts. These options will vary depending on what's available in your Shortcuts app. The one potential downside to Back Tap is that you don't get any tactile feedback when you use it so you might accidentally trigger it at the wrong time and not realize it until later. For instance, you might double tap without meaning to and set off your flashlight by accident. In that case, you might want to remap your Double Tap to a less conspicuous function. Or, you can leave Double Tap off and only use Triple Tap, which you probably won't trigger as often. How do I use Back Tap to take a quick photo? One way to set up Back Tap is to map Double Tap to the Camera and Triple Tap to Volume Up or Volume Down. Because you can press either of the volume buttons to instantly take a picture, you can get the same effect if your volume buttons are mapped to Back Tap. With this combination, you can capture a photo with five quick taps on the back of your iPhone (though you'll have to pause briefly between performing the Double Tap and Triple Tap, so that your phone can distinguish between the two actions). This Back Tap combination even works if your phone is locked. Again, spend some time trying out different combinations of taps and features to find which ones are most useful for you.
Hindustan Times
27-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Default apps on iPhone: How to switch from Safari and Mail to others like Chrome and Gmail
If you own an iPhone and want to change the default apps, now you can do so. Gone are the times when you couldn't and were limited to the apps that Apple wanted you to use, especially the Safari browser. Some of this functionality came with iOS 14, and now with iOS 18.2, you have a wide range of apps that you can set as default. So, you have to have iOS 18.2 or later versions installed in order to change the default apps on your iPhone, including selecting third-party apps for email, messaging, calling, call filtering, web Browse, passwords, as well as the keyboard. Wondering how to do it? Here are a few easy steps on how to change the default apps on your iPhone. Also Read: Google to let users test Android 16 desktop mode on phones with external display support, here's how Step 1: Open the Settings app on your all the way down and tap on Apps. Step 2: You will now see an option called Default Apps at the top of the Apps section. Tap on it. Step 3: In the Default Apps section, you'll see various categories including Email, Messaging, Calling, Call Filtering, and more. Step 4: Depending on which category you want to customise, let's go with Email for this example, you can select a third-party app. For instance, if you've installed Gmail from the App Store, you can set it as your default instead of Apple's Mail app. Similarly, for the Calling app, you can choose FaceTime, Phone, or WhatsApp, if web browsing, you can also select other browsers like Chrome. There are also options for changing defaults for Keyboards, Passwords & Codes, and Translation. It should be noted that with iOS 14, Apple introduced the ability to change the default browser and default mail app. Previously, this option was somewhat hidden. You had to open a compatible app like Chrome and then choose it as the default browser from within that app's settings. But now, the process is more streamlined, and new categories have been added over time. MOBILE FINDER: iPhone 16 LATEST Price, Specs And More
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Yahoo
Skip Your iPhone's Lockscreen: Here's the Hidden Flashlight Trick You Need to Know
Not long ago, your iPhone's lockscreen would only allow two app shortcuts that you couldn't change: camera controls and a flashlight toggle. However, iOS 18.2 allows you to customize these shortcuts to almost anything you might want. This small but impactful change is one of many ways iOS 18 supercharges customization for iPhone and iPad users. But what if you still want an easy-to-access way to toggle your flashlight without unlocking your phone? Apple introduced an accessibility feature in iOS 14 that, once enabled, allows you to perform actions by just tapping on the back of your phone. The feature is called Tap Back and it remains a sleeper feature that's sneakily hidden away in your settings menu. Enabling Tap Back essentially allows you to create a button on the back of your iPhone to perform an action without needing to take up any space. Once you have Tap Back enabled, it doesn't take long to see how much of a game-changer it can be with its added convenience. Below, we'll show you how to set it up so a couple of taps on the back of your iPhone will let you launch just about anything you want. For more, check out what's in the latest iOS 18.4 release. Whether you want to link Back Tap with your flashlight, camera or launch a different iPhone app, the path through your iPhone settings begins the same way. On your compatible iPhone (iPhone 8 or later), launch the Settings application and go to Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Now you have the option to launch your action (in this case, your flashlight) with either two or three taps. Although two taps is obviously faster, I would suggest three taps because if you fidget with your phone, it's easy to accidentally trigger the accessibility feature. Once you choose a tap option, select the Flashlight option -- or a different action if you prefer. You'll see over 30 options to choose from, including system options like Siri or taking a screenshot, to accessibility-specific functions like opening a magnifier or turning on real-time live captions. You can also set up Back Tap to open the Control Center, go back home, mute your audio, turn the volume up and down and run any shortcuts you've downloaded or created. You'll know you've successfully selected your choice when a blue checkmark appears to the right of the action. You could actually set up two shortcuts this way -- one that's triggered by two taps and one that's triggered by three taps to the iPhone's back cover. Once you exit the Settings application, you can try out the newly enabled Back Tap feature by tapping the back of your iPhone -- in my case, to turn on the flashlight. To turn off the flashlight, you can tap on the back of your iPhone as well, but you can also just turn it off from your lock screen if that's easier. For more great iPhone tips, here's how to keep your iPhone screen from dimming" target="_blank all the time and canceling all those subscriptions" target="_blank you don't want or need.
