Do you find yourself missing your old iPhone’s home button? I know I sure do. The transition to newer iPhone models, without the physical home button, has left many of my friend group unimpressed by technological progress. I know that I often wish for the familiar, tactile experience of clicking a button. If you miss your home button like I do, well, you’re in luck! Here’s how to get it back (sort of).
This guide will show you how to add a virtual home button to your iPhone, ensuring you get the best of both worlds. Whether you’re navigating the cutting-edge design of the iPhone 15 or dealing with an older model’s wear and tear, here’s how to reintroduce the home button into your iPhone experience.
How to Get Your Home Button Back: Add a Virtual Home Button to Your iPhone!
It’s true that removing the home button has given us more screen space than ever. But a lot of people really miss the home button, and are even frustrated by its removal. Fortunately, Apple’s built-in accessibility features provide a perfect solution (this isn’t the only useful trick from accessibility settings). The feature in question, AssistiveTouch, allows users to create a customizable on-screen button for easy access to the iPhone’s home function, and many other useful things. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown on how best to turn it on.
Start by opening the Settings app on your iPhone.
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Go to General > Accessibility to access the wide array of options designed to make the iPhone more user-friendly.
Find and select AssistiveTouch from the list of options, then toggle it to the ‘On’ position.
Once activated, a semi-transparent button will appear on your screen. This button can be dragged to any location on the screen’s edge, ensuring it doesn’t interfere with your normal phone use. A single tap on this virtual button will unveil a menu with several options, including the home function, mimicking the physical home button’s capabilities.
For those who want to tailor their iPhone’s interface further, try clicking on the option “customize top level menu”. Here you can change what options there are when you expand the menu.
The crucial trick though, is this: In the section “custom actions”, click on “single tap”, and change it to “home”. Now, when you click the button once, you should go home just like that!
The introduction of iPhone models without a physical home button marked a major change in iPhone design, emphasizing larger, more immersive displays. Yet, for users who miss the home button, AssistiveTouch provides a simple yet effective workaround. By enabling this feature, you can enjoy the advancements of modern iPhone models without sacrificing one-click home access.
For iPhone users yearning for the return of the home button or seeking solutions for older models with broken home buttons, this workaround is a practical way to enhance your user experience short of buying an old iPhone or iPhone SE. Activate AssistiveTouch and customize it to fit your preferences, and it’s almost like your phone used to be, but newer and smarter. Hopefully you won’t find yourself homesick again (har-dee-har-har)!
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