Shortcuts and gestures let you do more with your phone in less time. You just need to know which one to use. Thanks to the rollout of iOS 14 and the efforts of third-party developers on Android, you now have access to a very useful new shortcut: tap the back of your phone to launch apps, take screenshots, open the camera and a lot more .
Tap back on an iPhone
If you are using an iPhone, the setup process is easier as the backup tap feature is built in iOS 14. You do need an iPhone 8 or later and a phone that supports Tap to Wake, because of the required sensors. You will not get the option to tap back on it iPhone SE, for example.
If you are using a compatible handset, go to from Settings Accessibility, thereafter Touch, thereafter Back Tap to enable the shortcuts and decide how they work. You can enable and configure both Double tap and Triple Tap if you want, giving you two different shortcuts that can be turned on in an instant.
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There are plenty of system shortcuts you can assign to a double or triple tap, including taking a screenshot, waking up Siri, muting your phone, locking the screen, and opening the Control Center. You can also launch various accessibility shortcuts, including the VoiceOver and Magnifier features.
Further down the list, you’ll see a selection of Siri Shortcuts, including any custom shortcuts you’ve previously set. Any Siri Shortcut can be assigned to a rear crane, making the possibilities almost endless. With a tap at the back, you can change your phone’s configuration, work with files, record photos and videos, get information from the Internet, and more. Thanks to Siri Shortcuts, you can tap back with just about any app you want.
A double or triple tap initiates your chosen action and (if applicable) a second double or triple tap undoes it. In the case of muting your phone, the shortcut on the back acts as a switch to turn mute on and off; if you have it set to open Control Center, the tap will show on the back then hide it.
There are quite a few iPhone gestures beyond the normal that you may never have discovered or forgotten. Swipe down on the text entry box to hide the keyboard, for example, or swipe left and right to delete numbers in the Calculator app, or double-tap to zoom in on Apple Maps. You can read even more gestures here.
Tap back on an Android phone
Tap back is a bit more complicated for Android users as it is not a feature built into the software on your handset. There were signs it could show up in Android 11, at least for Pixel phones, but in the end Google decided to take over the functionality – whether it will appear in a future update remains to be seen.
External developers have closed the gap, most notably Kieron Quinn at the XDA Developers community. His app is called Tap, Tap and should work on most Android phones. However, it’s still in beta so you may notice a few bugs or a few inconsistencies with your own specific device.
Tap, Tap is not available on Google Play Store at the time of writing, so you have to visit it this forum thread From your phone, follow the download link in the first message, then tap through the security warnings Android shows you about installing unknown software (it’s okay, you can trust this app).
Once you open the app, you can set and test the tap sensitivity, and make the app work with Android’s accessibility service so it can always ‘listen’ to your taps. You should also make sure Android doesn’t close the app to try and save battery, but again, Tap, Tap will walk you through this process.
When you get to the main screen of the app, you can further configure it: Select Double-tap Actions and Triple Tap Actions to choose what you want to happen with a tap of the back. You can launch apps, take screenshots, activate Google Assistant and a lot more. The app also allows you to set ‘gates’ for when the faucets work and when they don’t – for example, you can turn them off when the screen is off or when you’re on a call.
Tap, Tap is still beta software and can be hit with a bug every now and then, but it actually gives you a lot more control than Apple’s built-in solution. It’s great for launching the camera, doing a web search, checking your notifications and a whole lot more. Just like on iOS, Android supports a number of other gestures that you may not be aware of, and we’ve rounded up some of them here.