Your iPhone has a hidden on-screen home button — here’s how it works

1. Go to the Accessibility settings

To make use of an ever-present, on-screen button on your iPhone, open the Settings app and select Accessibility.

2. Activate AssistiveTouch

Now select Touch, choose AssistiveTouch and turn on AssistiveTouch.

You can also avoid both of these steps if you say, “Hey Siri, turn on AssistiveTouch”.

3. Create a shortcut (alternative method)

You can also make Assistive Touch available to you when you triple-click the Side Button on your iPhone.

To do this, select Accessibility Shortcut and tap AssistiveTouch from the list of options.

4. Customise the menu

A button should have appeared on the screen (you can tap and hold the button to move it around).

You can now customise the options that will appear when you tap the button. Select Customise Top Level Menu then tap an icon. Choose from the list of controls that will appear on the screen.

You can also use the + and – buttons to change the number of buttons that appear in the menu.

5. Use the menu

To use the menu, tap the on-screen button once and select one of the options that appear.

If this doesn’t work, select Single-Tap under Custom Actions, choose Open Menu then tap the on-screen button again.

6. Add more functions

Other functions can be added to the button that depend on whether it’s double-tapped or long-pressed. Select Double-Tap or Long-Press and select one of the options to assign it.

Test it out by double-tapping or long-pressing the button.

7. Create your own gesture

An option called Custom will be available to you when you tap the button. This can perform any gesture-based task you wish.

Select Create New Gesture then record the taps and swipes that you want to perform when the Custom button is pressed. Select Stop when you’re done and select Save.

Now test it: tap the button, select Custom and it should perform the gesture for you.