Shortcuts and gestures can help you get more done with your phone in less time – you just need to know which ones are right to use. Thanks to the launch of iOS 14 and the efforts of third-party developers on Android, you can now access a new, very useful shortcut: tap the back of your phone to launch apps, take screenshots, open the camera and more.
Touch back on an iPhone
If you are using an iPhone, the setup process is simpler, because the back tap feature is integrated iOS 14. You need an iPhone 8 or later and a phone that supports Tap to Wake, because of the necessary sensors. You do not get the ringing option back on iPhone SE, for example.
If you are using a compatible device, in Settings go to Accessibility, then Touch, then Touch back to enable 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 activated in an instant.
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There are many system shortcuts that you can assign to a double or triple tap, including taking a screenshot, activating Siri, silencing the phone, locking the screen and opening the Control Center. You can also start several accessibility shortcuts, including VoiceOver and Magnifier.
Further down the list, you will see a selection of Siri shortcuts, including custom ones that you have previously configured. Any Siri shortcut can be assigned to a ringtone back, which means that the possibilities are almost endless. Back touches can change your phone’s configuration, work with files, record photos and videos, get information from the web and more. Thanks to Siri’s shortcuts, you can use back tap with almost any application of your choice.
A double or triple tap starts your chosen action and (when applicable) a second double or triple tap undoes again. In the case of silencing your phone, for example, the back touch shortcut acts as a mute and unmute button; if you configured it to open the Control Center, the back touch shows and then hides it.
There are very few iPhone gestures beyond the normal ones that you may never have discovered or forgotten. Swipe down in the text entry box to hide the keyboard, for example, or swipe left and right to delete digits in the Calculator application, or double-tap to zoom in on Apple Maps. You can read about some more gestures on here.
Touch back on an Android phone
Back tap is a little more complicated for Android users, because it is not a feature that is built into your device’s software. There were signs that it could appear in Android 11, at least for Pixel phones, but ultimately Google decided to pull the functionality – whether or not it will appear in a future update is yet to be seen.
Third-party developers have filled the gap, specifically Kieron Quinn in the XDA Developers community. Its app is called Tap, Tap and should work on most Android phones. It is still in beta, however, you may notice some bugs or inconsistencies with your own specific device.
Tap, Tap is not available on the Google Play Store at the time of writing, so you need to visit this forum topic from your phone, follow the download link on the first post and tap the security warnings that Android shows about installing unknown software (okay, you can trust this app).
After opening the app, you will be able to set and test the touch sensitivity and make the app work with the Android accessibility service so you can always be ‘listening’ to your touches. You’ll also need to make sure that Android doesn’t turn off the app to try to conserve battery life, but again, Tap, Tap guides you through this process.
When you get to the main screen of the application, you can further configure it: Choose Double touch actions and Triple touch actions to choose what you want to happen with a tap back. You can launch applications, take screenshots, activate the Google Assistant and more. The application also allows you to define “gates” for when the ringtones work and do not work – you can disable them when the screen is off, for example, or when you are on a call.
Tap, Tap is still beta software and can be hit by an occasional bug, but it actually offers much more control than Apple’s built-in solution. It’s great for launching the camera, performing a web search, viewing your notifications and more. As with iOS, Android supports a variety of other gestures that you may not be aware of, and we’ve collected some of them on here.