5 iOS Accessibility Features You Should Try (Even If You Don’t Need Them)

iPhone’s accessibility features are for everyone, even if there’s no permanent disability that prevents you from comfortably using your device. They also help you when you experience a temporary injury or situational obstacle that prevents you from fully using your iPhone as you normally would. But even if it’s not that bad and you just need to perform certain actions faster or enjoy your iPhone in a different way, the platform’s accessibility features can meet your needs. You just need to know which ones to try.

For example, you can customize iPhone’s Back Tap feature to perform actions that you find awkward with normal gestures or don’t want to navigate through multiple menu options to find what you want. If you want a more vivid iPhone, you can turn off animations. There’s even a way for iPhone to alert you when it hears a particular sound or plays sounds that help you focus or relax. So if you’ve already explored some useful iOS settings, don’t skip these accessibility features…even if you think you don’t need them.

Taking a screenshot on iPhone can sometimes cause you to accidentally lock your iPhone. Some people also find it annoying to move their thumb all the way to the top of the iPhone to open Control Center or Notification Center. But with Back Tap, any of these actions can be performed by double or triple tapping the back of your phone. Back Tap was introduced as an accessibility feature to help people with motor difficulties perform actions on their iPhone, eliminating the need to reach for a remote button or part of the screen to perform a gesture. For someone who has no physical limitations, it remains a quick way to perform all kinds of actions.

Here’s how to customize iPhone’s Back Tap feature:

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap Accessibility.

3. Tap Touch.

4. Tap Double-click or triple-click.

5. Select the action you want it to perform.

One thing to note is that Back Tap can be inconsistent at times. For this to work properly, make sure your faucets have enough pressure and are not too slow. Additionally, the double tap can be too sensitive, triggering false activations when you do something as simple as putting down your phone, for example. If this happens to you frequently, try mapping this action to the triple tap instead and disabling the double back tap.

With AssistiveTouch, you can add a button to your iPhone’s home screen that opens a menu containing various actions that you can trigger with the press of a button. It overlays everything else on your phone, even the lock screen, so you can always access it. Many people use this feature to restore some functionality to the Home button, which Apple removed several years ago. But once you explore this feature, you’ll find that you can even perform complex gestures with just one click, which can be very convenient. Here’s how to activate AssistiveTouch:

1. Open Settings.

2. Tap Accessibility.

3. Tap Touch.

4. Tap AssistiveTouch.

5. Enable AssistiveTouch.

At this point, the AssistiveTouch button will appear on the screen. When you tap it, you’ll see a menu with several icons, such as Screenshot, Control Center, and Device, all of which are actions. You can also customize this menu further. To do this, access the AssistiveTouch screen then:

1. Tap Customize Top Level Menu.

2. Tap the plus icon to add more icons (there can be a maximum of eight icons).

3. Tap an icon to see the available actions.

4. Select one of the options to assign it to the icon.

Maybe you don’t want the AssistiveTouch button to bring up the menu, but instantly perform an action instead. If so, you can change the effect with a single press of the AssistiveTouch button. Back on the AssistiveTouch screen, do the following:

1. Press once

2. Choose an action.

3. Also repeat these actions for double-click and long press.

Not everyone reacts to movement the same way. For example, some people are prone to motion sickness when they are in a moving car. Looking at a phone while driving can make the situation worse, but activating the vehicle’s motion signals can help. However, some people may even experience motion sickness due to zoom and slide animations when opening apps or background parallax effects. That’s why Apple includes a toggle in the Accessibility settings that reduces the intensity of these movements so that people sensitive to motion can use their phone comfortably.

When enabled, Reduce Motion replaces these effects with something much simpler. For example, instead of zooming in and out, apps appear and disappear as you open and close them. The same thing happens when you open the App Switcher (there are no sliding animations). So even if the iPhone’s slide and zoom animations don’t make you sick, it can make the phone snappier since you’re not watching slow animations. It can also be easier on the eyes.

Here’s how to enable Reduce Motion on your iPhone.

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap Accessibility.

3. Tap Motion.

4. Enable Reduce Motion.

You can set your iPhone to alert you when it hears sounds you want it to listen to. It’s intended for people who are hard of hearing, but it can be very useful if you’re hyper-focused on a task or wearing headphones that might cause you to miss important environmental sound cues. There are many sounds you can set your iPhone to play continuously, including a doorbell, a door knock, a siren, a dog barking, or a baby crying. To enable sound recognition on iPhone, follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap Accessibility.

3. Tap Sound and name recognition.

4. Tap Sound recognition.

5. Enable sound recognition.

6. Tap the sound you want to select.

7. Activate its toggle.

The iPhone will now download the sounds available on the device. It’s important to remember that this is not a feature you should rely on in an emergency. But in a non-critical situation, it doesn’t hurt to have an extra pair of ears. You can also set it so that sound recognition alerts you when your name is called. From the Sound and Name Recognition screen, do the following:

1. Tap Name Recognition.

2. Enable name recognition.

3. Tap Set up name recognition.

4. Follow the instructions to train iPhone to recognize your name.

Having a soft, continuous sound in the background can make it easier to concentrate. It often provides enough of a focal point to distract you from sudden noises that can disrupt your concentration. Your iPhone also has the ability to counteract these auditory distractions by playing ambient sounds. These are the types of background noises we hear all around us depending on the environment. It could be wind, rain, birdsong, or ocean waves. They can help you focus because your brain adapts to them, blocking out everything else.

iPhone’s Background Sounds feature might even help you sleep. For some people, silence can be uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, including triggering anxiety and overthinking. Ambient noises from your iPhone can distract you from what can be deafening silence so you can peacefully transition into a sleeping state. To enable background sounds on iPhone, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Tap Accessibility.

3. Tap Audio & Visual.

4. Tap Background sounds.

5. Turn on background sounds.

6. Tap Sounds.

7. Choose one of the available sounds, such as Rain, Stream, Airplane or Fire.

If you use background sounds to help you sleep, you can set a timer for them to stop at a specific time, as playing them all night can drain your phone’s battery. From the Background Sounds screen. Here’s how to do it:

1. Tap Stop sounds with a timer.

2. Activate Timer.

3. Tap At a specific time or After a certain time.

4. Set the time to stop at or stop after.