Accessibility

Double-Click Side Button Not Working? Check This Setting (2023)

Double-clicking the iPhone side button is something everyone does, whether it's to pull up Apple Pay or confirm that you want to install an app. However, if you have shaky hands or a physical impairment that prevents you from clicking the side button fast enough, you might have trouble using these features. Luckily, if double-clicking the side button is not working for you, your iPhone has an accessibility setting to slow down the click speed.

Find Hidden Menus & Extra Options with Haptic Touch

Your iPhone has a feature called Haptic Touch that lets you tap and hold certain items to get extra options and open menus quickly. Haptic Touch makes navigating your iPhone faster and more intuitive. However, the default sensitivity can make this feature difficult to trigger or, conversely, too easy to trigger when you're not trying to. Here's how to adjust your iPhone's touch sensitivity.

How to Make Hands-Free Calls on the iPhone (iOS 17)

Do you find yourself answering the phone and quickly putting it in speakerphone mode so you can use your iPhone hands-free? Do you find it annoying to scroll through contacts, calls, and messages just to make a phone call? Well, there’s an easier way. You can set your iPhone settings to place and receive calls hands-free, automatically, within the Settings app. It’s part of Apple's accessibility and Hey Siri features. Here’s how to use Siri to make calls and have them automatically answer on speaker so you never have to use your hands.

With iOS 13 and iPadOS, Apple offers more accessibility settings than ever before. Beginning with iOS 11, iPhone and iPad users could customize their devices' Control Centers to include the apps they use the most. For those with mobility issues, the deaf and hearing impaired, and the blind and visually impaired, Apple's accessibility features are a great choice to add to the Control Center. There are many settings to choose from, including RTT/TTY phone call access, an LED flash rather than an audible alarm for alerts, assistive touch, braille, a magnifying glass, and much more. Let's get started learning how to add Accessibility Shortcuts to the Control Center on your iPhone and iPad so you can have the features, tools, and settings you need at your disposal. 

Most people prefer listening to audio on their AirPods in stereo (where sound is fed through at least two channels). This requires listening to both AirPods to get the full dual-channel experience. But what if you only want to use one AirPod? You're going to miss out on the sounds coming through the other AirPod. Mono audio is a feature on iPhones that makes sure you don't miss anything when using one ear instead of two. Whether you have hearing loss in one ear, want to share the other AirPod with someone else, have misplaced one of your AirPods, or just want to keep one ear tuned in to what's going on around you, it's possible to make all the sound come out of one AirPod by enabling Mono Audio in your Accessibility Settings. Switching to this single channel setting means you'll be able to hear all the audio from either AirPod, so you can choose which AirPod to use.  

Let’s say you’re listening to music using your Bluetooth speaker, and you get a call. When you answer that call, the audio will probably default to your iPhone. But what if you want the call to always default to your Bluetooth headphones, speaker, or earbuds? You can select which Bluetooth device your call audio defaults to in the Call Audio Routing settings in the iPhone Settings app. We've already covered Bluetooth pairing to your iPhone, and how to change which Bluetooth connection you're using to play audio from your iPhone or iPad. You can even connect an Xbox controller to your iPhone. Now, here’s how to set your speaker, headphones, or earbuds as the default audio on your iPhone.

For some Mac users, the mouse icon is too small or too similar to the background color to conveniently see. Or perhaps you don't have a problem finding your cursor, but would simply like to change the cursor appearance for aesthetic reasons. In either case, we'll cover how to change your mouse settings on your Mac.

A heavily requested feature for iOS 11 was Dark Mode. Dark Mode essentially turns white space black while leaving media, photos, and content the same. However, we did not get an official Dark Mode in iOS 11, and we haven't gotten one for iOS 12, either. Hopefully this will come out soon because macOS Mojave does offer this feature. For now, though, the next best thing is pretty darn fantastic. Inverting colors on iPhone in the past meant distorting the look of photos and content as well. But iOS 11 introduced Smart Invert, which is (almost) as good of a Dark Mode as we need. Here’s how to turn on Dark Mode or Night Mode in iOS 12 on iPhone, this will invert colors on your display and reduce eye strain.

The new gestures on iPhone X or later have some people confused while others are thinking up ways Apple could have done it better; but either way, they're probably here to stay. In this tip we'll cover how to open Control Center on the iPhone X, XR, and XS, as well as how to customize Control Center. Luckily, once you learn how to open Control Center and get used to the new movement, it’s really not that big of a challenge. Plus, we'll include a bonus tip for those who want to open Control Center a bit more easily on the iPhone X or later. 

I take a screenshot on my iPhone several times a day, so I'm happy that Apple has introduced a new way to take a screenshot. One of the new iOS 14 features Apple has rolled out is Back Tap, a set of shortcuts that allow iPhone users to double or triple tap the back of their phones to perform various tasks. Back Tap is a great iPhone accessibility feature for people with reduced dexterity or limited vision, but being able to take a screenshot with a few taps on the back of our iPhones is convenient for everyone. Let's learn how to take a screenshot on your iPhone using Back Tap. Back Tap works with the iPhone 8 and later, including the iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and the new iPhone 12 line.

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