Modern iPhones rely entirely on gesture controls for navigation—swiping up to go home, swiping left and right to switch apps, and pulling down from the corners for notifications and the Control Center. While these gestures become second nature for most users, some deeply miss the physical Home Button found on older iPhone models like the iPhone 8 or SE.
Additionally, if your iPhone screen is damaged in a specific area, or if you have motor skill difficulties that make complex swiping gestures challenging, the standard navigation method can be frustrating. Fortunately, Apple includes a powerful accessibility feature that places a floating, virtual Home Button directly onto your screen.
This guide explains how to enable AssistiveTouch to create a virtual Home Button on your iPhone.
How to Enable AssistiveTouch
The virtual button is controlled via the Accessibility settings.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on Accessibility.
- Under the “Physical and Motor” section, tap on Touch.
- At the very top of the screen, tap on AssistiveTouch.
- Toggle the main AssistiveTouch switch to the On (green) position.
Immediately after turning it on, a dark, semi-transparent square with a white circle in the middle will appear on your screen. You can tap and drag this button to snap it to any edge of your screen so it stays out of the way of your apps.
Customizing the Virtual Home Button
By default, tapping this virtual button opens a menu with several options (Home, Control Center, Device, etc.). If you want it to act exactly like an old-school Home Button, you need to customize its behavior.
- Still on the AssistiveTouch settings page, look under the “Custom Actions” section.
- Tap on Single-Tap.
- A long list of system actions will appear. Scroll down and select Home.
- Tap the blue < Back button in the top left.
Now, a single tap on the floating button will instantly take you back to your Home Screen, bypassing the menu entirely.
Adding More Functionality
You can make this button even more powerful by assigning different actions to double-taps and long-presses.
- Double-Tap: Tap Double-Tap in the menu and assign it to App Switcher. Now, tapping the virtual button twice rapidly will bring up all your open apps, just like double-clicking the physical home button used to do.
- Long Press: Tap Long Press and assign it to Control Center or Screenshot for quick access to frequent tools.
Finally, if you find the button too visually distracting when you aren’t using it, tap Idle Opacity on the AssistiveTouch settings page and drag the slider down (e.g., to 15%). The button will fade away into a barely visible shadow when not actively being touched.