iPhone users were stunned after a TikToker recently shared her realization that the Apple symbol on the back of her phone could be used as an “actual button.”
Sharing useful information is one of the best things about social media, especially when that information might be something known to a lot of people. Jane (@jane_affairs) was able to make her own contribution in this vein when over 6 million people watched her short TikTok about iPhone accessibility.
“You are today years old when you knew that this is an actual button,” she wrote, highlighting the Apple logo etched into the back of her phone.
Flipping it over, she showed people how to enable it for various uses. After going into Settings, tap on “Accessibility,” then “Touch” under the Physical and Motor category. When you scroll down to the very bottom, there’s an option for “Back Tap.” It’s generally off by default, but if you dive deeper, you can enable double and/or triple tapping to do specific tasks, including muting your phone, taking a screenshot, turning the flashlight on/off, or accessing a shortcut.
@jane_affairs ♬ original sound – Jane Jane
The feature was actually only implemented with the release of iOS 14 in September 2020—so don’t feel too bad if you didn’t know about it before now. It also doesn’t work with some of the earlier iPhone models that were able to use iOS 14, but if you have an iPhone 8 or any newer model, you should be able to enable it.
Jane wasn’t the only one learning this for the first time, as a number of viewers expressed their own pleasant surprise at being able to set it up.
“Guys its real,” wrote @sourpatchkids28.
“I have an iPhone 11 Pro and it works,” @sundayeveryday_0 celebrated. “Thank you.”
“Not me trying to get my phone case off to try this,” added @ashlynn644.
A number of viewers (but not everyone who tried) reported it still working with their cases on. Testing it out with my own iPhone 13, tapping through the case is possible with a little extra emphasis, but not completely reliable. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on the material and thickness of the case you use.
And @benjaminmoah24 provided an additional helpful tip, pointing out that it’s not actually the Apple logo itself that serves as a “button,” but rather just tapping on the back of the phone in general—although several people claimed the response was most consistent the closer they stayed to the logo, which makes sense due to its centered position.
Most of us don’t bother to fully explore all the possibilities with any new devices we buy, but at least there’s always TikTok, clueing us in on fun new surprises… even if we could have known about them years sooner.
Update 12:13pm CT, Nov. 16: It’s been nearly a month since Jane posted the video, and it’s since been viewed over 7.4 million times, making it by far the most popular video on her account. People are still sharing their shock at the revelation and how it’s working—or not working—for them. In a recent comment, one user said she had to turn the function off after trying it out because she kept accidentally turning her flashlight on. “It works randomly but when u need it it never works,” another said.
“I had to turn it off I was taking pictures of everything,” a third shared.
However, Jane’s video is proving to be more helpful than not as several users are thanking her for showing them the function.