HOW TO: set up an on-screen home button on iPhone
Filed under: accessability, consumer, how to, iphone
If you are a rampant iPhone user (like me) and have worn out your poor home button then I have a solution for you!
You can add a little ‘accessibility’ button on the touch screen that can be used instead of your home button to stop you from jabbing at your phone every time you’d like to return to the main screen.
- Go to ‘Settings’
- Scroll down and click on ‘General’
- Scroll down and click on ‘Accessibility’
- Scroll down and turn on ‘AssistiveTouch’
A little moveable button will appear on the side of your screen that you can now press instead of your home button to return you back to the main menu. Press and drag it around the screen to move it if it’s in your way.
Do you have any helpful iPhone tips or tricks? Do share if you do.
Related links:
You can also create an app logo for websites. This is handy for websites you frequently visit (in my case the Chartered Accounting Blackboard)
1. Go into safari
2. enter the website in the usual bar at the top of the page
3. at the bottom of the safari app select the icon that has an arrow in a box
4. from the drop down select “add to home screen”
This will make a logo on your iphone’s page and make easy access to websites you frequently visit.
Hi Nina. Thanks for the great tip. Not being and Apple user much. I take it this applies to iPod Touch? My kids have these and are often visiting them same websites.
Thanks Nina for providing great tips.
Hi Brendan,
Yes this would be applicable to both iPod touch and iPad.
Great tool by Apple but not many people know about.
Hi there
Great tip, but is this only for the iPhone 4S? I don’t have this option on my iPhone4.
Or is it linked to ios5? Which I also don’t have yet.
Cheers
Sue
Hi Sue, I suspect it’s an ios5 thing. I’ll check with Gigi.
Hi Sue,
It’s available for both iPhone4 and iPhone4S (and earlier models) but you will have to update to iOS 5 to install it.
Hope this helps!
great, it’s available for iphone 3gs..cool. my home button seem very difficult to press when you use for a number of time
Hey There,
Thanks for the great tip.
Was looking for it for a quite a long time.
Cheers
Dennis D
Thanks for the great tips!!
almost gave up before this!!
I was looking for the home screen shortcut since long…thanks for the tip. Started to luv more my 3gs.
This is a great help. However, is there a way to let your iphone know you dont want to use the original home button anymore? The reason I ask is because my home button thinks its being pressed all the time, causing it to go to voice control all the time, this on screen home button hasnt helped that at all. Please help!
Hi Jacinta,
If you’re using a pre-Siri iPhone (eg one before the iPhone 4S) unfortunately voice control cannot be disabled.
However, you can restrict when it comes on. If you turn a Passcode Lock on turn off the Voice Dialer slide so that Voice Control doesn’t overwrite your phone being locked. This won’t solve the problem of it just randomly activating.
The other thing to do may be to go Settings > General > Accessibility > Home-click Speed (under Physical & Motor) and adjust that to the slowest click speed. Although I’m unsure if this will work.
If you’re using an iPhone 4S or 5 and would like to turn off Siri altogether simply go Setting > General > Siri > Off.
Good luck and hope this helps!
hi..there seems to be no accessibility option on my iphone.and my home button is busted
Oh no! If you can’t find the Accessibility menu in your Settings, it might be worth trying our CrowdSupport forum for help. It’s an option that I believe is on every iPhone so it’s hidden away there somewhere.
hi. my phone is 3gs why is that when i click accessibilty. there’s nothing there. its like an empty folder. it doesnt appear anything. and i wand t have the home button, can you help me please
Hi Anna,
Thanks for the post
This will be happening because your iPhone hasn’t been updated with the latest Operating System (iOS6). To upgrade this, you need to plug your phone into iTunes and download the latest update – it should come up automatically or you can select it from the iPhone tab in iTunes. I recommend backing up your iPhone BEFORE updating just in case so that there is no risk of losing any of your contacts or photos if things go haywire. To do this, when you plug your phone into iTunes, in the iPhone tab, click backup (and choose either backup to computer or backup to the Cloud). For more help, chat to our 24×7 Live Chat team via Facebook or Twitter (links are above) and they’ll be able to walk you through the process 
Thank you sir, ive been looking for this but dont know what to look for until i found this. Cheers
Thanks a bunch this was really helpful!