Ten useful things you didn’t know you could do WITHOUT touching your iPhone’s screen

When Steve Jobs launched the first iPhone, he described it as ‘literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone’ – and the device’s slick touchscreen was a big part of that.

But if you’ve got your hands full or you’re in a hurry, there are now a lot of functions you can unlock on the iPhone without touching the screen.

You can do everything from turning on the torch to opening your favorite apps by clicking buttons, tapping on the device, or using pre-made voice commands.

Within certain apps, you can also use the buttons instead of the screen, for a better experience when shooting pictures or videos, for example.

Below, we’ve run through some of the best iPhone functions you can unlock using taps, buttons and even shaking your device.

Turn on your torch and open your camera with a tap

Apple’s ‘Back Tap’ function lets you activate functions on your phone by tapping, double-tapping and triple-tapping on the back.

One way people tend to use this is to turn on the torch, but you can configure Back Tap to do everything from triggering the camera app to turning the volume down.

You can even use it to trigger Shortcuts – automations which you can use to do everything from triggering a music app when you put on Bluetooth headphones to automatically sending text messages.

To set up Back Tap, go to Settings > Accessibility > Back Tap, then assign an action to double and triple taps (it helps to tap very rapidly to activate it).

Snooze your alarm clock

Rather than fiddling with the screen, you can use either volume button to instantly silence your alarm.

Just make sure you have the Snooze option enabled to enjoy an extra five minutes.

Delete text by shaking your phone

Typed something wrong? You can automatically delete what you’ve just done by shaking your phone.

When you shake the handset, a menu comes up saying ‘Undo Typing’: select Undo, and the text will vanish.

Call emergency services

You don’t need to unlock your phone or deal with your PIN code to call emergency services.

If you need to call 911, hold down the lock button and either volume button.

After a few seconds Emergency Call slider will pop up on screen.

Voice control apps and set your own command words

Using iPhone’s ‘Voice Control’ settings, you can create your own command words (ideally something you don’t say very often) to open apps and more.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control and enable it. This allows you to use commands such as Open Siri, Open Spotlight, or Open any app.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can create your own custom commands – select the Customise Commands button and then Create New Command.

Type in a trigger phrase, then select actions to take within any app (it will mimic your finger gestures and repeat them when you say the word).

You can use this to trigger a favourite playlist (for example) although it takes practice to get it right.

You can even use this to enter your PIN code to unlock your phone, although we wouldn’t recommend this for security reasons.

A blue microphone in the top right corner of the screen tells you that the iPhone has heard your command.

Call people on speakerphone

You can call people using Siri (as long as you have your phone set up to listen for Hey Siri), and for a fully hands-free experience, you can even route the call through your phone’s speaker.

To activate this, simply say, ‘Hey Siri, call [Contact] on speaker’.

Take photo bursts

If you’re shooting something fast-moving like a sporting event (or children who won’t sit still), burst photo mode lets you take multiple shots using your volume up button.

You’ll obviously have to have the camera app open (you can do this using a voice command if you want to, see below).

To enable this, go to Settings > Camera and select Use Volume Up For Burst.

Force restart

This one is very useful to know if your phone freezes and won’t restart: it’s a hard reset, which means it forces all apps to shut down.

You might lose data, but unlike a factory reset, it won’t wipe your phone.

Press and quickly release the volume up button. Press and quickly release the volume down button.

Press and hold the side button. When the Apple logo appears, release the side button.

Get your card ready in Apple Pay

You can get cards ready to pay in stores, or if you’re about to go into the subway, by simply double-tapping the device’s side button.

To do this, enable ‘Double-Click Side Button’ in Settings > Wallet and Apple Pay.