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McClatchy Washington Bureau
McClatchy Washington Bureau
National
Mariah Rush

‘Secret button’ on iPhones a big hit after going viral on TikTok. What to know

A TikTok user showed 1 million viewers how to use the feature that’s been around since 2020.

After a viral TikTok, iPhone users are discovering their device has one more button than they thought — and it can make their lives easier.

“You’re using your iPhone wrong,” TikTok creator @ellyawesometech says, if you aren’t utilizing the “secret button” on the back of your phone.

The video, which reached 1 million views after one day, reveals an accessibility feature one user said “changed (their) life forever.”

The creator highlights the Back Tap feature on the iPhone, which is available for any device running at least iOS 14. That particular update was released in September 2020.

It allows users to simply tap the back of their phone near where the Apple logo is, and their phone will do whatever feature they’ve programmed it to do through the settings menu.

You can set the Back Tap feature to open the camera, take a screenshot, turn on the flashlight or even control volume up or down.

This TikTok creator uses the Back Tap feature to easily Shazam whatever song or audio is playing, meaning your phone will tell you the name of the song. To do this, you must have Shazam and the Shortcuts app downloaded on your phone.

HOW TO USE THE 'SECRET BUTTON'

Make sure you’ve updated your iPhone to at least iOS 14.

Then, go to Settings, scroll to Accessibility, go to Touch, and then at the bottom hit “Back Tap.”

You can choose whether you want to enable a two tap or a three tap, or both.

Then, choose from the options to pick what the secret button can do for you.

After you’ve got your choices locked in, you simply double or triple tap the back of your phone to activate your feature.

The discreet button even works with a phone case on the device.

Even though this isn’t a new feature, many are claiming this is the first they’ve heard of the time-saving technique.

“I see lots of these hack videos and never use them. I immediately went and enabled this,” one user commented.

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