The iPhone No Longer Has a Home Button, but There’s a Trick to Getting It Back

The home button is dead.

Apple announced the new iPhone 16E last week, replacing the iPhone SE and eliminating the home button once and for all.

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Tech Tips

For this workaround, we’ll use AssistiveTouch, an accessibility feature that lets you control your iPhone without using any physical buttons. It’s meant for those who have difficulty using physical buttons or executing difficult gestures, instead simplifying restarting your phone, accessing the control center and more.

AssistiveTouch also helps you easily go home, just like the home button would, but instead of a physical button, you have a virtual one, on your screen, so it works on pretty much any iPhone.

To activate your virtual home screen, go to Settings > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch and toggle on the feature at the top. Once you do, you should see a floating control, which is the Assistive Touch menu.

Next, go to Single-Tap under Custom Action and choose Home. You can also have the button take you home when you double-tap it, or long press on it, but the single-tap option is best if that’s all you want the button for.

home button via assistive touch

This is what the virtual button looks like, and you can move pretty much anywhere across your screen.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

You can move the button anywhere on your screen, but it will always live above whatever app you’re on. If you don’t like the look of the AssistiveTouch button, you can go back to the AssistiveTouch settings and lower the opacity, to make the button more transparent and less visible.

To disable it, simply toggle off Assistive Touch in your settings.

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