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 have your hands full or are in a hurry, now there are many features that you can unlock on iPhone without touching the screen.

You can do everything from turning on the flashlight to opening your favorite apps by clicking buttons, tapping 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 taking photos or videos, for example.

Below we’ve gone through some of the best iPhone features that you can unlock with taps, buttons, and even shaking your device.

Turn on your flashlight and open your camera with a tap

You can access the Double Tap controls in Settings (Rob Waugh)

Apple’s “Back Tap” feature lets you activate features on your phone by tapping, double-tapping, and triple-tapping the back.

One way people usually use this is to turn on the flashlight, but you can configure Back Tap to do everything from trigger the camera app to lower the volume.

You can even use it to activate shortcuts – automations you can use to do everything from trigger a music app when you put on Bluetooth headphones to send text messages automatically.

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

Snooze your alarm clock

Instead of fiddling with the screen, you can use both volume buttons to silence your alarm instantly.

Make sure you’ve turned on the snooze option to enjoy an extra five minutes.

Delete text by shaking your phone

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

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

Call emergency services

You don’t need to unlock your phone or enter your PIN to call emergency services.

If you need to call 911, hold down the hold button and one of the volume buttons.

After a few seconds, the Emergency call slider appears on the screen.

Voice control apps and set your own command words

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

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice control and enable it. It lets you use commands like Open Siri, Open Spotlight, or Open any app.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can create your own custom assignments – select the Customize Assignments button, then Create New Assignment.

Type in a trigger phrase, then select actions you want to take in an app (it mimics your finger gestures and repeats when you say the word).

You can use this to (say) activate a favorite playlist, although it takes some practice to get right.

You can even use this to enter your PIN to unlock your phone, although we don’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 speaker

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

To activate this, just say, “Hey Siri, call (Contact) on speaker.”

Create photo bursts

You can take photo bursts with the side button (Rob Waugh)

If you have something moving fast, like a sporting event (or kids who won’t sit still), burst photo mode lets you take multiple photos with your volume up button.

You’ll need to have the camera app open, of course (you can do this with a voice command if you prefer, see below).

To enable it, go to Settings > Camera and select Use volume up for burst.

Force restart

This one is very useful for knowing if your phone freezes and won’t reboot: it’s a hard reset, which means it forces all apps to close.

You may lose data but unlike a factory reset it will not erase your phone.

Short press the volume up button. Short press the volume down button.

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

Have your card ready in Apple Pay

You can pull out your card and have it ready on the iPhone (Rob Waugh)

You can have cards ready to pay in stores, or when you’re about to board the subway, simply by double tapping the side button of the device.

To do this, enable “Double Click Side Button” in Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay.