Finally available, Apple’s new flagship introduces a whole new way to navigate an iPhone. 01net.com lets you discover the gestures that replace the Home button.
With the iPhone X, Apple says goodbye to the Home button. Present since the first version of the device in 2007, the Home button was a main part of iOS, both for certain key functions and for security. Instead of replacing it with a virtual button, Apple has chosen to introduce gestural navigation into its system. 01net makes you discover the 12 main gestures that replace this button.
Return to the home screen
For 10 years, the Home button has been at the heart of navigation on iOS. A press on it and the iPhone interrupts everything and returns to the home screen. With the iPhone X, neither physical button nor virtual button. Apple offers a home button indicator that you have to slide up and down to return to the home screen. Not a big upheaval but a change that requires a little time to adapt.
Access the multitasking drawer
To access the window showing all open apps, iPhone users have become accustomed to double-pressing the Home button from iOS 4. With iPhone X, it’s a bit more complex. You must now proceed as if you were to close an application by sliding your finger up and down but stopping in the middle. Pro tip: to go faster you can slide quickly upwards and make a small gesture to the right, no need to wait.
Close an application in multitasking
The swipe up corresponding to the return to the main screen, Apple had to review the way to close an application. Still from the multitasking drawer, you have to keep your finger pressed on an application for a few seconds as if you wanted to move your icons. A small Close icon will then appear in red at the top left of each application. Just press it. It is also possible to eject your application by sliding it upwards as in previous versions (provided that the edit menu is open).
Switch between apps
Feature reserved for iPhone 3D Touch: the ability to quickly swipe from one application to another by pressing forcefully on the edge of the screen. Good news with the iPhone X: the procedure is simpler. You just have to slide your finger to the right or left on the indicator at the bottom of the screen to switch from one application to another.
Take a screenshot
For the first time on an iPhone, the screenshot taken has changed location. It is now a brief press on the volume button + and the side button that we launch a screenshot.
Open the control center
The bottom-up gesture now belongs to the return to the home screen, it no longer launches the control center on the iPhone X. To regain access to the quick settings of iOS, it is now at the top to the right of the screen, just next to the notch, that you have to slide down. We then find the same page as on the previous iPhones.
Open the action center
No change for the notification center on iPhone X, it is always accessible with a top-to-bottom gesture from the top of the screen. The only difference: the right of the notch belonging to the control center, it is only on the left or in the middle that we can access the notification center.
Start Siri
Since 2011, the Home button has discovered a new function: Siri. With the iPhone X, it is now the lock button (renamed the side button) that takes over. So just hold down the side button for a few seconds to see the assistant appear.
Pay with Apple Pay
Same observation with Apple Pay which had found its home in the Home button via a double click since its launch in 2014. With the iPhone X, it is on the side button that you have to press twice. The iPhone X will then launch its user’s favorite card and verify their identity with Face ID. If it is correctly recognized, the user can then place their iPhone on the merchant’s contactless TPE (Electronic Payment Terminal) to pay.
Access the top of the screen with one hand
With the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple introduced the “Easy Access” mode, which is able to slide the top of the screen down to access icons or menus that are too high for your hand. It is now an option (which must be activated in Settings, General, Accessibility and then Easy Access) that we find the return of this setting very practical. Once activated, you have to make a small up and down gesture on the home button indicator to launch the mode. The reverse gesture makes it possible to return to the normal display. A shot to take.
Switch off your phone
A long press on the side button now used to launch Siri, Apple had to design a new way to turn off his phone. It is by holding the volume button + and the side button for 2 or 3 seconds at the same time that the iPhone X shutdown window is launched. This new gesture also gives access to his medical file and to SOS mode. .
Note that this new gesture also has a second utility: that of being able to deactivate Face ID in an emergency. By going to the shutdown menu and then returning to the home screen (without turning off the smartphone), Face ID is automatically deactivated and will now require your code. Useful to prevent a malicious person from putting your iPhone in front of your face to access your data.
SOS mode
Finally, the iPhone X allows you to call for help in an emergency, such as an assault, with a simple gesture. If the user holds both the volume buttons and the side button for several seconds, the iPhone will thump and start a 3 second countdown. If nothing has been canceled after 3 seconds, a call to 112 is automatically made.