Adjust touch settings on iPhone

If you have difficulty using the touchscreen or buttons, you can change how iPhone responds to your touch.

Turn on and use Reachability

When you use an iPhone that supports Reachability in Portrait orientation, you can bring items at the top of the screen down to the lower half of the screen.

iPhone screen with Reachability enabled. The top of the screen has moved down, putting a note in the Notes app within easy reach of your thumb.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, then turn on Reachability.
To bring the top of the screen into reach, do the following:
- On an iPhone with Face ID: Swipe down on the bottom edge of the screen.
- On an iPhone with a Home button: Lightly double-tap the Home button.

To reset the screen, tap the top of the screen.

Adjust 3D Touch settings

On an iPhone with 3D Touch, you can control the sensitivity of 3D Touch or turn it off.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > 3D Touch.
Do one of the following:
- Choose Light, Medium, or Firm sensitivity to adjust the amount of pressure needed to activate 3D Touch. Light sensitivity reduces the amount of pressure required; firm sensitivity increases it.
- Turn off 3D Touch.

Adjust Haptic Touch settings

On an iPhone with Haptic Touch, you can adjust the amount of time needed to activate Haptic Touch when you use a touch-and-hold gesture.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Haptic Touch.
Choose Fast or Slow.

To test the setting, touch and hold in the timing test section.

Use touch accommodations

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Touch Accommodations.
You can configure iPhone to do any of the following:
- Respond to touches of a certain duration: Turn on Hold Duration, then tap or to adjust the duration (the default is 0.10 seconds).
  To perform swipe gestures without waiting for the specified hold duration, tap Swipe Gestures, then turn on Swipe Gestures. You can choose the amount of required movement before a swipe gesture begins.
- Ignore multiple touches: Turn on Ignore Repeat, then tap or to adjust the amount of time allowed between multiple touches. Then, if you touch the screen several times quickly, iPhone treats the touches as one.
- Respond to the first or last place you touch: Choose Use Initial Touch Location or Use Final Touch Location.
  If you choose Use Initial Touch Location, iPhone uses the location of your first tap—when you tap an app on the Home screen, for example. If you choose Use Final Touch Location, iPhone registers the tap where you lift your finger. iPhone responds to a tap when you lift your finger within a certain period of time. Tap or to adjust the timing. Your device can respond to other gestures, such as drags, if you wait longer than the gesture delay.

Turn off Tap to Wake

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, then turn off Tap to Wake.

Turn off Shake to Undo

If you tend to shake iPhone by accident, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, then turn off Shake to Undo.

Turn off vibrations

To prevent vibrations, including those for emergency alerts, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, then turn off Vibration.

Route audio calls

You can automatically route the audio of phone or FaceTime calls to your headphones, speaker, or hearing devices.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Call Audio Routing.
Choose an audio destination for calls.
To have iPhone answer calls automatically, tap Auto-Answer Calls, turn on Auto-Answer Calls, then tap or to set the duration of time before the call is answered.

During a call, you can switch the audio routing from your hearing aid to the iPhone speaker by removing the hearing aid from your ear. See Use hearing devices with iPhone.

Helpful?

iPhone User Guide