How to Create a Virtual Home Button on iPhone X

iPhone X is the first iPhone that doesn’t have the physical home button. All previous iPhones did have it. While you can also enable a virtual home button on iPhone X, so it would perhaps be better if you could instead use iPhone X gestures to get the job done.

Updated Nov 24,2017 | by Shannon

While the added gestures, and side button allows a user to perform many functions, some may still feel unproductive due to lack of iPhone X home button.

Therefore, this article will show you how to create a virtual home button on iPhone X.

Enabling Assistive Touch

The first step to enable an iPhone X home button in a virtual form is to enable assistive touch. To do that,

Go to Settings > General

Then click on Accessibility

Tap on Assistive Touch and enable the option

If it is done correctly, you will now see a white and grey circle icon appear on your iPhone X screen.

You can adjust its opacity (how much transparent it appears). Click on the Idle Opacity option, under the Assistive Touch settings. And adjust the transparency above or below the default amount of 40% depending on how opaque you want it to be.

Enabling/Disabling the Virtual iPhone X Button

However, then comes the option of disabling this virtual iPhone X home button. You do not want it to be shown all the time. Therefore, you can do the following:

Go to Settings > General

Go to Accessibility

Tap on “Accessibility Shortcut”

Then click on “Assistive Touch” option

This will allow you to quickly enable and disable the virtual home button by pressing the side button 3 times.

Functions and Features

After this has been enabled, touching the gray button will open up the Assistive Touch menu. This will display the options to go back to the home screen, open notifications, enable Siri, as well as open up the Control Center.

These are more features than any traditional home button on a mobile device offers. Additionally, you can enable other actions such as taking screenshots, restarting your phone, rotating the screen, and others. If you want, you can even enable custom iPhone X gestures to do whatever action you want.

So, it's clear that in term of functions, the Assistive Touch menu is far superior as compared to the iPhone X home button in previous iterations of iPhones.

If you can properly modify it to your needs and get the hand of it, the virtual iPhone X home button may be more suitable for your personal use.

More articles you may interest:

How to Enable and Use Type to Siri in iOS 11 on iPhone/iPad

Turn off Siri in iOS 11-How to Disable Siri on iPhone in iOS 11

How to Set up and Use Face ID on iPhone X

How to Disable Face ID on iPhone X

How to Transfer Content from your Old iPhone to your New iPhone X