The Complete Guide to Gesture Navigation on iPhone

For a longtime iPhone user, gesture navigation is second nature. But for someone who is new to the operating system and hardware, especially those who are transitioning from Android, there is a lot to learn. The latest iPhones, like the iPhone 14, still have physical buttons, including the right-hand button for power switching and the left-side buttons for adjusting volume. Both can be used for other functions as well, such as triple tap for emergency SOS, press and hold, or even press the volume up and power buttons simultaneously to take a screenshot. But this guide provides everything you need to know about iPhone gestures on the best iPhones that require swipes, taps, and other motions, from seemingly simple ones to more complex ones that even ardent iPhone users might not realize they can use.


basic gestures

To get started, let’s learn some of the simplest gestures with the iPhone.

handle

Touch an item, such as an app, on the screen lightly with a finger (or a stylus) to open it.

Press and hold

Touch and hold an item on the screen to perform various secondary functions. Depending on the app, it may pull up a menu to remove the app, modify the home screen, search, or perform an app-specific function. With photos, for example, you can view your favorites or recents from this quick list. With Mail, you can go to To or Cc, perform a search, or start a new message right away. Explore this feature in several apps to find out what it can do.

If you are Touch and hold the app icon for a little longer (3-4 seconds), will cause all home screen app icons to jiggle, allowing you to rearrange them, delete an app, create folders, and more. Read our guide on how to customize your iPhone Home screen for more details if you want to rearrange and reorganize.

scroll

Among the many apps, like Mail, Photos, Safari, and more, simply scroll up and down by swiping your finger or thumb in any direction, and you’ll move up or down on a page in kind. Swipe up or down to quickly jump to a long list of emails, photos, and more. At any time, touch the screen lightly to stop scrolling.

Zoom in

To zoom in on an item, such as a photo or a web page, place two fingers in the middle of the screen and spread them apart. It will start zooming in on the image or page, and you can switch to focus on the exact wording or part of the image that you want to see. To zoom out, do the opposite and place your fingers on either side of the screen and slide them inward. The quick feature also lets you double-tap to zoom in, and double-tap to zoom out if you just want to get a closer look but don’t need to zoom in all the way to see the image or other piece of content up close.

woke up and fell asleep

To wake up your iPhone, just hold it up to your face, and it will immediately catch your eye. Swipe up from there to automatically unlock the phone with Face ID. If you want to force it to sleep by simply placing the phone down, press the right side button.

Siri voice assistance

At any time, you can summon the voice assistant Siri simply by saying the command “Hey, Siri”. When you initially set up your iPhone, you can program your voice into the device by repeating a variety of phrases so it can record your tone and voice into memory. After that, the iPhone will only respond to your commands. If you have multiple Apple devices nearby, it will reply from the device closest to you or whichever device hears and records the command first. Alternatively, you can press and hold the right side button to summon Siri.

Apple Pay

If you want to quickly pay for an item at a store with a compatible contactless device, double-tap the side button, and it will pull out your digital credit or debit card and direct you to hold it in front of the reader. Then hold your iPhone in front of your face. Face ID will confirm your identity and complete the purchase.

Home screen navigation

There’s a lot you can do right from your iPhone’s home screen, and some common gestures worth knowing about.

go back home

To go back to your home screen at any time, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen near the middle. You can do this to unlock your phone as well, and hold it to your face for Face ID, so you don’t need to enter your six-digit PIN.

iPhone home screen Go home

Siri suggestions, recent apps

While on the Home screen, swiping down from anywhere near the middle of the screen brings up Siri Suggestions, including recently used apps and a list of recent searches. This will also bring up the search bar, so you can search for whatever you want, whether it’s text within a note, a specific app, files, settings, and more.

Control Center

Swiping down from the top right of the screen brings up the Control Center, where you can turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off, turn on airplane mode, adjust brightness and volume, lock screen mirroring in queue, lock the phone, and set the phone mode to off. Disturb or focus, for example, turn on the flashlight and call other commonly used applications such as calculator and camera.

Notification center

Swipe down slowly and swipe from the top-left corner of the screen to bring up the Notification Center, which displays recent notifications from messages, email, smart home apps, and more. This is also a quick way to call up the flashlight or camera, which can be accessed on the lock screen as well.

switcher application

Swipe up from the bottom center of the screen and stop your finger near the bottom third of the phone, then wait a second and let go, or move your finger slightly to the right and let go to see a group of currently open apps. You can also tilt your finger slightly to the right to see the different open apps. You can scroll through these like a portfolio, swiping right to review each one. If you want to quickly quit an app on your iPhone, tap up from anywhere on the app preview screen, and that app will close. Tap on the app to open it instantly.

Home screen widgets

Swipe right from the first home screen to pull up your widgets. Read our guide on how to use widgets on iPhone for more details on how to customize this page to include all the details and information you want to see at a glance.

Go to the top of the page

If you go to Settings, Accessibility, Touch, and turn on Reachability, you can swipe down from the middle bottom edge of the screen to pull down the menu and access items at the top of the screen (if available).

Scroll through the open apps

If you want to scroll through your open apps by opening them fully against the menu view in the App Switcher we discussed earlier, swipe left or right along the bottom edge of the screen. This will switch between open apps, such as changing from the Settings menu to websites in Safari, streaming services, and more.

iphone home gestures screen see open apps

Gestures in Safari

If you are using the Safari browser, you can easily navigate between web pages using gestures with the bottom button menu. To go back and forward the previous page, just swipe right and left. Select an item, such as the article you want to read, by clicking on it. Then swipe right from the left side of the screen. You will return to the previous page. Conversely, if you swipe left from the right side of the screen, you will go to the last screen you just came back from.

It should be noted that these are all hypothetical functions. You can adjust some of the gestures for your iPhone using the AssistiveTouch feature, which is ideal for those with motor, visual, or hearing impairments.

Go through this step-by-step guide, and try out each gesture. In some cases, it may take a few tries before you get your finger in the right place and activate the gesture correctly. But over time, all of these iPhone gestures become second nature, and you won’t think twice before instinctively using them.

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