For some, the biggest change in Apple’s new iPhone X isn’t the larger screen, weird notch, or identity-verifying Face ID tech. It’s the disappearance of the Home button, the iconic piece of hardware present on every iOS device since the iPhone’s 2007 debut. With the button gone, Apple’s using the extra real estate to change how you interact with the iPhone, altering the gestures with which you’ve become familiar. Some changes are for the better, while some seem pretty poorly implemented. Here’s how to navigate your new device with the right swipes, taps, and gestures.
Your Divided Display
Think of your iPhone X’s 5.8-inch display as being divided into four sections. The bottom section, where your four pinned apps are; the middle section, where you can search and access widgets; the top left section, where you can find your notifications; and the top right section, where you can find the Control Center.
Your New Home Button
The iPhone X’s home button has been replaced with a black home bar at the bottom of the screen. That bar can move depending on the orientation of your display, or the app you’re in. Watching a YouTube video in landscape mode or playing a game like Mini Metro will move your home bar to the bottom of your landscape-oriented display. To unlock your iPhone X, or go back to the home screen from any app you’re in, swipe up an inch or two from that black bar.
Swiping up from the home bar and pausing in the middle of the display will show you your most recently opened apps. Hold your finger on one to access the edit mode, where you can swipe up or hit the “minus” sign to force close the apps.
If you’ve swiped away an app but need to double-check something, or want to revisit an app you were using previously, you don’t need to hunt for the icon again. Just swipe from right to left on the bottom of your screen to revisit the previously opened apps (swiping left to right brings you to the most recent app, but won’t bring you back to the home screen).
Control Center is Harder to Use
Originally, Control Center was easily accessible at the bottom of your iPhone and iPad screen. To access Control Center on the iPhone X, however, you’ll need to swipe down from the top right of the iPhone x’s annoying notch cutout.
Check Notifications Easily
To take a look at whatever notifications you’ve missed, like reminders and unseen texts, swipe down from the top of your screen (anywhere from the middle of the left-most side). If you’re on the lock screen of your phone, you can swipe up from the middle of your screen to see recent notifications (as long as your settings allow you to see notifications when your iPhone X unlocks).
You can force touch the tiny X next to your notifications, and clear them all in one go so you don’t have to deal with them piecemeal.
Searching Your Phone
You can search through your iPhone’s list of contacts, apps, texts, and other messages using the built-in search functionality. Not only does the search functionality make it easy to find just what you’re looking for either in your phone or on the web—you can use it as a way to declutter your home screen and remove distractions while forcing you to be more intentional by searching for the apps you need instead of the ones you absent-mindedly wander toward.
Swipe down from the middle of your display to activate the search function. It’ll show you a list of suggested apps, and let you search through the apps themselves for reminders, attachments, and messages. You can even use it in task manager apps like Omnifocus to see what’s on your schedule.
Organizing Apps
Holding down on apps (without activating the Force Touch options) will let you move apps and rearrange them to your liking. If you’ve got a group of apps you want to move from the last page of your screen to the first, or have a set of related apps you’d like to add to a folder, you can select and move multiple apps at a time and save yourself the trouble of dragging them one by one.
Reachability
The iPhone X has a 5.8-inch display. It’s beautiful, but tall, and if you’ve got the tiny, delicate fingers of a writer, reaching up to access Control Center and other notifications can be a hassle.
You can enable the tiny-hand-friendly Reachability mode to make it easier to get at those topmost apps and services. To enable, hit Settings > General > Accessibility. Scroll down to the Interaction section and toggle on Reachability. To actually use the feature, swipe down from the bottom of screen (just a half-inch above the home bar). It’ll drop your display down withinreach of your fingers. You can access Control Center by swiping down from right above the topmost app on the right side, or, if you’re in an app, swiping down where the battery and Wi-Fi icons are located.
It certainly isn’t perfect, and an option to rearrange where these interactions take place would be a welcome improvement—but for now, the home button is going away, and gestures are here to stay.