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The Back of Your iPhone Has a Secret Button. Here’s What It Can Do

You can activate it simply by tapping the back of your iPhone (and yes, it still works with a case).

We’re a few months out from the release of iOS 26, which will introduce a whole new look to the iPhone. But what if you’re still holding on to an older iPhone that won’t get the new Liquid Glass redesign or Apple Intelligence for screenshots? What if you’re itching to try out something new like the Camera Control button on the latest models? 

Good news: There’s a hidden feature that lets you quickly activate your iPhone camera without unlocking your device or touching the screen, and it works on some fairly old devices. All you need to do is set up the secret «button» on the back of your iPhone.

You can use this feature to not only launch your camera app, but also turn on your flashlight or activate Shazam to identify a song before it ends. You can summon your iPhone’s Control Center or Notification Center without having to swipe down from the top of your screen. In fact, with a little bit of imagination, you can use this feature to perform almost any of your phone’s functions.

The feature is called Back Tap, and like the Action Button on newer iPhones, it gives you one more way to interact with your device without touching the screen. You can activate it by tapping anywhere on the back of your phone, including on the camera module. The best part is that it works even if you have a fairly thick case on your iPhone.

Back Tap is available on iPhones as old as iPhone 8, as long as they’re running iOS 14 or later. We’ll show you how to enable it and how to use it with your Shortcuts app for nearly endless possibilities.

Read more: All the Ways the iPhone 16’s Camera Control Button Will Change Your iPhone Photography

What is the iPhone Back Tap feature?

Back Tap is an iPhone feature introduced in iOS 14. It lets you perform shortcuts on your iPhone by double or triple tapping on the back of the device.

You can customize Back Tap on your iPhone to easily perform common actions like pulling up the Control Center or Notification Center, especially useful if you have a larger phone and can’t swipe down from the top of the screen without some complex finger gymnastics. You can even have two separate functions enabled at the same time: Back Tap can distinguish between a Double Tap and a Triple Tap.

Depending on the number of times you touch the back of your iPhone, you can set Double Tap to open your Notification Center and Triple Tap to take a screenshot. Or, you can make Double Tap open the Control Center and Triple Tap launch the Magnifier app. Experiment with Back Tap to find the right combinations of taps and functions that best fit your needs.

And you aren’t just limited to the Back Tap options that are available by default. Thanks to the Shortcuts app, you can set up Back Tap to perform specific functions or launch any app. For example, you can create a simple shortcut that opens Shazam or starts a voice recording, then activate it with a quick Double Tap or Triple Tap. You can also use Back Tap to trigger a more elaborate shortcut, such as automatically sending photos and videos to specific photo albums.

How do I set up Back Tap on my iPhone?

To enable Back Tap, go to your Settings app. Then go to AccessibilityTouchBack Tap. There, you’ll find a list of options for configuring Double Tap and Triple Tap.

Here is the full list of functions that you can map to a Double Tap or Triple Tap:

  • None

  • Accessibility Shortcut

System

  • App Switcher

  • Camera

  • Control Center

  • Flashlight

  • Home

  • Lock Rotation

  • Lock Screen

  • Mute

  • Notification Center

  • Reachability

  • Screenshot

  • Shake

  • Spotlight

  • Volume Down

  • Volume Up

Accessibility

  • AssistiveTouch

  • Background Sounds

  • Classic Invert

  • Color Filters

  • Control Nearby Devices

  • Dim Flashing Lights

  • Live Captions

  • Live Speech

  • Magnifier

  • Smart Invert

  • Speak Screen

  • VoiceOver

  • Zoom

  • Zoom Controller

Scroll Gestures

  • Scroll Down

  • Scroll Up

At the bottom of the menu, you’ll also see a list of Shortcuts. These options will vary depending on what’s available in your Shortcuts app.

The one potential downside to Back Tap is that you don’t get any tactile feedback when you use it, so you might accidentally trigger it at the wrong time and not realize it until later. For instance, you might double tap without meaning to and set off your flashlight by accident. In that case, you might want to remap your Double Tap to a less conspicuous function. Or, you can leave Double Tap off and only use Triple Tap, which you probably won’t trigger as often.

How do I use Back Tap to take a quick photo?

One way to set up Back Tap is to map Double Tap to the Camera and Triple Tap to Volume Up or Volume Down. Because you can press either of the volume buttons to instantly take a picture, you can get the same effect if your volume buttons are mapped to Back Tap. With this combination, you can capture a photo with five quick taps on the back of your iPhone (though you’ll have to pause briefly between performing the Double Tap and Triple Tap, so that your phone can distinguish between the two actions).

This Back Tap combination even works if your phone is locked. Again, spend some time trying out different combinations of taps and features to find which ones are most useful for you.

Technologies

Microsoft Just Dropped a Free AI Video Tool, and It’s Wildly Easy to Use

Bing Video Creator is live on mobile now, but desktop and Copilot Search support is coming soon.

Microsoft has a new, free tool that lets you create AI-generated videos: the Bing Video Creator

If you’ve ever wanted to turn a quick idea into a video without touching editing software, Microsoft’s new AI tool might be your next favorite trick. The company just rolled out Bing Video Creator, a free feature that lets you generate short videos from nothing but a text prompt. No fancy skills or timeline scrubbing required. Just type in your idea and let the AI do the rest.

When I gave it a spin, it took less than a minute to churn out a five-second clip of the Bing logo bobbing in a pool alongside a flamingo and donut floatie. It’s weird, fun, and kind of impressive, especially for a free tool that lives right inside your browser. If you’re curious about what this AI video generator can do (or just want to make a goofy summer-themed clip), here’s how it works and what to expect.

The feature is only available on the Bing Search mobile app right now but it will be coming to Windows desktops and Copilot Search, according to the company, and is powered by OpenAI’s Sora video technology. Bing Video Creator joins other major AI-driven video creation tools, including Sora from ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly, Google Veo, Runway and Meta Movie Gen.

You can check out what Google’s latest Veo 3 feature can do for those willing to pay for Gemini Ultra. The technology is moving quickly, with more options now available, some free and others for a fee or purchasing them in AI service subscriptions.

How to use Bing Video Creator

Finding or using the Bing Video Creator isn’t instantly intuitive, especially if you’re not already using the Bing Search app. In the Bing Search app, I accessed the feature by clicking on the box on the bottom right of the home screen.

That brings up lots of apps within the app. Look for Video Creator on the bottom left. There, you can create a still image or video by typing in a text prompt. Using the Fast option, which is the default, should generate the short video in moments.

You can also type «Create a video of…» directly in the app’s main search bar if you don’t want to hunt for the feature. You can download and share the video.

When I tried it out, I found the video was not very high quality and was not easy to download directly from the app. Sharing a link to the video creation and viewing it outside the app offers an option to download the full video.

Microsoft says it will keep your video creations available for 90 days.

Choice of AI video generators

Microsoft’s entry into AI video making is giving people another free option that seems geared toward casual users.

Many who work in AI businesses, such as Matt Psencik, director of security and product design research at Tanium, are following the rollout of these products, led by Sora last year. Psencik says one of them has been most impressive.

«Google’s launch of Veo 3 for Gemini is a standout,» he tells me, «in object permanence, realistic physics and overall visual fidelity. These developments are beginning to erase the line between ‘clearly AI-generated’ and ‘convincingly real.’ «

The risks, Psencik says, is that realistic video generation could be exploited with deepfakes or used to attempt to hijack someone else’s identity. Most of the AI video generators have guardrails or filters on what kind of content users can request to generate, whether it’s to avoid copyright issues or to prevent hate speech and propaganda.

But, Psencik tells me, that’s not stopping AI bots from posting fake videos online that many people can’t tell apart from reality.

«As AI-generated video becomes nearly indistinguishable from reality, it’s only a matter of time before these tools are regularly weaponized to impersonate real people at scale,» he says.

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Technologies

Biggest Apple Announcements From WWDC 2025: Liquid Glass, iOS 26, New Camera App Look and Much More

Apple’s annual developers conference brought us a new Liquid Glass design, updated operating systems for all the Apple devices, new options for text messages and AI visual search.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) acts as its annual showcase for everything new the company plans to include in its software for the next year, providing developers lead time (and incentive) to integrate imminent features and capabilities for iPhones, iPads, Macbooks, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch and Apple TV in their upcoming releases.

Today’s event brought us a Liquid Glass redesign across operating systems, unified version numbers for the OSes (all ending in 26, e.g., iOS 26), except MacOS Tahoe 26, which still incorporates a tourist destination. Plus, the new Gaming app — which is mostly a hub but with some group features — which we’ve been waiting for.  

Apple prepped buzz for the event by releasing new retro merchandise for the nostalgic among us.

The event began with a buzz video of Craig Federighi, senior VP of software engineering, racing in an F1 car to promote the F1 movie produced by Apple for its Apple TV Plus streaming service.  

If you’re more the «moment-by-moment» type, you can check out our archived live blog. Or just skip to the memes inspired by the closing song. Or just go straight to the part where you complain it bored you.

Public betas of the new operating systems will be available in July, and the first developer beta for iOS 26 is available right now. 

Liquid Glass redesign stole the show

Apple’s «gorgeous new design,» for all its platforms the first overhaul since iOS 7, made possible by better displays and more powerful components.

Apple’s vision for its next operating systems’ interfaces is almost literally that: It’s inspired by VisionOS. The new design system is called Liquid Glass, and brings a return to more pervasive translucency for the OS elements — the same aesthetic that informs the software for its Vision Pro VR/AR headset. That means more lens-like appearance, with specular highlights and dynamic movement as you change viewing angle. Navigation behavior changes as well.

iOS 26: The new operating system (and naming) is official

Liquid Glass will probably make the most impact on Apple’s most popular device. But in addition, there’s a new unified layout for communications, integrating Phone and FaceTime. Call Screening will wait until someone begins to talk and tell you who it is before ringing through, while Hold Assist will keep the call connected in the background and ring you when someone answers. Across the apps, there are lots of interface elements floating and more features just a tap away.  

The long-rumored «new destination» for gaming, Apple introduced the Games app. There’s a hug for Arcade, and it shows events and your entire game library in a single place. There’s Play Together for managing co-op and group challenges. Developers can use that for turning single-player games into group challenges.

And it works with a controller. Heck yeah.

Messages gets a customizable background that’s shared across a chat, group chats can host polls, and you can request or receive Apple Cash in group chats. You’ll be able to filter messages out from recent and unknown senders out of notifications. Emoji generation gets smarter by letting you combine and modify Genmoji to more accurately reflect what you want to convey. New ChatGPT styles include things like oil painting, or the ability to ask for a specific style that’s not a preset. 

Live Translation is now live in the communications apps with this version of the OS, and will work when you call someone who’s not on an iPhone.  

In addition to the new look, which includes things like dynamic scaling of widgets based on the photo on the lock screen, can automatically make the photo 2.5D and animated artwork for what’s playing. There’s lyrics, live lyric transliteration, mixing via the new AutoMix feature and music pins in your library. 

The camera makes it more streamlined to access the basic photo and video modes, plus all the options have been made a quick gesture away. Library and Collections tabs are back in Photos. Apple opens Visual Intelligence to not only screenshot search, but can use it across apps or call up ChatGPT. 

Maps can learn your preferred routes and take them into account, gives you travel time estimates and remembers where you’ve been for a visited-location history.

Apple Wallet will offer passport info for digital IDs (for everything but flying). Pay will offer in-person redemption of Rewards and use of Installments.

iPadOS 26 gets more Mac-like every year

Though probably not the most popular updates people care about, iPadOS 26 did get a lot more architectural changes aside from more Liquid Glass prettiness and the Live Translation, communication and AI features from other devices.

The substantive changes include a new windowing system to improve multitasking. There’s a grab handle to resize full-screen apps to windows, using the flick gesture to tile — it works with a trackpad as well as touch. It looks very similar to MacOS. 

Expose brings up thumbnails of open windows so you can select the one you want. There’s also a persistent menu bar at the top of the screen, like a desktop OS. Heck yeah. And it doesn’t require a specific high-performing iPad; it works with Stage Manager and on multiple displays. Of course, some people are wondering (dreading?) what it will be like to use on an iPad Mini.

Files finally grows up, like a detailed list view with the ability to resize columns, the ability to drag a folder to the Dock and more. 

Preview comes to the iPad, and the OS adds support for selecting a mic and providing a noise-isolation option across apps. There are also more tools for creators, such as local capture via video conferencing apps, with mic options for better sound. 

Background tasks — yes! — will show up as live activities, so you don’t have to put it down and walk away for a render.

MacOS Tahoe… 26

This year’s location name is Tahoe, and the update includes the same communications appearance updates as iOS 26. MacOS Tahoe incorporates the Liquid Glass design, too. You can add a new set of controls to the control center, change colors or add emoji to folders.

Continuity gets Live Activities, like on the iPhone, and the Phone app comes to the Mac with shared history and the other new AI features.

Shortcuts now have intelligent actions, like summarizing text or comparing things. Spotlight adds some of the annoying features of Windows search, like mixing results across types you don’t want. Quick Keys are two-letter shortcuts for apps and actions, along with suggestions. It keeps a clipboard history, which should make a lot of folks happy.

The Games app on Tahoe has the same features as the app on iPhone, plus an in-game overlay. Updates to Apple’s Metal graphics framework, Metal 4, add frame interpolation, denoising and more for potentially better game performance and quality. Upcoming games include Crimson Desert and Inzoi. 

Workout Buddy makes its debut in WatchOS

The Apple Watch OS incorporates AI in a new Workout Buddy, which keeps your fitness history and offers vocal coaching (ugh, pep talks) with a summary of your workout stats at the end. Workout has a new layout and custom workouts. 

Smart Stack uses more data to prioritize and predict which features you’ll want soon. It’s smarter about notifications, basing the volume on the ambient noise in your environment, and adds a Wrist Flick gesture for things like dismissing notifications.   

The new design also permeates Apple TV Plus and TVOS. Apple also announced some new upcoming originals and new seasons of existing shows like Slow Horses and Foundation.

TVOS will let you jump back into shows more quickly and get into karaoke with your iPhone as the mic. 

VisionOS 26 adds more for business

This operating system already had the look, but Apple’s taken VisionOS 26 deeper and more into-the-real-world. Widgets can be personalized and persistently overlaid. The OS will remember window placement. Photos can also create spatial views of photos and automatically convert images in articles, for instance. Personas will potentially look more accurate. 

Collaborative Pro usage got a co-op game callout, but it’s for business. If you’re using a shared team device, you can save your settings on your iPhone. There’s also a new Eyes Only mode for privacy. Logitech Muse 3D stylus and PSVR hand controllers are two of the interesting new accessories for it.

You’ll be able to edit Premiere Pro video and playback native 360-degree playback for popular action cams.

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Technologies

Act Fast to Score Gaming Accessories for Up to a Door-Busting 87% Off at Woot

Level up your gaming setup on the cheap with these limited-time deals from Woot.

Gaming is an addictive hobby, and today’s devices allow you to do it in multiple ways: from your PC, phone, a classic console, handheld and more. That being said, if this is your main hobby, it’s understandable that you want to have an arsenal of accessories that’ll secure your winning strategies. Right now we’ve spotted gaming accessories at Woot for as high as 87% off until June 14. Now is the perfect chance to score controllers, cables, chargers and even select video games that would make a great Father’s Day or graduation gift — all without having to pay full price.

Woot has plenty of deals on offer for every type of gamer. These include games such as Star Wars Outlaws for Xbox Series X for just $25, saving you $45 over its usual asking price. Other selections include Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for PS5 for $35, which is half off. For people who enjoy piloting and aviation, the Microsoft Flight Simulator (2024) is 50% off, bringing it down to $65.

A new Nintendo Joy-Con can now be had for just $65, saving you $15 off its regular price of $80 for a limited time. Other cool accessories include this Neat Bumblebee II USB microphone for just $17, down from its usual price of $100 and a full 83% off.

Large items are also on sale, such as this Puma Playseat active gaming chair for just $60, which is $110 off the usual asking price. Other gaming necessities such as this Razer Kaira Pro headset are down to just $90, saving you $60 over the usual price. The entire catalog of items is worth looking through, as it includes accessories for Xbox, PlayStation, Meta Quest and more.

Amazon Prime members get free shipping on all Woot orders, which means you can save a bit more. We also have a list of the best gaming PC deals in case you want look through other gaming goods.

Why this deal matters

Many of the headsets, chargers, games and accessories available at Woot right now cost up to 87% more when bought elsewhere. However, buying these accessories now could save you money in the long run if you’ve already been looking for better ways to play. Keep in mind that these deals are live until June 14, so if you’ve got your eye on something, you’ll want to act fast.

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