If you upgraded to an iPhone XS or XR from an earlier model iPhone, you’re in store for some basic gesture re-learning. Quite a few of the gestures that we’ve used over the past 10 years are history, including even basic things like swiping up to access Control Center.
It’s time to consciously exercise those muscle memories and learn some new tricks, starting with your Home Screen. Yes, it’s gonna take some getting used to, but in a few days or so, it will again be automatic, no thinking required!
So if you’re wondering things like how to open control center on iPhone XS/XR/X or access Notifications, Siri, and other Home Based functions, this article’s for you!
So let’s get to it!
Let’s Head Over to the Home Gesture Bar and the Notch!
Okay, you probably know by now that there is no Home Button on any iPhone X series phone–not on the front, not on the back.
So how to get to your Home Screen? You visit your iPhone XS/XR/X’s Gesture Bar! Folks also call it the new home indicator.
On your iPhone X Series phone, you get to the Home screen by tapping and holding that gesture bar at the bottom of the screen and swipe all the way up to the top of the screen.
Wait a Minute, isn’t this how you summon Control Center on iPhone XS/XR/X?
Nope! With the iPhone X Series phones, Apple changes the way we invoke our phone’s Control Center.
Instead of swiping up from the bottom, we swipe up from the top-right corner. Yes, you heard correctly–Control Center is now accessible by swiping DOWN from the right side of your screen’s notch (where you see your location services, Bluetooth, and battery status icons.)
Hold up, isn’t this how you summon Notifications?
Yes and No.
With the iPhone XS/XR/X, you still swipe down for Notifications. But instead of swiping down anywhere on the top of the screen, you are now limited to swiping down from the left side of your screen’s notch to access your notifications on the iPhone X Series phones.
Yup, it’s confusing without a Home Button!
Without a home button, Apple chose to add the new Gesture Bar. The gesture bar always sits at the bottom of your iPhone X’s screen, whether in portrait or landscape mode. Via this bar, you access your home screen, app switcher, and your app slider to see and move between all open apps.
There are quite a few things that change without a Home Button, including how you take screenshots, access Siri, forced restart, how to pay for things with Apple Pay, and any other features that used Touch ID.
We are all bound to make mistakes as we re-learn these changes until once again everything goes into our muscle memory autopilot. But until then, here’s how you do some of those common things on your iPhone.
Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and promptly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.
Access Siri
Get Siri’s attention by pressing and holding the side button (the power button.)
Pay with Apple Pay
To use Apple Pay, double-tap the side button. Your iPhone XS/XR/X needs to authenticate your identity using Face ID or use your password if you do not want to use Face ID.
Snap a screenshot
We’re all so used to pressing Home and Power to get a screenshot. Now with no Home Button, press the side and volume up buttons together to take a screenshot.
Emergency SOS
Gone is the 5 taps on the Power button! Instead, on your iPhone XS/XR/X, you need to press and hold the side button AND one of the two volume buttons at the same time to access SOS. This trick works on iPhone 8 models as well.
Your Accessibility Shortcut
For many, this is a necessary feature. Since its inception, triple-clicking the Home Button always brought up your shortcut.
But now with no Home Button, what to do? On the iPhone X Series, we triple press of the side button OR triple tap with three fingers on the screen to bring up our accessibility shortcut.
Turning off your iPhone X Series phone is a little different too!
Apple gives us two ways to turn your iPhone XS/XR/X off
Hold down both the side and volume up or down buttons together for a few seconds
Or use the shutdown option in Settings>General (scroll all the way down to find this option)
Summing it up!
Yup, it’s gonna take some time and practice getting used to not having a Home Button and re-learning those basic things like how to open control center on iPhone X Series phone. But soon enough it will be easy-breezy, and you’ll forget why you ever needed that Home Button in the first place.
For most of her professional life, Amanda Elizabeth (Liz for short) trained all sorts of folks on how to use media as a tool to tell their own unique stories. She knows a thing or two about teaching others and creating how-to guides!
Her clients include Edutopia, Scribe Video Center, Third Path Institute, Bracket, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Big Picture Alliance.
Elizabeth received her Master of Fine Arts degree in media making from Temple University, where she also taught undergrads as an adjunct faculty member in their department of Film and Media Arts.
I do not want Siri to listen to me without me asking for her! I have even forgotten how to speak to Siri? What button do you push? A friend of mine had a response from Siri while he was charging his phone. She corrected a word he used in private!!
My XR phone would only show notifications when I swiped down from anywhere on top. I rebooted and now I get control center on right, notifications on left swipes.
I do not want Siri to listen to me without me asking for her! I have even forgotten how to speak to Siri? What button do you push? A friend of mine had a response from Siri while he was charging his phone. She corrected a word he used in private!!
My XR phone would only show notifications when I swiped down from anywhere on top. I rebooted and now I get control center on right, notifications on left swipes.
Access to Control Center on my iPhone X by swiping down from the right upper edge has discontinued to work. It’s sad
Ernst, What happens when you try to access the CC?