Just got my iPhone 12 mini having trouble with Home unlock and application switch of gestures please help.

By trey, 30 December, 2020

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hey I hope everyone is having a good Christmas :-) I've just got my iPhone 12 mini. But I'm having trouble with the following gestures the gesture to go home the gesture to activate the application switcher and the gesture to unlock the phone. If somebody could help explain these gestures to me, or suggest an alternative method to unlock the phone I would be incredibly grateful :-) thanks for all your help and happy holidays everyone :-)

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By Igna Triay on Friday, December 25, 2020 - 17:22

I was having the same problem, so I ended up adding jestures, two finger tripple tap as app switcher and one finger tripple tap as home, because to be honest I didn't use those gestures so... Why not. I tried doing the home and app switcher native gesture dozens of times, and 8 times out of 10, I didn't mannage it, so just went with that option.

By Ishkabibble on Friday, December 25, 2020 - 17:22

It's pretty difficult to explain the precise mechanics of the swipe gestures on the iPhones without home buttons but I'll try my best. To go to the home screen and app switcher you use a one finger swipe up from the very bottom of your screen (if your phone is in portrait mode the shorter side with the lighting port). If you try slowly swiping up from that edge you will hear a low tone when you initially place your finger followed by a higher-pitched tone as you swipe up and then an even higher pitched tone after that if you continue swiping in that direction. If you stop swiping when you hear the second-highest tone, you will go to your home screen. If you stop swiping at the third tone (the highest one) you will go to the app switcher. It's important to note that this principle applies when accessing the control and notification centers respectively (the second tone from the top edge of your phone screen is the control center and the third (highest) tone is the notification center). When you get the "swipe to unlock" prompt on your lock screen, perform the gesture that would ordinarily take you to your home screen (swiping up from the bottom to get to the second tone, then letting go). I apologize if this is still a little confusing but I hope this explanation clears things up a little.

By Mister Kayne on Friday, December 25, 2020 - 17:22

Reading some of the comments which changed my understanding on how to access Notifications and Control Center. What I thought was; tap the status bar where time and battery information is read out, use the same gestures to bring down the Notifications/ Control center - problem solved! The new gestures for accessing Home and App. Switcher are required because they earlier depended on the home button.

I still wonder on how to take a screen shot, clear cache/ ram and hard reset without the home button

By Roxann Pollard on Friday, December 25, 2020 - 17:22

I own the iPhone XS. What you describe, as far as first touching the status line at the top of the phone is how I access notifications or control Center. Works flawlessly for me.

By Roxann Pollard on Friday, December 25, 2020 - 17:22

Hello Trey. I use the iPhone XS, which has no home button on the face of the device, either. Here is what I did to become comfortable with the new access gestures for unlocking the screen, getting to the home screen, app switcher, notifications and control center.

When I realized that the gestures had sounds associated with them, I placed one finger just above where the physical home button used to be. This produced the lowest tone gesture. From there, I just kept sliding my finger up and down, without lifting the finger from the screen. As I slid my finger up and down, I was able to make the tones go up and go down, between the three pitches that they make. By doing this, I was able to see how far up the screen I had to go in order to reproduce the gestures. Soon after that, I was successfully getting to the home screen or opening the app switcher without problem. I did the same process when first accessing the notifications and control center, as well. Following are the gestures you are looking for.

1. Unlock Screen: pick up device, wait for screen to indicate it is awake, then touch just above the old home button location and slide up until the second tone is heard. Release finger and home screen appears.

2. Exit apps and go back to home screen: Again, touch just above old home button location and slide finger up to the second tone and release finger.

3. Enter app switcher: Touch just above old home button location and slide finger up until third tone is heard and release finger.

4. Notifications and control Center: First, you can practice the sliding gestures previously mentioned, in order to access both notifications and control center. It's just done in reverse. To do this, touch the status line and then slide your finger downward and upward, in order to hear the three different tones.

To access control center, if using the sliding finger tones method, touch status line and slide finger down until you hear the second tone and release finger.

To access the notifications, if using the sliding finger tones method, touch status line and slide downward until you hear the third tone and release finger.

Note: For me, Instead of using the sliding finger tones method, I find that I still prefer the three finger swipe gestures to access notifications and control center. To do this, touch the status line, release finger, and then perform either a three finger swipe down for notifications or a three finger swipe up to access the control center. the three finger swipe gesture can be performed from anywhere in the middle of the screen.

I hope this helps to get you acclimated to your new toy.

Ok. Go to settings, accessibility, voiceover, commands, and system. Once in system, tap the command you want, app switcher as an example, this will bring up a list of all voiceover gestures. When you find the gesture you wan, double tap on said gesture. You might need to press reassign, if the gesture is already assigned to another gesture. Hope this helps.

By Mister Kayne on Monday, January 25, 2021 - 17:22

Sorry, did not get the alert of your reply to my comment. Having said that isn't the same gesture to work on the 12 series of phones? Basically on all phones that do not have a Home button? Other gestures for app. switcher and home screen etc. will need to be different not on how one would access Notifications OR the Control Panel

By Mister Kayne on Monday, January 25, 2021 - 17:22

I really did not have the need to go through that podcast but was just curious and I am really happy to have heard it. I guess once you have a phone without the home button you will need to get used to these new gestures and button combinations. How do you clear RAM earlier it was the power button till you get the power off message on your screen and then you press the home button till you are prompted the passcode. Now I believe it has to be done by pressing the power and volume up button till you get the power off message but after that what to do next? Once again thank you for that podcast!

By kool_turk on Monday, January 25, 2021 - 17:22

To clear the ram you'll need to turn on assistive touch first.

Once assistive touch is on, and you know where the menu is, press volume up, then volume down, then hold the power button.

After the power off screen shows, you need to find the assistive touch menu and double tap on it, there should be a virtual home button in that menu when you do a four finger single tap on the bottom of the screen, triple tap that button to simulate a long press, or you can double tap and hold, it doesn't matter which, both do the same.