The Secret Assistive Touch Feature in iOS 5+

The Assistive Touch feature was released with the introduction of iOS 5. Even though iOS 6 is now out and working many people are still unaware of Assistive Touch. To tell you before hand, assistive touch is a very helpful on screen button that allows you to control various functions of your device. Keep reading for a better understanding.

What Exactly is Assistive Touch:

By turning on Assistive Touch you get an onscreen button that looks like this.

This button can be used for various purposes. You can drag the button to anyplace of your screen so that it does not come in the way. Drag it anywhere you like. When you touch on the button a screen like this opens.

The 4 options showed in the picture are shown. The most used button will be the home one. The virtual home button will do exactly the same job as your regular physical home button. This is mainly used for those who think it is easier to select home from here or by those who have their physical home buttons broken.

By going to the device button, 6 more options will open up. The Lock Screen, Rotate, Mute, Volume Up, Volume Down, and Shake. The Lock Screen will normally lock your session just like you do when pressing the power button. The Volume Up, Down, and Mute buttons are used to control the volume. These features are extremely helful if you have a cover that makes it disturbing or uneasy to press the physical power and volume control buttons. The Rotate Screen option will allow you to rotate your screen any way you want without actually changing your devices position. The Shake button does the same thing.

The Gestures feature is interesting but barely helpful at all. It's just a little extra for someone who is physically disabled. iOS has various fingers' gestures that allow you to do certain jobs by sliding two, three, four, or five fingers. With the gestures option, you can perform any of the multiple fingers' jobs with a single finger. Torquoise Rings will appear indicating fingers and you will be able to perform those actions.

The Favorites button is for custom gestures that you make. The default gestue is pinch which allows you to do the action of pinching with a single finger. Create custom gestures and then save them to favorites.

That's all about the Assistive Touch button. Now lets learn how to use it.

How To Activate Assistive Touch:

Assistive touch can easily be activated from the iOS settings. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility. There turn Assistive Touch on.

Once you turn it on the button will appear. You can from the same place make new gestures and save them to favorites.

Conclusion:

In the end, we can say Assistive Touch is a pretty good addition and is helpful at times but there is still space for improvement. Different options should be made as well and the gestures option is not too pleasing. Share your ideas in the comments below.