When I got into college, back in 2010, iPhones used to be a pathway to glory and respect. Owning an iPhone would immediately mean that you belong to an elite family. With the passage of time, and increased focus of Apple on Indian market, iPhones started becoming a household phenomena. A big credit also goes to some of the world’s largest grey markets in India which enabled this change at a nominal cost.

Apple has been an innovation powerhouse ever since it’s inception. In point of fact, iPhone was the first device to integrate the screenshot functionality on a mobile in 2007. Android followed the suit later in 2011 (source). So how to take a screenshot on iPhone? I am sure most of you reading this would find this question ridiculous, but bear with me. I recently found an amazing way to achieve this while playing around with my brother’s phone. Without any further delay, let’s explore the conventional and the new means to achieve this!

The Boring Way!

This has been around ever since the launch of iPhones. You click home button and volume up button (on older iPhones) and Voila! Screen is captured. With latest enhancements in iOS you can edit it right away and share with your contacts.

On newer models (from iPhone X), apple got rid of the home button for good. Now, you need to press the lock button on the side and volume up simultaneously, to take a screenshot.

There are some disadvantages of this way though:

• Although it is fairly simple, for some reason, my parents and grandparents have a really hard time doing this! Insert <parents clicking phone screen with another phone> joke here.
• In older phones, there is no ‘single handed way‘ of taking a screenshot.
• And we all may agree, in newer phones as well, you need to get in an awkward hand position to take a screenshot.

Just Tap that Apple logo: The cool method!

This feature was launched with iOS 14. Latest firmware version from Apple lets you tap the back of the iPhone to take specific actions. You may chose the required action from a full blown list. In this post, I’ll cover how to enable the tippy tap method for taking screenshots. Steps below:

• Quickly head over to settings app. Tap on accessibility.

• Select the options under the section physical and motor named: Touch

• Scroll down and find: “back tap“. Toggle it ‘on’ and pick “screenshot” from the picklist under the section, ‘double tap‘.

• Now simply tap the back of your screen twice with your index finger. Lo and Behold, your screenshot is captured.

And Finally:

It is simple stuff like this that I love about gadgets around me. You may use double tap or triple tip for enabling multiple functionalities like zoom, voiceover, Siri etc. Fun right? I immediately enabled double tap for screenshots and triple tap for Zoom on my father’s phone. Do share your favorite use cases in comments below.

Until Next Time…