Apple presented iOS 14 last night. Among the many new features unveiled by the Cupertino company is "Back Tap", the tapping on the back. Thanks to it, new shortcuts are integrated into the operating system. Up to two shortcuts can be configured. And Siri shortcuts are included in the list.
Last night we followed for you the Apple conference presented by Craig Federighi, vice-president in charge of operating systems. During this conference, the firm formalized iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, macOS Big Sur and tvOS 14. Many new features were unveiled for all these operating systems. Several articles have been published in our columns on iOS 14, including one on the new home screen and another on Apple Translate, an “on board” translation application (no internet connection required). We decided to add another one on Back tap, highlighted thanks to a colleague on Twitter, Federico Viticci (whose initial tweet you can find at the end of the article).
Read also - iOS 14: discover the list of compatible iPhones
Back Tap (which you could translate as " patting on the back », But we leave the marketing team of Apple Your Country to officially translate it) is a new gesture for iOS 14 where you must knock on the back of the mobile. Tap (gently anyway) on the back of the phone and the phone performs a predefined action. This is to some extent reminiscent of the touch actions associated with fingerprint readers installed on the back of some smartphones, including Google's first Pixel. It's old !
Two new configurable gestures
Back Tap offers two gestures: double or triple tap. For each gesture, you define the action to be performed by the smartphone. It could be, for example, to open an application, to activate a widget, to open the multitasking menu, to launch a search or to activate a Siri shortcut. Shortcuts are configurable routines which look like a simplified programming language.
Here are some examples of shortcuts: activate night mode phone, switch off connected light bulbs (because, it is Homekit compatible, of course), launch a playlist on HomePod from Apple Music, start navigation on a predetermined route with Apple Maps, etc. The list is almost endless. By including Shortcut (which is more of a custom action automation hub), Back Tap should be particularly useful.
iOS 14 has a new Back Tap feature in Accessibility and it's wild. You can perform quick actions by double- or triple-tapping the *back of your iPhone*. Literally quick taps on the back; works with a case on.
These include system actions as well as custom shortcuts. pic.twitter.com/87uJU9qAtu
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) June 23, 2021
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