How to open Control Center on your iPhone without swiping from top: 4 easier ways

Reachability is an iOS feature that shifts the top half of your iPhone screen to within your thumb’s reach, making it much easier to tap the Control Center. To use Reachability, simply swipe down along the bottom edge of your display. This built-in gesture works anywhere you can swipe — whether you’re on the home screen or in an app. But you might need to enable it first. 

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To enable Reachability, open Settings, then go to Accessibility > Touch, and toggle on Reachability.

To use Reachability on iPhone:

1. With your phone in one hand, swipe down on the bottom edge of the screen.
2. Tap the Control Center area in the top right, which should now be within reach.
3. Swipe up on the bottom edge again (or tap a blank area at the top) to return to full screen.

Have you heard of Back Tap? It’s a virtual button on the back of your iPhone. Once enabled, you can summon iOS features — including Control Center — with two or three quick taps. To enable Back Tap, open Settings and go to Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap, then choose Double Tap or Triple Tap, and assign Control Center.

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To use Back Tap on iPhone:

1. Hold your iPhone like you normally would. 
2. Tap the back of the phone twice (or thrice).
3. If you’ve setup Control Center, it should instantly slide down.

The best part? Back Tap works even with a case on your iPhone. And you can use it anywhere, whether you’re on the home screen, scrolling TikTok, lurking in Instagram, or using any other app.

Old habits die hard, and tapping icons on the home screen is one of them. It’s a visual cue we use every day. 

If you want to turn Control Center into a home screen icon (essentially bookmarking it), all you need is Apple’s Shortcuts app. Don’t worry — it’s not complicated and takes just a few seconds to set up.

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To create your shortcut, open the Shortcuts app, tap the + button, search for and add the Show Control Center action, then hit Done. Back in the All Shortcuts view, tap the ••• on your shortcut, open its top dropdown menu, choose Add to Home Screen, and — if you like — customize the name, symbol, and color before tapping Add.

To use your home-screen shortcut on iPhone:

1. From any home-screen page, tap your new Control Center icon.
2. If you’re in another app, swipe to your home screen first and then tap your new Control Center icon.

OK this last one is exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and 16 models with a physical Action button. Basically, with a press, it can run a shortcut and open things — like Control Center. 

Also: I’ve used my iPhone 16’s Action button many ways – but this one is my favorite

To change what the Action button does, you’ll repeat some of the steps above. Open the Shortcuts app, select your Control Center shortcut, and edit the action from Show to Toggle (so it both opens and closes). Now, configure the Action Button: Go to Settings > Action Button, select Shortcut, and choose Control Center.

To use the Action button on your iPhone:

1. Press the side button once.
2. If set up, Control Center will slide down or disappear immediately.

By default, the Action button is set to silent mode. But you can access that setting in the Control Center.