Your iPhone or iPad has three or four buttons, depending on the model. While the function of some of these buttons is obvious, there are some hidden features that can help you use your device more efficiently. In this article, we’ll look at all the buttons on an iPhone and iPad and explain everything you can do with them.
The buttons on iPhones are specific to different models.
Above, left to right: iPhone 16; iPhone 16e, iPhone 15 and earlier without a Home button; iPhone 8, iPhone SE, and earlier.
No current iPhone has a Home button. But before the arrival of Face ID, you authenticated on your device using your fingerprint by pressing, or resting your finger on, the Home button. And before Touch ID, you pressed the Home button to bring up the authentication screen where you entered your passcode.
The iPhone 8 and the iPhone SE (3rd generation) were the last phones to have a Home button. If you have a device with this button, here’s what it does:
You can press the power button (Apple calls it the “side button”) to wake up a device or to turn the screen off. (You can alternatively wake some iPhones and iPads by tapping their screens.) If you have an iPhone with an always-on display, pressing the power button when the screen is at full brightness dims it. The side or power button is on the right side of an iPhone, near the top.
But the side button does more:
These two buttons allow you to raise or lower the volume of your iPhone. Use them with the power button (side button) to take screenshots or hard lock the device, as described above.
On iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, you press and hold the customizable Action button for one second to activate it. By default, it is set to enable or disable the flashlight, but you can customize it in Settings > Action Button, to run other actions, and even set it to run a shortcut. See this Apple support document for more on using the Action button.
On iPhone 16e with iOS 18.3 or later, you can press and hold the Action button to trigger visual intelligence, one of the features of Apple Intelligence.
This is another button that current devices no longer have. The iPhone 14 and earlier and the iPhone SE had a hard switch on the left side, above the volume buttons, which you could use to silence the device’s ringer or alerts. Silencing a device this way doesn’t affect alarms set in the Clock app or calls from your favorites.
On iPhone 16 models, you can use the camera control to launch the Camera app, make adjustments, activate the shutter, and access Camera settings. You can also use it to trigger visual intelligence. See this Apple support document.
Above:
As with the iPhone, the power button at the top of the device wakes or sleeps the iPad. You use it together with a volume button to take screenshots, or to hard lock the device. You also double press the power button to make purchases or use Apple Pay.
Several iPad models, such as the iPad (A16), iPad Air (M3), and iPad mini (A17 Pro) have a Touch ID sensor built into the power button. Press this to unlock the device or to confirm purchases.
These buttons allow you to raise or lower the volume of your iPad. Use them with the power button to take screenshots or hard lock the device. See above, in the iPhone buttons section of this article.
Note that the iPad volume buttons function differently according to the device’s orientation. If you hold the device in portrait mode, the upper button increases volume and the lower button decreases volume. If you hold it in landscape mode, such as to watch a film, the left volume button—which is the top one in portrait mode—lowers the volume, and the right button increases the volume.
The last iPads with Home buttons were the 2022 iPad (10th generation), the 2019 iPad Air (3rd generation), the 2019 iPad mini (5th generation), and the 2021 iPad Pro (2nd generation). The iPod touch, last sold in 2022, also had a Home button.
As with the iPhone, the Home button does the following:
Some iPad models had a hard switch on the left side, above the volume buttons, which you could use to silence the device’s ringer or alerts. If you have a device with this button, silencing it this way doesn’t affect alarms set in the Clock app, or calls from your favorites. On some older iPads, this button enabled or disabled rotation (orientation) lock.
While most of the features of buttons on iPhones and iPads are easy to figure out, some more advanced capabilities are hidden. It’s helpful to know all your options with these devices’ buttons.
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