AssistiveTouch on iOS is a helpful Accessibility feature that lets you access various menus and functions without using swipe gestures or pressing physical buttons.
When you enable AssistiveTouch, a virtual button appears on the screen that you can drag to any edge.
Also known as the floating home button, AssistiveTouch can be used to go to the Home Screen, take screenshots, lock the screen, trigger Siri, open the Control Center, and more. It’s especially useful if the physical Home button is broken or if you have a Face ID-enabled iPhone.
With AssistiveTouch, you can even restart an iPhone or iPad without the power button and turn silent mode on or off without using the switch.
Why is there a circle on my iPhone screen?
The virtual Home button on iPhone or iPad works just like the physical Home button. You can also customize the controls of this soft button to suit your preferences.
Although the circle icon isn’t enabled by default, you might have turned on AssistiveTouch at some point.
You can easily remove the floating icon if you find it distracting or unnecessary. Keep in mind that the option to toggle AssistiveTouch on or off has been moved in newer versions of iOS and iPadOS.
The Accessibility feature is no longer under Settings > General. So, how do you get rid of the floating Home button on your iPhone?
Don’t worry! There are multiple ways to remove the floating button on an iPhone.
Here’s how you can remove the virtual Home button on iPhone 16, iPhone 15, and earlier models.
How to get rid of the floating button on iPhone
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to Accessibility.
- Under the ‘Physical and Motor’ section, tap Touch.
- Tap AssistiveTouch at the top.
- Turn off the toggle next to AssistiveTouch.
This will immediately remove the control button or Control Center dot from your iPhone screen.
Quickly hide or unhide the floating Home button
If you use AssistiveTouch frequently but don’t want the button to stay on your screen all the time, you can toggle it on or off using the methods below.
Using Siri
If you don’t need AssistiveTouch all the time, simply ask Siri to turn it off.
Just say: “Hey Siri, turn off AssistiveTouch.”
Using the Side or Home button
You can quickly turn AssistiveTouch on or off with a triple-click of the Side button (or Home button on older models) using Accessibility Shortcuts:
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut.
- Select AssistiveTouch.
- Triple-click the Side/Home button to show or hide the floating Home button.
Using Control Center
You can also turn off the floating home button on iPhone directly from the Control Center:
- Go to Settings > Control Center.
- Under More Controls, tap the + button next to Accessibility Shortcuts.
- Open Control Center and tap the Accessibility Shortcuts button.
- Tap AssistiveTouch to add or remove the circle icon on your iPhone.
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Not useful
My home button still presses itself over and over
None of this disables it
The floating home button on my phone creates space problems on my iOS 11 screen. It should not have been placed on all phones without owner approval & is disliked by many Apple phone owners I know.
I’ve turned this crap off a million times and it keeps turning itself back on can anyone pls tell me how to just delete it all together cuz at this point I’m ready to break my phone
if you don’t like the iPhone, then maybe wear an IBM 🙂
Hi to you, Andrew. I had the same offending problem, took it to Apple tech support 3 consecutive days: it retriggered whenever I used safari(“google selected”), but stayed away when I used “DuckDuckGo”.
After another tech reset, I’ve selected “DuckDuckGo” in my Safari, and it seems ok: I believe Google harvest personal data, and I suspect that is involved. Try installing DuckDuckGo search engine, and avoid Google as default, after Apple help removing it? Although I’m good with cameras/recording/tv equipment, I’m “nowhere” with windows/Apple (no guides/manuals!!)
Have Android phone now what???
Like the button for a day ANNOYING after forget how to turn it OFF, thank you very much
I have Duck Duck go. I have tried everything and I still have this annoying button. If I toggle it off in in additive touch then my Face ID does work for many applications. I have a 12 and it’s absolutely the worst iPhone I’ve ever had and I have been using them since they came out. I think they put it together to get jump on 5G and it’s a piece of crap just like my Mac air the first with Touch ID and again the worst product I have had and I left Windows at windows 10 and haven’t looked back, but am very frustrated right now. My watch works fine and iPad except for the battery doesn’t last long. The cost of new Macs are just out of this world as windows both companies quit screwing around with games and speed and let us find our download of documents in the cloud. I pay dearly for this storage and speed 30 minutes trying to find it. What happened to where what title and date to save as
Hi on the customize top level menu
On single tap put= open menu
Double tap = none
Long press= screen shot
Reset hrd reset
Holding power button
Press Up button volume then
Press down button volume down then hold up volume button and power then swipe to turn off.
Should fix it
Getting rid of the dot was very helpful, step by step with graphics. Since the updated ios a month ago, the back arrow in NYTimes doesn’t work well. Must touch many times to go back. Can you help w this? Apple couldn’t; that’s how I got the annoying dot on my screen
How to remove frozen floating home button on iPhone 17 pro max? Accessibility menu shows off even so have toggled in and off yet icon still there still frozen in place in middle of right side of my screen. Help please?