There are some settings and features on the iPhone that are a little less common than others, so it can be difficult to adjust them if you aren’t sure what they are called, or where you should look.
One such setting is called AssistiveTouch. When it’s active you will see a circular icon on the right side of the screen. If you tap that circle it will open a menu where you can pick from a number of different actions.
You can turn off the iPhone 13 AssistiveTouch by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch.
Once you have disabled that setting the circle should be gone.
But this setting can be incredibly useful if you don’t mind having its circle on the screen all the time, and the occasional times where you might accidentally tap the circle and open the menu.
Our guide below will show you more about turning off AssistiveTouch, as well as provide you with more information on how you can customize it if you elect to keep it turned on.
How to Turn Off Assistive Touch on iPhone 13
- Open Settings.
- Choose Accessibility.
- Select Touch.
- Touch AssistiveTouch.
- Tap the AssistiveTouch button.
Our guide continues below with more on how to remove the AssistiveTouch circle on an iPhone, including pictures of these steps.
How to Disable iPhone 13 Assistive Touch (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 13 in the iOS 15.3.1 operating system.
These steps assume that Assistive Touch is currently enabled on the device and that you want to turn it off.
Step 1: Open the Settings app.
Step 2: Scroll down and select the Accessibility option.
Step 3: Select the Touch option.
Step 4: Choose AssistiveTouch.
Step 5: Tap the button next to AssistiveTouch to turn it on or off.
Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion on how to enable or disable AssistiveTouch, including more about the different ways you can configure it.
More Information on How to Get Rid of Circle on iPhone 13
The steps in this article have shown you where to find the Assistive Touch setting on your iPhone 13 so that you can disable it, assuming that it is currently turned on.
You can also follow these steps if you decide that you want to turn it back on.
The Assistive Touch feature can be useful if you want to quickly perform a specific action, or if one of the buttons or features on your device isn’t working properly.
While the circle that indicates an active Assistive Touch can be disruptive and take up a good portion of your screen, you do get used to it after a while. Many people that utilize it will find that it’s less problematic once it’s been used for a while. Plus its added functionality can make it quite useful.
If you are using Assistive Touch then there are a lot of options that you can customize for it. These include:
- Customize Top Level Menu – when you tap the circle you are going to see a handful of different actions that you can take. Tapping one of those icons on the “Customize Top Level Menu” screen lets you choose what those actions are.
- Single-Tap – choose what happens when you single-tap the circle.
- Double-Tap – choose what happens when you double-tap the circle
- Long Press – choose what happens when you perform a long press on the circle
- Create New Gesture – enter your own gesture that causes an action to occur
- Idle Opacity – change how transparent the AssistiveTouch circle is when it’s not being used
- Devices
- Mouse Keys
- Show Onscreen Keyboard
- Always Show Menu
- Perform Touch Gestures
- Use Game Controller
- Tracking Sensitivity
- Dwell Control – if you turn this on then you can configure an action to occur when you are simply holding the AssistiveTouch circle.
- Fallback Action
- Movement Tolerance
- Hot Corners
- Confirm with AssistiveTouch
As you can see from that long list, there are a lot of ways to customize this button.
Additional Sources
Matthew Burleigh has been writing technology how-to articles and tutorials for over a decade. He has extensive experience in information technology both in small business and as a consultant.
His articles have appeared on dozens of websites and been read millions of times.
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