How to enable or disable silent mode without the switch on iPhone

The original iPhone had a physical Ring/Silent switch on the left side, and it has been applied to every iPhone since. This is the only way to switch between ring mode and silent mode, right?

Apple does not include an “official” method to switch between these modes without the physical switch. What if it no longer works? What if you keep switching accidentally? There are a few useful “hacks” that we can use thanks to the amazing iPhone Accessibility suite.

Create a “virtual” ring/silent switch

Let’s get a little more creative. How to use the iPhone »AssitiveTouch” feature we can create a virtual Ring/Silent switch. First we go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch on your iPhone.

Then go to “AssistiveTouch” and enable it at the top of the screen.

A floating button will appear on the screen. By default, this button opens a menu that can contain up to eight different shortcuts. Tap ‘Customize top level menu’.

Select one of the shortcuts and replace it with ‘Mute’.

Now when you open the menu you have a mute/unmute toggle button that works independently of the physical switch, although the switch can still control the modes if it is functional.

If you want even easier access to the virtual switch, you can choose the Single-Tap, Double-Tap or Long Press option for the floating button.

This method does require you to have a semi-transparent floating button on your screen at all times, but it’s a neat trick, especially if the physical switch no longer works.

Tap the back of the iPhone

Did you know you can do that? initiate actions by tapping the back of your iPhone? It’s a very cool trick and we can use it to toggle Ring/Silent mode. To get started, let’s go to “Settings” and go to Accessibility > Touch.

Scroll down to ‘Tap Back’.

Decide whether you want to use the ‘Double Tap’ or ‘Triple Tap’ gesture.

Select “Mute” from the list of actions.

That’s all there is to it! Tap the back of the phone however many times you choose to switch between ring and silent mode.

What about the action button?

Certain iPhone models no longer have the ring/silent switch. Instead, they have the ‘Action Button’. This is a customizable button that can be a ring/silent switch and much more. By default, when you press and hold the action button, it works the same as the classic ring/silent switch. However, if you want to do something different, you can easily change the action.

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It’s a bit strange that Apple ditched the headphone jack but has stuck with this rather outdated method of controlling the alert volume with a physical switch. Either way, you have some viable options to get around the switch.