How To Get Rid Of That Gray Dot On Your iPhone Screen

By Nichols deCourville
A Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro is held in a user's left hand as they face it toward a line of city buildings Evolf/Shutterstock

One of the more underrated benefits of having an iPhone is the hidden back tap feature and all the accessibility options that it provides. The lineup of smartphones has a number of features that may help individuals navigate the device more easily; there's even a hidden iOS feature to help those with eye strain. Accessibility options can be helpful for those who need them, but one feature may be causing a gray dot to appear on your screen when you don't want it to.

If you're seeing a gray dot on your iPhone screen, it's more than likely Apple's Assistive Touch feature. This helps users navigate their iPhone by simplifying certain functions for easier access through the gray dot's menu. Beneficial as it may be, the feature can be obtrusive for some. Luckily, removing the gray dot can be done through the iPhone Settings menu or by asking your smartphone assistant, and there's even a way to change the opacity of the gray dot for those who need options.

An iPhone can run the gamut of useful features you need to start using, though not all of them are going to be appropriate for everyone. Should you find that you're better off without the feature, then disabling it is no problem. However, should you find that changing the opacity makes things easier to see, then be sure to experiment with the rest of the options in the Assistive Touch menu, as the feature is rather expansive.

How to turn off Assistive Touch on iPhone

A closeup of an individual holding a white iPhone in their right hand as their left hand wrests on their knee, the image is cropped so that the iPhone is more prominent than the individual anatoliy_gleb/Shutterstock

Available since iOS 5, Assistive Touch adds a gray dot to a user's screen that allows them to more easily access certain features and commands that may be difficult or inaccessible for some users. This includes being able to use Assistive Touch rather than physical buttons, such as locking the screen or adjusting the volume, to replicating certain gestures such as accessing Control Center or the Notification Center simply by pressing the gray dot to access a menu.

There are a couple of options to disable it, and one of the easiest ways is to simply ask the voice assistant Siri to do it. Users can say something like "Hey Siri, disable Assistive Touch," and it will happily oblige. However, it's also possible to disable Assistive Touch from the Settings menu:

  1. Open the Settings menu.

  2. Select Accessibility.

  3. Choose Touch.

  4. Tap Assistive Touch and ensure the toggle is set to off.

You can follow these same steps to turn the feature back on, though asking Siri nicely is also an option. Should you find the feature useful but you're not a fan of how prominent the gray dot is on your screen, there's an Idle Opacity slider option under the Assistive Touch menu you can adjust to make it look how you want. Just follow steps one through three above and then look for Idle Opacity, then tap it and adjust the slider.

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