app switcher

Starting with the iPhone X, when Apple first removed the Home button, your iPhone has an app switcher that’s nearly identical to the App Switcher on all older iPhones with Home buttons. There are two major differences: how you access the App Switcher and how you remove apps from the app switcher. We’ve already covered how to close apps in the App Switcher; here’s how to open the App Switcher on an iPhone X or later. We’ll also cover a really cool feature that allows you to quickly swipe between apps without ever opening the App Switcher. Let’s get into it.

When you set up an iPhone X or later model iPhone, it tells you how to open the App Switcher: swipe up from the bottom of the screen to just below the center, hold for a second, and let go. There might be a subtle bit of haptic feedback when you’re holding to let you know it’s okay to let go. But once you’ve opened the App Switcher, figuring out how to remove apps and fully close them isn’t so obvious. Here’s how to close apps in the App Switcher on iPhone X and later running on iOS 12 or later.

There are two different ways to close apps on the iPhone. You can close an app by returning to Home screen, but it will still be in the background. To completely close an app, or force close an app that isn’t working properly, you’ll need to open the App Switcher. Since the iPhone X has no Home button, the ways in which you close apps on iPhone is the same but performed differently. We’ll go over how to close apps and how to force quit apps on your new iPhone X.

Switching apps on your old iPhone was an easy gesture—double click on the home button and scroll horizontally between the apps that pop up, which are handily ranked from right to left in the order you used them last. But now you've upgraded to the iPhone X, and the faithful home button is no more. Fear not, fellow iPhone X initiate! There's a learning curve; but once you've mastered a few simple flicks and swipes, you'll be back to multitasking as fast or faster than ever before. Let's go through the easiest and most efficient ways of using your new iPhone X to switch apps. We'll go over using the Home indicator, quickly switching between open apps, accessing the App Switcher, and closing out apps you're finished using. Once you've acclimated to the bezel-less iPhone X, you'll never look back. So without further ado, here's how to switch between apps on your new iPhone X.

Before 3D Touch the only way to access the multitasking window was to double click the Home button. Then came the back button in iOS 9 for quickly returning to the previous app. But, if you have an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you can now also switch between apps using 3D Touch.