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How to Take a Screenshot on iPhone Without Buttons

Take an iPhone screenshot without the side or volume buttons: Back Tap, AssistiveTouch, Siri, the Action button or Control Center, for iOS 26 and iOS 27.

6 min read
Muhammed BasilFounder & maker of Pizazoo

To take a screenshot on iPhone without buttons, turn on Back Tap: go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap, choose Double Tap or Triple Tap, select Screenshot, then tap the back of your iPhone. AssistiveTouch and Siri work too, and iPhone models with an Action button can run a screenshot shortcut. All of these work in iOS 26 and iOS 27.

Apple's iOS 27 guide names Siri, AssistiveTouch and Back Tap as the alternatives to the hardware buttons (Apple). Here is how to set up each one, plus two shortcut-based options.

Which no-button screenshot method should I use?

Method What you need Best for
Back Tap iPhone 8 or later, iOS 14 or later Fast everyday captures
AssistiveTouch Any iPhone that runs iOS 26 or iOS 27 A broken side or volume button
Siri Siri turned on with voice activation, plus internet Hands-free captures
Action button An iPhone with an Action button and a screenshot shortcut One press
Control Center A screenshot shortcut added as a control When Control Center is already open

How do I take a screenshot with Back Tap?

These steps are from Apple's iOS 27 guide (Apple):

  • Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap.
  • Tap Double Tap or Triple Tap, then choose Screenshot.
  • Double-tap or triple-tap the back of your iPhone to take a screenshot.

Back Tap needs iOS 14 or later on an iPhone 8 or later (Apple). Apple does not print the option's name, but how-to guides from How-To Geek and XDA both show it as Screenshot, and XDA notes that it works through a light case. If you get accidental screenshots, move the action to Triple Tap. To turn Back Tap off, choose Double Tap or Triple Tap again and tap None.

How do I take a screenshot with AssistiveTouch?

AssistiveTouch puts a floating menu button on the screen that can stand in for the physical buttons (Apple):

  • Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch and turn on AssistiveTouch. You can also ask Siri to "Turn on AssistiveTouch."
  • Tap the menu button, then tap Device > More > Screenshot (the menu path How-To Geek describes).

To make it one tap, open the AssistiveTouch settings and use Single-Tap, Double-Tap or Long Press to assign Screenshot to the menu button itself, or tap Customize Top Level Menu to put Screenshot on the first screen (the menu holds up to eight icons). Idle Opacity makes the button fade when you are not using it.

If a button is broken rather than just awkward, AssistiveTouch also covers the other button jobs: Apple lists locking the screen, adjusting the volume, restarting the device and summoning Siri (Apple).

Can Siri take a screenshot?

Yes. Siri is on Apple's list of alternatives to the hardware buttons in iOS 27, and the iOS 26 guide lists it as a voice command (Apple, iOS 26). Activate Siri and ask it to take a screenshot.

With a broken side button, you need voice activation. In iOS 27, go to Settings > Siri, tap Requests, then turn on "Siri" or "Hey Siri" (Apple). In iOS 26, the setting is Talk to Siri (or Talk & Type to Siri) under Settings > Siri or Apple Intelligence & Siri (Apple, iOS 26). Apple also notes that Siri needs an internet connection (Apple), so this method fails offline. Back Tap and AssistiveTouch do not have that limit.

How do I set up the Action button to take a screenshot?

The Action button has no built-in screenshot option, but it can run a shortcut. Apple lists it on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 lineups (including iPhone 16e), iPhone Air, iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max (Apple).

First, build the shortcut in the Shortcuts app (Apple):

  • Tap the Add button, then add the Take Screenshot action. Apple added it to Shortcuts in iOS 14.5 (iDownloadBlog).
  • Add Save to Photo Album. Without it, the screenshot is not saved to Photos (Matthew Cassinelli).
  • Name it, for example "Screenshot," and tap Done.

Then go to Settings > Action Button, swipe to Shortcut, tap the button below it, and choose your shortcut. Press and hold the Action button to take a screenshot (Apple). MakeUseOf walks through the same setup.

Is there a screenshot button in Control Center?

Not a built-in one: Apple's iOS 27 Control Center guide does not list a screenshot control (Apple). You can add the shortcut from the previous section as a control instead. Open Control Center, tap the Add button at the top left, tap Add a Control, tap Shortcut, tap Choose, then select your screenshot shortcut (Apple).

If your first test captures Control Center itself, add a Wait action of one second before Take Screenshot (Matthew Cassinelli) so Control Center has time to close.

Where do screenshots go when you take them without buttons?

To the same place as button screenshots: the Photos app. Tap Collections, scroll down to Media Types, then tap Screenshots (Apple).

In iOS 26 and iOS 27, a new screenshot opens full screen by default. Swipe up, or tap the save button and choose an option, to keep it; thumbnail-style screenshots save automatically. Turn off Full-Screen Previews in Settings > General > Screen Capture if you prefer the corner thumbnail. The same screen sets the format: SDR screenshots are PNG files and HDR screenshots are HEIF (Apple).

Screenshots from the shortcut go wherever Save to Photo Album puts them, which is Recents unless you picked an album. If one seems to be missing, see where are screenshots on iPhone.

How do I keep all those screenshots organized?

Once a screenshot is a double-tap away, they pile up fast. Pizazoo for iPhone and iPad is free on the App Store for iOS and iPadOS 17 or later. Disclosure: we make Pizazoo. It picks up new screenshots from your photo library when you open the app, sorts them into categories such as Receipts, Chats and Errors on your device, and makes the text inside them searchable. An optional "Remove from Photos after import" setting keeps your camera roll for photos. More in how to organize screenshots on iPhone.

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