Question :

I just got a new iPhone X without a Home button. On my previous iPhone I always used to shut down apps that were needlessly running in the background by double clicking on the Home button which brought up the underwater-screen where I could go through all apps that were open in the background and just pick the app and swipe up to close it…

But now, without a Home button, how do I do that ?

Answer :

as you would expect, it’s simple…

but as you have already experienced, it’s not intuitive for anyone who has grown familiar with using the Home button… since the release of iOS 12, it basically comes down to :

“swipe-up & hold”

to be more precise :

• make sure the iPhone is unlocked (using FaceID or maybe even your unlock code)
• then swipe upward from the bottom of the screen and keep your finger on the screen
• now the underwater screen that you were searching for will appear and you can browse through all open apps and swipe up to close the ones you aren’t using (it actually looks less and less like an underwater screen, it’s more like the Cover Flow feature in iTunes and Finder on macOS)

we used to do this on older iPhones to regain RAM space to keep your iPhone running smoothly… on new iPhones that’s possibly less relevant, but it still feels good to know you can do this when you need to 😉

enjoy !