How to show touches on iOS Device

Published in

Mac O’Clock

3 min readJun 7, 2020

Sometimes you want to enable a tap indicator on your iOS Device (iPhone or Simulator), like a small circle, for touch events so users can easily spot where you have tapped.

To see where touches occur on iOS simulator:

Open a terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and type following command:

defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ShowSingleTouches 1

Now, restart your iOS Simulator.
That’s it. 🚀🚀🚀 🕺🕺🕺

Note: If you want to disable the touch then type the following command and restart the iOS Simulator

defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ShowSingleTouches 0

Reading Values

If you want to read the current value of the variable before making any changes then, use the following command:

defaults read com.apple.iphonesimulator ShowSingleTouches

If you are curious to know more options like ShowSingleTouches then use the following command:

defaults read com.apple.iphonesimulator

To see where touches occur on iPhone:

Go to your iPhone’s Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch
Tap onAssistiveTouch to turn it on, and hit Create New Gesture…
Now single tap anywhere on the screen and save the gesture with an appropriate name.
That’s it. 🚀🚀🚀 🕺🕺🕺

Now we have created a new gesture. It’s time to play with the newly created tap gesture.

First of all, launch any application on your iPhone.
Click on the Assistive Touch (Transparent circle icon on the screen) button.
Now tap the Custom button, and select the gesture you have just created.

Note: Every time you open the app, you have to manually enable your custom gesture.

Delete the Custom Gesture

Go to your iPhone’s Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch
Under Custom Gesture, swipe left on row to delete the gesture you want to.

Questions?

Please feel free to comment below, if you have any questions.

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