Add Button Shapes to Buttons

Learn how to add button shapes to the buttons on the iPhone.

Did you know you could add button shapes to buttons on the iPhone? This can make it easier to see what is a button compared to standard text in an app. When you add button shapes, the iPhone basically highlights any button by adding a underline to it, making look more like a hyperlink. The iPhone will also shade certain buttons as well. See how to add button shapes and what happens when you add button shapes in this vide of or the iPhone.

Video TranscriptIn this video, we’re going to look at how we can add button shapes to our buttons on the iPhone. This has been around on the iPhone for a while, but I’ve seen more people using this, so I thought I’d maybe create a lesson on it. When we add button shapes, it makes it easier to see what we can tap on. Let’s see what I mean. Let’s go to my iPhone.

Let’s open up my Settings app. Let’s first look at what a button is. When I go to any one of these settings, let’s take a look at my Notifications here, when I go and take a look at this, up towards the top we have the word Settings. It is blue. This is a button.

If you were to go back several generations of iOS, you’d actually see that this was a button or was shaped like a physical button. But as a they flattened out iOS, the shape of that button has disappeared. We only have the word here. It is blue. So that’s indicating that it is a button, but what I would like to do is have a better indication. Well, when we add button shapes to this, what it’ll do is it will underline it much like a hyperlink. You go to a website and most cases, when you see a word that is underlined, that means that you can tap on it. Well that’s basically what happens when we add button shapes to the iPad. These buttons here will have an underline underneath them indicating that it is a button.

So how do we add these buttons shapes? Well, we have to go to our Accessibility settings. So I’m going to tap on Settings here. I’m already in the Settings app. And I just swipe up until I find Accessibility. Under Accessibility, we need to go to Display & Text Size.

Now there are a number of options here, but the one that we’re going to look at is Button Shape. Again, you’re going to see in the upper left hand corner, I have the word Back. This is a button. It is not underlined. Let’s turn on our Button Shapes and see what it looks like. I go to the right and tap on the slider, and now we can see we have a button shape. It is underlined.

Let’s look at this in another app. This does apply across all the apps on the iPhone. So I’m going to swipe up from the bottom and let’s take a look at Safari. I’m going to view all of my different tabs. You’re going to see I have an underline underneath Done. So this is a button. I’m done with this page. I can tap on this button.

You’re also going to see that when I switched my tab groups, this is actually shaded like a button. So in addition to underlining them, in some cases, you’ll actually have a shaded button. If I turn off button shapes, let’s go back over to my Settings app. I swipe up from the bottom. We go back over to my Settings app. We go over to Accessibility. We go to Display & Text Size. I’m going to turn Button Shapes off. I go over to the right tap on the slider. Let’s go back into Safari, I swipe up and hold so I can see all of my open apps. And when we go over to Safari. We no longer have Done underlined. And if we go over to our tab groups. That is no longer shaped or shaded as a button.

So that’s how we add button shapes on the iPhone. When we add buttons shapes, we’re basically just given a little better indication of what buttons are, what we can tap on. In most cases, what it is going to do is underline any buttons that you can tap on so you can easily see what you can tap on. But in some cases, what you may see as a shaded button. To turn on button shapes, you just go to the Settings app, go to Accessibility and then go to Display & Text Size. You’ll see Button Shapes, turn it on. And then any buttons across your iPhone on all of your apps, any buttons will now have a little better indication that they are indeed a button.

So that’s how you add button shapes on the iPhone.