With HyperOS, you can create shortcuts on your Xiaomi smartphone with a “secret” gesture called Back tap. By tapping the back of your Xiaomi smartphone, you can launch the camera or switch to silent mode in an instant. In this tutorial, nextpit shows you how to activate this HyperOS feature.
This feature is available in HyperOS (review) and also MIUI 14 (review). It’s a tap gesture at the back of your Xiaomi smartphone you can assign to several types of shortcuts. Your Xiaomi smartphone can recognize two variations of this gesture: a double tap and a triple tap. This Back tap shortcut works even if your smartphone is locked or in standby mode.
To activate the HyperOS Back tap function on your Xiaomi smartphone:
- Go to Settings.
- Go to Additional settings.
- Go to Gesture shortcuts.
- Scroll down and press Back tap.
- Choose Double back tap or Triple back tap.
- Select the action you wish to associate with the gesture.
Overall, you can choose from seven shortcuts to assign to each of the two Back tap gestures:
| Back tap shortcut | |
|---|---|
| Shortcut 1 | Notification shade |
| Shortcut 2 | Launch Google Assistant |
| Shortcut 3 | Launch camera |
| Shortcut 4 | Calculator |
| Shortcut 5 | Silent mode |
| Shortcut 6 | Get issue-related logs |
| Shortcut 7 | TalkBack |
For this tutorial, I set up the Back tap shortcut on a Xiaomi 14 (review). Activating the shortcut was a fairly straightforward affair, with both double and triple back taps. However, you need to be extremely precise by tapping the top half of the smartphone’s back, right below the camera module. When I tapped further down, I had to perform the action a couple of times more to get it to work.
Personally, I found this shortcut rather useful. Launching the camera is a bit redundant since you can already do so by pressing the volume button twice. Ditto for Google Assistant, which can be invoked via a long press of the power button.
In terms of accessibility, activating TalkBack mode via Back tap seems to be an excellent idea. As a reminder, this Android accessibility mode makes it easier for the visually impaired to navigate their smartphone’s interface using audio comments and tactile feedback. Being able to activate it in HyperOS with a simple Back tap gesture is therefore a very good idea from Xiaomi.
That’s all for this tutorial on how to activate HyperOS’s Back Tap function on your Xiaomi smartphone. Did you find this article useful? Are you already using Back Tap on your Xiaomi handset?
Article updated in June 2024 with renewed instructions for Xiaomi’s HyperOS.
