What happened to Slide-to-Unlock in iOS 10? If you’ve updated to iOS 10 on your iPhone or iPad, you’ve undoubtedly noticed one of the most immediately noticeable changes; slide to unlock no longer works. Instead if you slide right on the lock screen of iOS 10 you end up in the widgets screen. Replacing that old familiar gesture is a new Press Home to Unlock maneuver.
The Press Home to Unlock move means you literally are pressing on the Home button to trigger the passcode entry screen or Touch ID. Don’t press too long though otherwise you’ll enable Siri. If you mess it up and wind up with Siri half the time, welcome to the club, but there’s a nice little trick hidden in the Settings which can improve the lock screen experience in iOS 10, and that is to disable the “Press Home to Unlock” feature. With “Press Home to Unlock” disabled, you’ll just need to rest your finger on the Home button instead of actually pressing it down.
And let’s be clear about something; there is no way to get Slide-to-Unlock back in iOS 10. Unless Apple reverses this or makes a change elsewhere to a future iOS update, that’s the way it is.
How to Disable “Press Home to Unlock” in iOS 10 Lock Screen
The ability to rest a finger to unlock iOS devices is an option only available on Touch ID equipped iPhone and iPad hardware with the latest iOS release, here’s where to find the setting option:
- Open the “Settings” app and go to “General” and then to “Accessibility”
- Choose “Home Button”
- Locate the setting for “Rest Finger to Open” and toggle this to the ON position
This disables Press Home to Unlock and instead turns it into a Rest Finger to Unlock function, much like how using Touch ID to unlock an iPhone or iPad worked in prior iOS releases.
Note that if you want to trigger the passcode entry prompt rather than Touch ID, you’ll either need to place an unidentified finger on the Home Button or to press it down on a non-Touch ID device. Another trick is to press it with a fingernail to avoid the Touch ID recognition.
How can I re-enable Slide to Unlock in iOS 10?
As mentioned before, the slide to unlock gesture is not possible to enable in iOS 10. It is gone. It is possible that a future iOS version will allow the Slide-to-Unlock gesture to return, but for now it appears to be removed permanently.
The removal of the long familiar slide-to-unlock gesture is fairly controversial given that it has been the way to unlock an iPhone since the devices origin, and some users may prefer the old way, and some may prefer the new way. Once you get accustomed to the Press Home to Unlock feature it works pretty well for most users and the new lock screen is maybe even one of the better features of iOS 10 thanks to the widget screen and fast camera access, though disabling Press Home and using the rest-finger-to-unlock option outlined above may be preferential to some. Sayonara slide-to-unlock, and say hello to Press Home to Unlock.
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