iOS 14 release: New iPhone update lets you knock on the back of handset to open features

Feature is part of a wide range of new accessibility changes, including a tool to recognise noises

(AFP via Getty Images)

iPhones will now be able to tell when you tap them on the back, as well as the front.

A new feature that will be released as part of iOS 14 allows the phones to know when they have been knocked on the back and respond accordingly.

Users can tell the phone to do everything from turning the volume down to taking a screenshot with just a tap on the phone's back, if they are running the new version of the software.

It can also be customised so that either a double tap or triple tap awakens the feature, and the two different taps can do different things.

The feature is part of Apple's wide set of accessibility tools, which include a host of different ways to make the phones adapt to their users.

It was not mentioned in Apple's long keynote event, but has been found by early users who have already downloaded the beta version of iOS 14, which is currently limited only to developers.

It's not clear how exactly the phone know when it is being tapped, but it presumably uses accelerometers in the body of the phone to understand how it is being moved.

Apple hasn't confirmed which phones will get the feature when it is released, but it appears to be limited to those that currently have the "tap to wake" feature, which allows them to respond to being tapped on their screen even if the display is asleep. That is found on every phone that doesn't have a home button, from the iPhone X on.

Other accessibility updates coming to iOS 14 include a new tool called Sound Recognition, which allows the phone to recognise a variety of different noises – from cats to running water – and have their phone alert them.