How to Change Touch Sensitivity on iPhone or iPad

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Learn how to adjust your screen sensitivity & set up touch accommodations

Written by Megaera Lorenz, PhD

Last Updated: December 12, 2025 Fact Checked

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Touch-and-Hold Timing

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3D Touch Settings (iPhone Only)

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Touch Accommodations

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Troubleshooting

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Video

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Q&A

If you're having trouble with your iPhone or iPad's touchscreen, you may find it helpful to increase or decrease touch sensitivity. You can adjust the amount of time needed to register your touch, ignore multiple touches (if your hands are shaky), and set up many touch-specific accommodations in your Accessibility settings. This wikiHow teaches you how to adjust your iPhone or iPad's screen sensitivity. We’ll also address common problems like "ghost touches" or an unresponsive touchscreen.

Adjusting Your iPhone or iPad’s Touch Responses

You can change how long it takes for your iPhone or iPad to respond to touch-and-hold gestures in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Haptic Touch.
For select iPhone models, you can also adjust the firmness level needed to trigger 3D Touch.
Use Touch Accommodations to adjust touch duration or change how your device responds to multiple touches.
If your touchscreen isn’t responding correctly, try our troubleshooting tips.

Section 1 of 4:

Adjusting Touch-and-Hold Timing

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It’s the gray gear icon on the home screen or in the App Library.^{[1]
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Tap Accessibility. It's in the third group of settings.^{[2]
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It's under the "Physical and Motor" header.^{[3]
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Tap Haptic Touch. This feature controls the time it takes to reveal menus, previews, and other elements when you tap and hold an item on the screen.
- If you have an iPhone with 3D Touch, this option is called 3D & Haptic Touch. See this method to learn how to adjust your 3D Touch settings.
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Select a Touch Duration. You can choose between Fast, Default, or Slow. The Default setting is an intermediate speed between Fast and Slow.^{[4]
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- The new setting will take effect immediately.
- You can switch back to the default at any time by tapping Default on this screen.
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Test the Haptic Touch setting. Tap and hold the image of the flower at the bottom of the screen. If the setting is set to "Fast," the image should enlarge immediately. If it's set to "Slow," it will take about 2 seconds for the image to expand. "Default" expands the image with a shorter delay.
- Swipe down on the larger image or touch the screen outside of it to return to the menu.

Section 2 of 4:

Adjusting 3D Touch Settings

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1
Open your iPhone’s Settings
. It’s the gray gear icon on the home screen or in the app library.
- 3D Touch is a feature that allows your touch to register differently depending on the amount of pressure applied to the screen.^{[5]
  X
  Research source} It's only available on iPhones, and only on the following models: iPhone Xs & Xs Max, iPhone X, iPhone 8 & 8 Plus, iPhone 7 & 7 Plus, iPhone 6s & 6s Plus.
It's in the third group of settings.
It's under the "Physical and Motor" header.
This opens your touch sensitivity settings.^{[6]
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If you don't want your iPhone to behave differently based on the amount of pressure you apply to the screen, toggle the 3D Touch switch to the off position. If you want to keep the feature on but change its sensitivity, continue to the next step.
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Use the slider to adjust 3D Touch Sensitivity. 3D Touch is activated when your finger does something other than simply tapping an app icon or link, such as bringing up a menu or long-pressing on an app icon. This slider controls how much pressure you need to apply to the screen to activate 3D Touch.^{[7]
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- If you often accidentally bring up menus or other features instead of opening apps and links, you might try the Firm setting—this requires more pressure on the screen to activate 3D Touch.
- If you find it difficult to activate 3D Touch when needed, try the Light option, which requires less pressure.
- Use the Medium setting if the other two are too extreme.
Tap the image at the bottom of the screen as you normally would. If you see a "Peek and pop" preview of the image, 3D touch is activated. If it activates too quickly, choose the Firm setting.

Section 3 of 4:

Using Touch Accommodations

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1
Open your iPhone or iPad's Settings
. It’s the gray gear icon on the home screen or in the app library.^{[8]
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- Touch Accommodations are extremely helpful for fine-tuning your iPhone or iPad's screen sensitivity. If you have trouble keeping your finger in one place or moving quickly enough, you're sure to find what you're looking for here.
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Tap Accessibility. It's in the third group of settings.^{[9]
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It's under the "Physical and Motor" header.^{[10]
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It's near the middle of the menu.^{[11]
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It's at the top of the screen. When the switch is green, Touch Accommodations are active.
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Adjust the Hold Duration. Hold Duration determines how long you must keep your finger on the screen before your touch is recognized. If your hands are shaky and you find yourself opening apps and features you don't mean to open, you can increase this setting. Here's how:^{[12]
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- Tap the switch next to "Hold Duration" to turn the feature on. A window will pop up warning you that enabling this option will change the way your iPhone or iPad responds to touches and gestures. Tap OK to continue.
- The default duration is .10 seconds, which is nearly instantaneous. You can tap the plus symbol to increase the hold duration if you feel your screen is too sensitive. The amount of time you select here is how long it will take for your touch to register.
  - The setting will take effect immediately. If you find that you're tapping the plus symbol and it's no longer doing anything, tap and hold it on the minus sign instead—you've probably just increased the duration a bit too high for your liking.
  - You can’t decrease the hold duration below .10 seconds.
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Enable "Ignore Repeat" to ignore multiple touches. If you don't have a steady hand and often tap apps and links more than once by accident, this is the feature for you. Here's how to use it:^{[13]
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- Toggle the "Ignore Repeat" switch to the on (green) position. If a warning message pops up, tap OK.
- Tap the plus sign to increase the time allowed between multiple touches. The default is 0.10. Raising this value higher makes it so your iPhone or iPad will register your multiple accidental touches as one as long as they occur within that amount of time.
  - You can’t decrease the allowed time lower than .10 seconds.
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Turn on the feature that tells your iPhone to only respond to your first or last touch. This feature is called Tap Assistance, and it's at the bottom of the menu.
- Tap Use Initial Touch Location if you have a hard time keeping your finger in one place on the screen and find that your iPhone or iPad is registering your touch in the wrong place.
- Tap Use Final Touch Location to ignore the first touch on the screen, and then only register the place your finger was when you lifted it off the screen. This feature allows you to touch and hold your finger anywhere on the screen, drag it to the place you actually want to tap, and then lift your finger.
After setting up your preferences in Touch Accommodations, you can temporarily disable them at any time by tapping the switch at the top of the screen. This will not erase any of your special settings, but may make it easier for someone else to use your iPhone or iPad if needed. Otherwise, you can keep this switch in the On position so your settings remain active at all times.

Section 4 of 4:

Troubleshooting

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Clean your screen if it’s not responding to touches properly. Dirt, oils, or moisture on your screen can make it either too sensitive (causing "ghost touch" issues) or not responsive enough.^{[14]
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Research source} Clean your screen with a soft, lint-free cloth. If there’s something sticky on your screen, you can dampen the cloth with water or 70% isopropyl alcohol and use that to remove the grime.^{[15]
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Restart your iPhone or iPad to fix simple glitches. A lot of screen sensitivity issues are caused by software bugs. Power your device down and start it up again, and see if that resolves the problem.
- On iPhones and iPads without a Home button, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and either volume button until the power slider appears. Swipe the slider to power off your device, then press and hold the Sleep/Wake button to turn it back on.
- On iPhones and iPads with a Home button, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the power slider appears, then swipe it to power down. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button again to turn the device back on.
- If your iPhone or iPad is completely unresponsive to touch, you might need to force restart it. Quickly press and release the volume up button, then the volume down button. Then, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until your iPhone or iPad begins to restart.
3
Remove accessories that might be causing touchscreen issues. A faulty screen protector or case can cause problems with touch sensitivity. Even an accessory plugged into the Lightning or USB-C port on your iPhone or iPad could be the culprit. Remove any accessories from your iPhone or iPad and see if that fixes the issue.^{[16]
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Check for hardware damage. Sometimes, touchscreen sensitivity issues signal a more serious problem. Your screen might be cracked, or there might be moisture trapped inside it. If you can’t see any obvious damage, you might need to take your device to an Apple-certified repair technician for an evaluation.

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Can you calibrate your iPhone screen?

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The iPhone touchscreen’s auto-brightness sensor can be calibrated or you can restore the factory settings. These methods for calibrating the iPhone screen can be found here: How to Calibrate an IPhone Screen.

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How do you change the sensitivity on Twitter?

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Assuming you are referring to sensitive material: Go to your profile icon in the top right navigation bar. Choose Settings, then go to Privacy and Safety settings. Under the Tweet media section, select the box next to mark media you tweet as potentially sensitive. (Source: Twitter Help)

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How do I change the sensitivity of my Android touchscreen?

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For the Android touchscreen, go to Settings, then tap Language and Input. Scroll down to Pointer Speed. Swipe the slider upward to make the touchscreen more sensitive. Tap OK to save the new settings, then check to see how it works for you. Adjust as necessary.

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