Disabling tap to wake

For the last few years I’ve turned off raise to wake and tap to wake on my iPhone.

The only way to light up the screen is by pressing the power button on the side.

I’ve got an iPhone 16 Pro Max, so I’m not doing this to save on battery.

There’s two reasons for this.

First, I prefer to have a black slab of a phone on my desk, without any notifications or lights or timers to tell me what’s happening.

This magical portal to the internet is already something I turn to far too often throughout the day. I don’t need more reason to check it.

It’s also very manual. There’s friction to it. I have to press the button on the side, and swipe up to get into the phone. It requires just a tiny bit more forethought. Since all notifications are off (except my wife or kid calling twice in a row) the device can’t ping at me without my say so.

I also run.

I’m not sure if there are many runners at Apple, but for some reason or other I’ve gotten far too much false pauses on podcasts while running. Maybe I’m sweatier than most. The screen activates when I don’t want it, whether the phone is in my hand or my pocket.

So my phone looks completely dead until I press the magic button to bring it to life.

I recommend trying it.