Quickly scroll to the top of a list on an iPhone

Many iPhone apps present vertically scrolling information, either in list view or just long content. Here are some of those apps (there are many more):

• Mail (list view, and long content)
• Settings (list view)
• Reminders (list view)
• Safari (long content)
• NY Times (list view, and long content)

Sometimes you find yourself way, way down the list, or way, way down the web page, and you want to get back to the top. You already know how to do it the hard way: swipe down a bunch of times, until you reach the top (that is, the opposite of how you ended up way down there– a little at a time).

Here’s the easy way: tap at the very top of the screen, where it shows the time, and your content will quickly zoom to the top. It’s like an express elevator. Technically you can tap any part of the very top of the screen and it will work– you don’t have to actually tap the time. That is how you do it on iPhones with Home buttons.

iPhones without Home buttons (iPhone X, XS, XS Max, XR, 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max) don’t show the time centered at the very top of the screen, because there is no screen at the very top center but you can tap there anyway and you’ll scroll to the top. As with the Home button iPhones, you can tap anywhere at the very top edge of the screen and it will work. I usually choose the top right corner so I keep my fingerprints off of the selfie camera.

Here are a couple of before-and-after pictures. In each case, all I did was tap at the top, where the time is.)

This feature should work in every app employing vertical scrolling. Try it and see!

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