Minimum tap target

Anything you tap should be at least 44 points square, so a thumb can hit it.

Touch targets should be at least 44×44pt.

Minimum tap target, side by side

A fingertip covers about 44px. Pad the hit area to 44pt and taps land the first time.

How to apply it

Anything tappable hits 44pt — pad small icons rather than shrinking the hit area.

Minimum tap target in practice: a concrete example

The delete icon a thumb keeps missing

A 24px trash icon crammed next to an edit icon looks tidy on a designer's monitor and becomes a coin-flip on a phone, where a fingertip covers roughly 44px of glass. Users tap edit when they meant delete, or miss entirely and jab twice. Pad the hit area to at least 44 by 44 points, keep the icon its small visual size, and the taps land first time. Apple's Human Interface Guidelines have used 44pt as the floor for years for exactly this reason.

Common Minimum tap target mistakes

Shrinking the tappable area to match a small icon, when only the visible glyph needs to be small and the hit area should stay 44pt.
Packing tappable icons so close that a single fingertip covers two of them at once.
Testing only with a mouse on a large screen, where a 24px target feels fine and the mobile miss rate stays invisible.

When Minimum tap target doesn't apply

The 44pt floor is written for touch. A mouse or trackpad is far more precise, so a dense desktop toolbar can use smaller controls without the same miss rate. Even then, keep destructive actions comfortably sized and separated, and remember many “desktop” users are on touchscreens or have reduced motor control, so erring larger rarely hurts.

Practise it on a real challenge

Music Player — the Skip button everyone misses

A music player's Skip control is a 28pt icon squeezed into the transport bar. Driving or walking, users jab at it two or three times before it catches.