Did You Know Your iPhone Can Do These 18+ Unique Things?
Credit: Pranav Kukreja / ShutterstockI remember when smartphones first made their way into our lives. They were meant for rich people, business people, and sometimes the technology buffs of the world. When I bought my first smartphone—a Palm Tr?o—my mom scoffed at me, “Why would you need that? You’re not a stockbroker.” At that time, many people felt the same way she did, this device was meant for business emails and sales trips, not for the ordinary person. Then 2007 happened.
When Steve Jobs stepped out on that stage, the moment I and my fellow geeks had been waiting for sprung to life. Apple reinvented the smartphone. It was no longer just a business phone; it was an iPod, a communication tool, and an internet gadget all rolled into one. It would be the start of a new era for the cell phone.
Here we are nearly 15 years later, and the device in our pocket may look similar to what we had, but the features have evolved to put everything we need in one place. Our house and car keys, our wallet, our driver’s license, our phone, and even the internet, barely scratch the surface of how much we can cram into a small metal and glass device.
But with all these bells and whistles, it becomes easy to overlook or forget some of the most basic features of iOS. So sit back, relax, and continue reading to browse at least 18 ways you can get even more out of your feature-packed phone.
'Pinch' to Copy and Paste Between Your Apple Devices
Maybe you already know that you can copy and paste between devices. Simply copy text on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone and paste it onto another. But, did you know that there are natural gestures to make it even easier—or just more awesome?
- On your iPad or iPhone, simply select the text you want to copy, then pinch it with three fingers to save it to the clipboard.
- Now go to your other device, and pinch three fingers outward to paste. Think of it like picking up text (or photos) and dropping them onto the other device.
If you want to “cut” text or images, simply do this same three-finger pinch twice in a row. Then you can paste by moving those three fingers outward.
While these gestures don’t work on Mac, you can use them on your iPhone or iPad and then press command + v on your Mac to paste.
Please be aware; Handoff will need to be enabled across devices for features such as this to work.
Turn Off the Flashlight with Just a Swipe
Here’s a quick and easy way to turn off your flashlight from the Lock Screen! With the flashlight on, swipe left on the lock screen. Don’t swipe all the way though, just slightly like you’re going to access the camera and then back. This quick gesture will turn off the flashlight.
You're a Wizard!
Any Harry Potter fans out there? Siri has a lot of fun easter eggs, one is the ability to use your flashlight like a magic wand.
- Try saying “lumos” to activate the flashlight.
- Now say “nox” to turn it off.
Want to kick your magic game up a notch? Try summoning an app by saying “accio” followed by the name of the app you wish to open!
For even more magic spells, check out this article in the New York Post.
Add Multiple Shortcuts for One App
You can create multiple Home Screen pages and even choose to hide or show entire pages depending on your Focus setting – because of this, Apple has made it possible to add multiple instances of an app icon to the Home Screen!
- Simply swipe to the far right of the Home Screen to access your App Library.
- Then locate the app you want to add, long-press it, and select Add to Home Screen.
You can do this as many times as you like.
Panoramic Mode Flip
Your iPhone can take panoramic (pano) photos with the Camera app. By default, you move the camera left to right; however, you can change this by simply tapping the arrow on the display!
Close All Those Open Safari Pages at Once
I am not one to keep a lot of tabs open, but I know there are a lot of you who do. iOS has made it easy to manage tabs in Safari. Simply hold the tab button and select “Close [All] Tabs” to close open tabs all at once. You can also group tabs, open a private tab, and more.
Shazam Right from the Control Center
In 2018, Apple purchased the music identification app Shazam for $400 million. Since then, it’s been integrated into Apple’s software platforms. Simply ask Siri something like “what song is this?” and Siri will identify the song for you. Shazam can also identify some movies, tv shows, and advertisements.,
Of course, maybe you don’t want to talk to Siri when you’re in a quiet environment—or maybe a noisy setting makes it hard for it to hear you—either way, there is another solution besides installing the app.
- Go into the Settings app and under the Control Center settings, find and add “Music Recognition” (There are also a lot of other controls you might want to add as well).
- Drag the control where you want it in the settings.
- Now, swipe down from the top-right of the display and press the Shazam icon to start listening.
- You can now exit, and when the song is recognized, you will receive a notification.
You can learn more about using and customizing Control Center here.
Place a Call on Hold
In most cases, muting a call is fine, which is probably why Apple removed the hold button from the call screen. But sometimes, you may want to put a call on hold. Simply press and hold the mute button and select “hold.” This will mute both parties from the call.
Change a Photo Album's Cover Image
When your organize photos into albums you might not always like the photo it shows as the default. The main cover photo is called the “key photo” and it’s easy to change.
Simply navigate to the photo in the album, long press, and choose “Make Key Photo.”
You can also set key photos for people. Under Albums > People & Places > People, select a person, then press and hold on a photo, and select “Make Key Photo.”
Share Your Screen or Media
Apple recently added SharePlay to macOS and iOS. This feature allows you to share movies, music, and even your screen over FaceTime!
Simply make a FaceTime call and select the Share My Screen icon to get started.
If you start a screen share from a Mac, you can choose to display the entire screen or a specific window.
You can learn how to use SharePlay for watching videos and listening to music with friends at Apple’s website.
Ask Siri to Delete All of Your Alarms at Once
Creating alarms is something most of us do, it’s easy and you can even ask Siri to create them for you. But did you know Siri can also delete them? Simply ask Siri to delete all of your alarms and it’ll remove them all at once. This can be a game-changer if you’re someone that has lots of old alarms that were never deleted.
Swipe Left or Right to Erase a Digit in Calculator
Here’s a simple, but useful, trick. If you make a mistake typing a number in the Calculator app, rather than clear the entire number, just swipe on the number to backspace and remove the last-typed digit.
Bypass the App Store (At Your Own Risk) Without Jailbreaking
Apple is notorious for locking down app distribution, and there are a lot of good reasons for doing so. It can provide security to end-users and ensure high-quality apps; but, it can also mean certain apps—such as game emulators—aren’t allowed.
One way to get around this is by sideloading apps. In the past you’d need to jailbreak your device or install an IPA using a developer account and a computer. But now, AltStore and AltServer make it possible to easily add apps from other sources. One of these apps is Delta, a game emulator that supports Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, GBC, GBA, and Nintendo 64 game files.
You should always be careful when using apps that aren’t Apple-approved, but if you feel comfortable, you can learn more about AltStore here.
Customize Your Keyboard
Apple added support for third-party keyboards in iOS 8, but many people still don’t seem to know about it. Maybe they’re like me and just prefer the default keyboard, but if you’re looking for a change, there are many alternatives available on the App Store. Some of these keyboards add functionality other than typing, such as the ability to switch between fonts or send GIFs.
Here are a few:
Tell us your favorite keyboards in the comments.
Select Text in Photos
With iOS 15, Apple introduced Live Text. Live Text allows you to select, copy and paste, lookup, and translate text in images. It also lets you navigate to URLs, call phone numbers, compose emails, and more, straight from the text in a photo. Additionally, you can even search your photo library using text that appears in photos.
Overall it’s really cool and incredibly useful. It does a great job recognizing a large number of fonts and handwritten text and can even let you select text in a screenshot, which can be useful if copy and paste are disabled or unavailable in a particular app or website.
There are a few different methods for using Live Text. As the “live” portion suggests, you can select text in real-time from the camera; or, you can select text from an image on the web or in your photo library.
When using the Camera app (or other supported apps that use the camera feature—such as Notes) use the Live Text button to display recognized text. From here, you can simply select the text you want to work with.
- When viewing an image in the Photos app or in Safari, simply touch and hold a word to select it.
- You may also see the Live Text button in the corner of the image. Tap this to display all selectable text.
Just like when selecting actual text, you can interact with selected text in photos. Simply press and hold for options such as Look Up and translate or tap phone numbers to dial them.
You can learn more on Apple’s website or from our very own Kelly Hodgkins.Hide Your Email Address
Apple recently introduced Hide My Email as a part of Sign in with Apple and iCloud+. Sign in with Apple is Apple’s take on Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO is a way for users to quickly sign in to or up for a service/app using another service—such as Google, Facebook, and now Apple—instead of needing to create a new username and password.
As part of Apple’s SSO, users can choose “Hide My Email” when signing up for a service which provides the service with a “spoofed” email address. This email address forwards to your actual email address, so you still get the emails, but the sender can't see your real address. This also allows you to easily unsubscribe from these emails if you choose to.
With iCloud+, Apple takes Hide My Email even further. Now you can create as many of these spoofed email addresses as you want, even when Sign in with Apple isn’t an option.
- Simply go into the Settings app.
- Select your name/Apple ID at the top of the page.
- Select iCloud.
- Then choose Hide My Email (you must be subscribed to iCloud+).
Here you will see a list of current email addresses and have the option to create new ones. Deleting an email address will stop all emails being sent to that address from reaching you.
Why It Matters
In a nutshell, Hide My Email lets you keep others from having your actual email address. This means, you can easily delete the address Apple gives them to permanently unsubscribe from all emails from that provider/service. You can also use the same address for multiple services to make it easy to unsubscribe from all of them at a later time.
Authenticate Apps with Ease
Many apps and sites now support 2FA (two-factor authentication) which verifies your identity when you log in by sending you a code. Usually this can be sent via phone or email, but it can also come from an authenticator app.
Apple has made 2FA codes easy by allowing you to autofill codes from text messages. Now, you can set up authenticator codes using iOS too.
When setting up an authenticator for a service you’ll be asked to scan a QR code (using the Camera app) and/or be provided with a setup key.
Copy this key and open the Settings app.
Navigate to the passwords section and select the entry from the list (or create a new one).
Now select “Set Up Verification Code.”
Here you’ll paste the key and Apple will begin providing you with a six-digit code used for verification.
Some sites will allow this to autofill this code when logging in. Keep in mind, it’s still pretty new, so in some cases, you will need to go into Settings > Passwords and copy the code manually.
Search Your Photos (You Can Even Ask Siri)
You may not know it, but your iPhone uses machine learning and on-device processing to learn about your photos. It does this all on your device so things stay private and nothing is sent back to Apple. Your iPhone recognizes colors, dates, people, animals, objects, holidays, and more. On newer devices, it can even recognize text within a photo.
In the Photos app, you can search for things like “car” or “Kevin’s birthday” or “March wedding.” Your iPhone will search your photos for images it thinks matches your query. You can also ask Siri to make these searches for you!
At the end of the day, there are so many things your iPhone can do that it’s easy to forget some of the features or learn something new. When Apple introduced the App Store, one of its advertising slogans was “There’s an App for That!” Now, in 2022, there are almost two million apps available in the App Store, but some of the coolest and most useful features are already built-in.
What are some of your favorite iOS tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments and on social media. As always, thanks for reading!
