11 Awesome things you didn’t know your iPhone could do

Mobile Phone & Internet Blog | MATE | 31 October 2018

Modern phones come with hundreds of features, some of which you might not even know are there.

Here are a few of the more interesting features you may not know about.
1. Reachability
Use two fingers to touch the home button at once and everything will shift downwards, making it easier for you to manipulate what’s on the screen. This is more useful the larger screen you have and is a little-known feature of the newer phones.

2. Return a phone
If you’ve found a phone but don’t know who owns it, you can ask the phone itself! Ask Siri who owns a phone and it will direct you to the home of the owner so the phone can be returned. Many people know they can find their own lost phone but don’t know about this function.

3. Spotlight
Spotlight can do math and conversions on-the-fly. Just open Spotlight and ask it questions in a natural language, such as how many kilometres are in a mile.

4. Close multiple apps
When you double tap the home button to access all your apps, you can close multiple apps at a time by using more than one finger. In fact, there are many areas of the iPhone’s user interface that utilise multi-touch to do different things.

5. Screen time
Screen time breaks down exactly what you do on your iPhone, including what apps you use, how frequently you use them, and how long you usually use them for. If you’ve ever wanted to fine-tune your productivity, this is the way.

6. Look at recently closed tabs
Close something a little too fast? Open Safari and then hold your finger on the + button to view the tabs that you have closed recently. You can then reopen them quickly from that screen.

7. Show parked location
You can use your iPhone to find your car by enabling Show Parked Location in your settings. Your phone will detect exactly where you leave your car and let you know where to find it later on. This is perfect for people who frequently travel and those who find it impossible to remember exactly where their car is parked in a busy parking lot.

8. Faster TouchID
Did you know you can improve the speed of your TouchID? Go into the settings and add additional sets of your fingerprints. The more data it has the faster it will work. If you’ve noticed TouchID is slow on your phone, it could be that the scans of your fingerprints are too vague or incomplete. You can also manage how you want your phone to be unlocked, whether it’s through a passcode, touch ID, or recognition.

9. Magnifier
Under the accessibility settings of the iPhone is a special feature known as the magnifier. If you turn the magnifier on, you’ll be able to control the magnification of things on your iPhone screen. In addition to increasing your phone’s font size, this can help you read things and look at detailed images without having to strain your eyes. The iPhone has a number of accessibility options for those who have difficulties with their hearing or vision.

10. Burst mode
Photos can be taken in burst mode if you’re trying to get the precisely correct moment. Burst mode is engaged by holding down the camera button, which will rapidly take several photos of the same subject. This is especially useful when taking pictures of fast-moving objects such as sports, kids, and dogs.

11. Control read receipts
You can control who sees your read receipts in your settings. It isn’t an always-on function; it’s dependent on which of your contacts you select. You can make it so those close to you know when you’ve seen their messages but strangers cannot.

Wrap
These are only a few of the many features of the iPhone and there are new features being added all the time! Siri can tell you about more features if you just ask.