10 iPhone Tricks You Didn’t Know You Could Do

 The iPhone truly is a great smartphone in terms of looks and functionality. It’s easy to use and lasts for years as long as you treat it with a little care.

But Apple keeps adding so many features with every new iOS update, it takes time to find all the shortcuts in order to use the iPhone like a pro.

This year’s iOS 16 update offers a ton of hidden tricks and secret iPhone features that make life easier.

So here is a look at everything useful it offers from locking recently deleted or hidden photos to fake eye contact in video chats to “undoing” sent messages to sharing browser tabs to setting tap gestures for specific functions.

But before you go through these iPhone tips and tricks you probably haven’t discovered yet, make sure you’re on the latest version of iOS.

Trust us, you don’t need the current iPhone 14 series to make the best of your phone in 2023.

1 – Personalize your home screen:

One of the top design features Apple added in iOS 16 was the ability to personalize your home screen.

You can change the size and shape of all the icons on your home screen — from a stretched horizontal badge to a small square badge to a large square badge.

The small square widget/badge takes up four icons’ worth of space, as you can see from the image above.

To personalize your home screen:

• Long-press anywhere on the display till you get the shaky icons with a minus sign above each one. (If you happen to long-press while touching an icon, one of the options will be to “Edit Home Screen“. Click on that.)
• Now tap the “+” sign on the upper left hand side.
• It will pull up a “Search Widgets” tab. Scroll down till you find the app you want to add as a widget on the home screen. Tap on it.
• There will be two or more dots just below it that you can scroll through to pick the badge size. After you’ve picked one, just tap the “Add Widget” button.
• It’ll take you back to the display. From there you can drag the widget to wherever you want it on the screen, and then press “Done“.

If you merely want to change the background image on your display, and not the way the icons appear, go to Settings > Wallpaper > Add New Wallpaper.

Alternatively, you can make these changes by long-pressing the lock screen (not the home screen with the widgets) and clicking Customize. This will let you personalize the background of both screens easily.

2 – Hide photos & videos:

Go to your albums and open the folder containing the media you want to conceal. My Albums contains media shared via messenger apps as well as all your photos, videos and screenshots.

After you’ve opened the album, click Select. Tap on the pictures or videos you wish to hide. Then click the three dots on the bottom right of the screen to pull up the Hide option.

• To sum it up, go to Albums > Select > Click on photos/videos you want to hide > Click the three-dot icon > Hide.

Now when you go to your photo gallery and scroll down to Utilities, you will see an album titled Hidden. In iOS 16, Hidden and Recently Deleted content is locked by default so no one else can access them.

You need Face ID to unlock them. You can switch off this security feature via Settings > Photos > Use Face ID.

• If you don’t want anyone who’s checking your phone to know that you have hidden photos/videos, you can even select to hide this “Hidden” folder that appears in your Albums.
• Go to Settings > Photos > Show Hidden Album. Turn this last setting off.

If you choose to hide the photos completely, absolutely no one will be able to see the hidden content ANYWHERE on your phone till you undo all the above steps by going to Settings > Photos > Show Hidden Album and turning it on.

But wait, there’s yet another way to hide images on the iPhone.

3 – Hide photos in Notes:

Open your gallery and select the photos you wish to keep under lock and key. Tap the upload/share icon on the bottom left corner.

It’ll throw up the option to share to Notes and then Save. Exit and open Notes and look for your saved content — it should appear under the title ‘Saved Photo’.

• Albums > Select photos > Click on the Upload/Share icon
• Select Notes > Save

Next, open the Notes app on your iPhone. Go to this Saved Photo folder and tap the three-dot menu on the upper right of your display to see the Lock option. It will pull up several choices including the ability to lock your note with a password, Face ID or your iPhone’s unlock code. The drawback is that you can hide only photos (and not videos) using this method.

The Notes app saves a copy of the content you want to hide. So remember to delete it from your Albums after you’ve saved such media to Notes.

Once you’ve deleted it from albums, make sure to also banish it from the oft ignored Recently Deleted section in albums.

• You can change the password settings for locked Notes by going to Settings > Notes > Password.

This will allow you to use your phone’s unlock code, your Face ID or a special password to unlock Notes.

4 – Take level & well-framed photos:

Ever wonder how bloggers get those perfectly level and well-framed photos of their food?

The iPhone has a trick or two up its sleeve to help users take flawless overhead pictures of objects. The main one is buried deep in the camera settings.

It’s not within the camera app itself. To access this feature, go to Settings from the main screen. Scroll down to Camera.

There’s a Grid option under composition. Enable the grid and then head back to the camera.

Now whenever you hold your phone over something to snap a photo, two cross-hairs will appear in white and yellow at the center of the frame.

Angle your iPhone until both lay perfectly on top of each other et voila!

5 – How to mirror selfies on iPhone:

We are so used to seeing ourselves in the mirror, a lot of us find our actual, true-to-life pictures to be less attractive. It’s a psychological fact.

Until a while ago, the iPhone’s camera app was not capable of flipping selfies around. You had to go through the whole process of taking a selfie and then editing it via Album > Select > Edit to flip it horizontally.

Several apps on iTunes have been offering the convenience of directly clicking mirrored selfies on the iPhone.

But it looks like Apple is finally happy to cut out the middle man. Now you can take mirrored photos from the front camera, by switching on the Mirror Front Camera option in Settings > Camera.

6 – Back tap to launch functions quickly:

There may be certain functions or system controls you use very frequently on your iPhone such as taking screenshots, adjusting the volume, opening the magnifier, scrolling, accessing the Control Center and more.

iOS has a feature which lets you double tap or triple tap the back of the device to launch select functions.

Need to lock the screen without pressing the physical side key? Assign a double or triple tap gesture to it.

You get the picture, right? Back tap is meant to create a simple and easy way to trigger certain device tasks for those with accessibility needs.

Since it only recognizes two types of tap gestures, you can only configure one task per combination of taps — double and triple. But it’s still highly useful.

You can enable the function by digging into the Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. This pulls up Double Tap and Triple Tap options.

Assign a function to each (or one) of these gestures by clicking on them and picking from the list of options.

7 – NEVER fumble for the video button again:

How many times have you fumbled too long for the video button and missed a perfect clip worthy of Instagram or TikTok?

Did you know that you can quickly start taking a video by just long-pressing the button you would normally use to click pictures?

This works even if you launch the camera from the lock screen. Long-press and keep your finger on the center button until you want to stop taking the video.

Secondly, you may not have paid much attention to the white button that pops up right next to the center button when you start taking a video.

Well, pressing this button lets you take still photos while shooting videos on the iPhone so you don’t have to switch between video and photo modes.

This white button does not appear if you use the above long-pressing shortcut to take videos.

8 – Click photos without touching the display (3 ways):

The iPhone, like most other smartphones these days, does not have a dedicated physical shutter button.

And unlike most Android phones, it doesn’t even let you click pictures with a customizable trigger word such as “Cheese“.

But there are two ways you can take steadier stills without touching the screen. Instead of using the virtual, on-screen camera shutter button, you can press the volume keys on the side to snap a photo.

Alternatively, if you’re still hanging on to those wired Apple earphones, their in-line button can stand in as a shutter button.

We’d still prefer a trigger word as an option though.

Another (better) method is to set the timer on to 3 seconds or 10 seconds. Click on the downward pointing arrow at the top of the camera interface to pull up this option.

Click photos without touching the display in three ways:

• Set a timer
• Use the button on your wired Apple earphones to click pictures
• Press the volume key to snap a photo

9 – Lock autofocus and exposure:

Launch the camera and long-press anywhere on the screen to lock the auto focus and exposure to what it is during that particular moment.

To set another point for focus and exposure, or to undo the locked AE/AF, tap anywhere on the screen again.

The icon saying AF/AE Lock will be displayed at the top for as long as you keep the lock on.

10 – Fake eye contact in FaceTime:

The era of digital fakery enabled by Artificial Intelligence is upon us. The Internet is awash with Jennifer Lawrence-Buscemi-type videos of celebrity figures saying and doing things they didn’t actually say or do.

Apple decided to give users a taste of this pie — FaceTime Attention Correction. It was first spotted in iOS 13.

The consumer-ready version of this feature lets you make fake eye contact while talking to people on FaceTime.

To enable this, go to Settings > FaceTime > Eye Contact and toggle it on.

Now a lot of folks are saying they’re unnerved by the idea of something so personal and intimate as video chatting falling prey to this ‘gimmick’.

But it’s actually cheaper than solving the eye-contact issue in video chatting via hardware that involves putting a camera under the display.

Most importantly, there are some of us who are not comfortable holding steady eye contact while talking to another person in real life or on video calls. Spare a thought for them, won’t you?

At the end of the day, Apple has not forced this feature upon users, but is offering it as an option.

11 – Sound recognition if you’re working with headphones:

Sound Recognition leverages on-device intelligence to notify users about a particular type of sound or alert like a dog barking, a fire alarm, a cat meowing, a doorbell ringing and so on.

This can come in handy not just for people who are hard of hearing. It might also be needed by those who may be listening to or watching stuff on the phone with their earphones in and unable to hear ambient sounds.

To turn on this function, go to Settings > Accessibility > Sound Recognition. The Sounds section below this screen will let you choose which sounds to recognize.

12 – Virtual volume buttons:

The volume rockers on the side of the iPhone are quite hard to press. You need to apply a lot of force to do so.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the phone had virtual, on-screen volume controls? Well, it does.

Once you hit any of volume keys on the side, the indicator showing the audio level appears on the left of the display.

Simply slide your finger upwards or downwards on this virtual scale to adjust the audio level. No need to keep pressing the volume hard keys for this.

13 – Manage messages better:

The iPhone is a texting-friendly phone in every way possible. It has only gotten better with time. We’ve already mentioned editing and “undo send” above.

One of the biggest improvements was SMS filtering, it’s availability depending on where you live.

Messages are now sorted into All Messages, Known Senders, Unknown Senders and much more.

Another handy option in is the ability to have your old texts deleted automatically so they don’t pile up.

Head to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages to select from how many days you want to keep them — a month, one year or forever.

14 – Type much faster, add shortcuts:

Another deeply buried texting-friendly function in iOS is the period shortcut which allows you to double tap the space bar to insert a full stop and space.

To activate this, go to Settings > General > Keyboard and toggle on “.” Shortcut.

You will no longer have to cycle between the number, alphabet and special character icons just to add a full stop.

The seconds it takes off your typing add up to minutes when you’re writing a long email or message.

You know that swipe to type function which has long been available on Android phones? Your iPhone has it too.

It’s concealed in the same section we’ve just talked about. Just enable Slide to Type from Settings > General > Keyboard.

• For yet another time-saving trick, tap Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. Click the ‘+‘ icon on the upper right side.
• It will ask you to fill in a Phrase and Shortcut. You can add ‘I just left from home’ and ‘ijh’ in these boxes, for example.
• Now whenever you swipe ‘ijh,’ it will be replaced by ‘I just left from home.’

This comes in extremely handy for those frequently used phrases (or excuses) you send friends, family and co-workers.

15 – Shake to undo typing, tap for options:

Whether you’re typing an email or messaging someone, there’s no need to keep hitting the backspace button to delete erroneous text.

Apple actually has a hidden feature that lets you shake to undo text. If not enabled, fire up Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Shake to Undo and turn it on.

Now whenever you want to undo what you’ve just typed in, shake the phone and a pop-up asks you if you want to Undo Typing.

Alternately, you can just tap three fingers on the screen to pull up a box allowing you to “Undo” and “Redo” the typing.

16 – Disable character previews in iPhone:

You know that annoying bubble which pops up to show the alphabet, number or special character you’re hitting whenever you type on the keyboard?

It’s very distracting and is the default setting in iOS.

You can disable character previews on the iPhone via Settings > General > Keyboard > Character Preview.

17 – Pinned conversations:

The iPhone has one more trick up its sleeve for perennial texters — pinned conversations.

Open the Messages app, long press on a conversation and up pops the option to pin it to the top of the list as a bubble.

You no longer have to keep scrolling to find people you text too frequently. This works for group chats too.

Pinned conversations float right to the top of your Messages screen like bubbles.

You can unpin conversations pinned to the top by long-pressing the bubble in question and tapping Unpin.

18 – Silence unknown callers automatically:

Maybe you’re in a meeting or simply enjoying dinner with family and don’t want to be disturbed by spam callers.

But you don’t want to miss calls from known contacts either. What do you do? There are call filtering applications like TrueCaller which can help.

If you don’t want to download apps unnecessarily, the iPhone has an in-built feature that silences unknown callers and rings aloud when someone you know calls.

Just in case you’ve called someone recently but haven’t stored their number, the call they’re returning to you will ring loudly too.

Basically, this functions allows you to silence your iPhone without switching on Do Not Disturb (DND) or Silent mode.

Turning on DND stops anyone not on your favorites list from being able to connect to your number.

Silent mode prevents you from receiving alerts even when known contacts call. So silencing calls from strange numbers serves as an in-between.

To enable it, tap Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers and toggle it on.

19 – Translate in real time:

Imagine you’re in a foreign country and cannot speak the language. You cannot read the street signs or signboards, nor can anyone understand what you’re saying.

Apple has a wonderfully comprehensive Translate app which enables live translations between several languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

The company’s aim was to have an in-built tool that allows users to easily communicate with others in a foreign language.

This translation tool is usable when you’re offline and don’t have an Internet connection too, if you’ve already downloaded the available languages.

As soon as you open the app, you’re greeted with a mic icon as well as an option to type text. You can choose the language you want to enter and the output language — let’s take English to French, for example.

Then all you have to do is type in your query or tap to speak into the microphone. Whatever you input will be translated into French.

You can press the mic button when the person you’re speaking to replies in French in order to get a text or voice translation of their answer. If you click “Conversation” at the bottom of the screen, it will pull an option to display the contents of the screen in two ways, depending on whether the person you’re conversing with is sitting across you or beside you.

The app also lets you take a picture of anything (like a signboard) written in one language and translates it into another language of your choice.

You don’t even need to click a photo, you can just view the translation live by tapping the round button that appears below the frame.

Alternately, if you have a snap with text in it in your Album, you can open that in the Translate app and have it tell you what the words mean.

Never be embarrassed of ordering aloud in a native French restaurant again when you can let Siri do it for you.

This is the world we eventually want to live in, isn’t it? A place in which people can seamlessly communicate with one another without needing to learn a universal language.

20 – Self-destruct after 10 forced attempts:

You can always keep track of the physical location of your iPhone with Apple’s Find My app (originally called Find My iPhone) which lets you locate your device.

So what do we mean by protect your device from thieves? We’re talking about protecting your sensitive information from being accessible by anyone who might want to unlock your phone and turn off the Find My app without your permission, or simply steal your data.

It’s always good to keep a backup for important files and folders before you activate this mode.

What it does is, it erases all the information stored on your iPhone if someone makes multiple attempts to unlock it.

To enable this go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Erase Data.

Once you switch on this feature, all the data on your iPhone will be completely wiped out if there are 10 failed attempts to unlock the handset.

Isn’t it possible that some harmless kid might be trying to unlock your phone to no avail? You wouldn’t want to lose all your data because of this, right?

Well, the passcode function is disabled for 1 minute after 6 wrong tries, for 5 minutes after the 7th unsuccessful attempt and so on.

The amount of timeout between failed unlock attempts is gradually increased until the 10th and last try is allowed.

So unless you think a toddler is going to spend hours persevering at the task of failing to force open your iPhone, you have nothing to worry about.

Only someone with bad intentions is likely to persist for that long.

21 – Record screen with audio & voice-over:

Ever feel like making a quick video of what you’re watching on your phone along with a running commentary?

You can do that on the iPhone with Screen Recording which records what’s happening on the display with audio and also lets you record a voice-over or add live sound effects.

This tool can be found in Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner of your display. The icon looks like a solid circle with a border.

In case you can’t see it here, go to Settings > Control Center and scroll down. Just tap on the plus sign next to Screen Recording.

To start recording something, activate Do Not Disturb or Airplane Mode to prevent notifications from messing with your video.

Then pull down Control Center and tap the screen recording icon. It will start pulsing when launched and the time displayed on the upper left side will be highlighted.

You can tap on the time to stop recording or go back to Control Center and hit the Screen Recording icon to halt it.

If you want to record a voice-over too, long-press this icon and a new window to switch the Microphone on will pop up.

All the videos shot through the screen recording features can be sent straight to Photos or Instagram.

22 – Scan documents & QR codes, no app needed:

Apple doesn’t offer scanning of documents or QR codes as standalone apps in iOS by themselves.

But they are accessible through the standard iOS features. For one, the Notes app lets you scan documents and send them, or save them to your device.

To do this, just open a new note, tap the camera icon at the bottom, and select Scan Documents.

Choose between Auto or Manual mode and toggle the settings such as flash and type of scan (Color, Grayscale, Black & White and Photo).

Now point the iPhone’s camera at the document and click the shutter button if you’re in manual mode. Otherwise, the Auto feature will take a picture by itself.

After this, you can drag the corners to adjust the scan, and ‘Retake’ or ‘Keep Scan.’

With regards to QR codes, the camera detects them by default when you point it at one, if you have any new version of iOS.

It’s a cool feature but should not be enabled until you need it since it’s a massive security risk. Toggle this function on or off through Settings > Camera > Scan QR Codes.

QR codes are loaded with data the human eyes cannot read. They can trick people into opening malicious websites, placing a call unknowingly, drafting an email and so on.

So having a QR code reader on all the time is asking for trouble.

23 – Avoid accidental app purchases:

Even though Apple is pretty vigilant about keeping rogue apps and developers out of the App Store, there are many who will manage to sneak in now and again.

Among the usual suspects are those applications which hide expensive in-app purchases.

There have been too many instances of people unknowingly spending money on in-app purchases or finding out that their kids innocently racked up credit card bills on such buys.

The customization options for preventing accidental purchases is however difficult to find, which is why many folks don’t know about it.

Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > iTunes & App Store Purchases > In-app Purchases, and select Don’t Allow.

The iTunes & App Store Purchases section also lets you set up the controls so a password is required even after you’ve downloaded a paid app or made a previous purchase.

Content & Privacy Restrictions also enables parents to set kid-friendly restrictions such as the amount of time spent on the iPhone, incoming calls that are allowed during screen downtime, blocking of inappropriate content and so on.

24 – Can’t backspace on calculator, no problem:

We’ve come to one of the best-kept secrets of the iPhone, and probably one the most anti-intuitive features which should have been given the boot long ago.

The calculator app on the iPhone doesn’t have a backspace button for some reason.

You’ve probably been angrily hitting the C for Cancel on the top left side of the keypad and seeing the entire number you’ve entered getting deleted after entering a single wrong digit. Stop doing that.

Just touch the number you’ve typed or any area above it and swipe towards the left or right of the display.

This erases one numeral at a time, while the Cancel button rubs away the entire number you keyed in.

25 – Your iPhone has a scientific calculator:

Make sure to have screen rotate enabled if you want to access the built-in scientific calculator on the iPhone.

Then launch the calculator and turn your device to the side in the landscape orientation. This will bring up the scientific calculator.

26 – Quick-launch calculator:

Maybe you just need to make a super quick calculation but don’t want to open the calculator app.

Just swipe from left to right of the home screen till your get to the Search bar. Type in the operation you want to perform and you’ll get the answer in a jiffy.

27 – Set shorter or longer passcode:

Depending on which model of the iPhone is in your possession, you may unlock the device via Face ID or a passcode. Not everyone is comfortable with biometric sensors yet.

Apart from privacy worries, people may have other personal reasons to avoid using Face ID to unlock their Apple handset.

It could even be that the 3D sensor for facial recognition stopped working and you don’t want to waste money on repairing it.

Did you know that you can set up a shorter or longer passcode and even choose to make it a mix of letters and numbers?

To change or set up your passcode, head over to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > (Enter your current passcode if any) > Change Passcode > (Enter current passcode if any) and tap on Passcode Options.

You can pick from a four-digit or customer numeric code or an alphanumeric code.

The last one enables you to set a strong and secure combination of letters, numbers and special characters as your password.

28 – Point and measure:

This one is not a feature that was introduced by iOS 6. It has been there for quite some time on the iPhone. However, not many folks are aware of its existence.

We’re talking about the integrated point-and-measure tool in the Apple smartphone.

If you’re ever in a situation where you need to measure something, like whether that couch on sale will fit in your cozy cubbyhole, and don’t have a tape, open the Utilities folder.

Then launch the Measure app. It lets you point your phone’s camera at any object and measure its length the way you’d do with a ruler.

You have to position the screen till the cross-hair is on the point from which you want to start measuring the object.

Then hit the plus icon and move your camera in the direction you want to measure.

We’ve tried it on several objects and noticed that it’s generally quite accurate, with rarely more than a couple of centimeters in variability.

The virtual spirit level tool has been moved into the Measure app – just look on the bottom right corner. The Utilities folder also houses the Compass, Voice Memos, and Calculator apps.

29 – Timer for your music:

There are two reasons for why you shouldn’t leave the music playing on while you drift off to sleep with your earphones plugged in.

It’s not healthy for your auditory nerves. Additionally, your might be woken up harshly from your slumber when a particularly loud song starts playing.

Not to mention the fact that your phone’s battery might be drained when you wake up. And if it isn’t wrung dry, then you went to sleep with your phone attached to the charger which is extremely dangerous! No one should be using their handset while it’s being juiced up.

At any rate, the point is that you don’t have to fall asleep while the music plays on indefinitely.

The iPhone has a setting which allows you to set a timer for it. Open the Clock app, click Timer and then When Timer Ends. You will reach a menu of sounds.

Scroll right down to the bottom; you’ll see an option that says Stop Playing. Tap on this and click Set.

Then start the timer for how many ever hours or minutes you think you’ll take to fall asleep.

The music will automatically stop playing when the timer finishes counting down.

30 – Change default email and browser apps:

Apple is giving up on the unnecessarily strict hold it has kept on iOS with regards to certain apps. You can change the default web browser and email app on your iPhone.

You no long need to use Safari and Apple Mail as your primary browser and email applications. Every time someone sends you a link, you won’t be forced to open it in Safari, for example.

Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and DuckDuckGo have been approved by Apple as alternatives to its very own browser for iOS.

In order to change the default web browser or email application, first make sure you’ve downloaded it from the App Store.

Then stroll over to Settings > (App Name) > Default Browser App (or Default Mail App, depending on what you’re switching) > Select your preferred app.

31 – Close browser tabs automatically:

Have you got into the habit of leaving hundreds of browser tabs open because it’s simpler than sorting through them and finding out which ones you need to keep using?

Safari has an option that lets you automatically close tabs which you haven’t looked at for a really long time.

To activate this, go to Settings > Safari > Close Tabs and select how often you want the tabs to be closed automatically. You get to pick from After One Day, After One Week, After One Month and Manually.

Honestly, if you haven’t accessed an open tab in over a month, you probably don’t need to leave it open anyway.

32 – Control + F in Safari:

This is an oldie but a goodie. Did you know that although you cannot press Control + F to find something on the web page you’re browsing, this function is still present in Safari?

Once you open a page you want to read or browse through, simply type the term you’re looking for in the URL bar, but DON’T HIT GO on the keyboard.

A menu will be pulled down, the last option saying On This Page. Tap on Find “(word you’re looking for)”.

You will be shown all the matching words with a section at the bottom which lets you skip to all the repetitions of the word on the page you’re reading.

33 – Running low on space? Let your iPhone handle it:

iPhone owners have been dealing with storage issues for years. There are TWO methods to work around this. Make your way to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

This section will display a breakdown of what’s eating your space and how to get rid of the problem. You’ll notice it has an Offload Unused Apps feature that lets your iPhone manage storage for you.

Enabling it will automatically remove rarely-used apps when it’s getting crowded.

The data associated with the apps deleted by your phone will be saved, letting you download them again and pick up where you left off.

You can further maximize local storage on your iPhone if you don’t mind having smaller media files on your handset.

To achieve this, head towards Settings and tap on your name that appears right at the top of the display. Now scroll down and tap on iCloud.

Move down to Photos and enable iCloud Photos. Then pick Optimize iPhone Storage to save space on your device.

The heavy, full resolution photos and videos you take will then automatically be stored in your iCloud account. Their smaller, space-saving copies are left on your iPhone.

You can download the originals any time you want by signing into your iCloud account.

34 – Light up your iPhone for notifications:

The iPhone does not have notification lights because Apple does not seem to think their customers want this feature.

There is a sort of workaround for this minor irritation for those of you who need to be visually alerted to a text or incoming call.

Mind you, it’s a very unsatisfactory solution to the problem. Fire up Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual. Scroll all the way down to LED Flash for Alerts.

Your camera’s LED flash unit will go berserk when you receive an incoming call and will flash four times for a message.

This option is meant to be of assistance to the hearing impaired. But it might also come in useful for those in a noisy environment.

It’s a simple way to make sure you notice an alert when the sound and vibration can’t serve the purpose.

35 – Clear up RAM to speed up your iPhone:

Has your iPhone slowed down a little? Are you facing random app crashes or is your screen appearing to stutter or are regular functions lagging a little?

Resource-intensive tasks like heavy gaming or continuously using the camera can temporarily stump a new phone.

But this could be a solvable issue with any generation of iOS handset (apart from the ones Apple admitted to deliberately sabotaging, of course).

So if you don’t happen to own an older iPhone which was purposely being slowed down to deal with battery capacity deterioration, here’s one trick you can try to clear out your RAM.

Old iPhones – Unlock your iPhone and hold down the Sleep button until the Slide to Power Off slider shows up. Don’t power off the device.

Instead press the Home button continuously for about 5 seconds till the home screen reappears.

New iPhones – Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch and switch on AssistiveTouch.

A white and gray circle will appear on the screen. Click Customize Top Level Menu which is AssistiveTouch. Tap the icon at the center and add the Home function from the menu that is pulled up.

Then proceed to Settings > General, scroll to the bottom and tap Shut Down. The Slide to Power Off screen will show up and now you have a virtual home button to long-press!

Apply pressure until your iPhone turns black, flashes white and goes back to the Settings menu.

Go back and deactivate the on-display Home button if you want to, after clearing the RAM. Note that this particular ruse may not work on all models of the iPhone.

36 – The Home button lives on…virtually:

The iPhone 8 series was the last Apple handset to feature a physical Home button. It hasn’t been seen since the iPhone X was launched.

But you can still have a Home button of sorts in the form of a virtual one that stays permanently on your screen! And it’s far more useful than you think.

The on-screen button in question has actually been around for years under the name AssistiveTouch; so this tip isn’t just for owners of the newer Apple smartphones.

You’re probably wondering why a regular user would need a virtual Home button.

What if the physical button on an older iPhone model is not working due to wear and tear or some software glitch? Maybe you have a new iPhone with Face ID, but the volume keys have stopped working and you haven’t had time to take it in for repairs?

It’s also possible that you’re finding it tiresome to keep pressing the hard keys at the side. The virtual home button gives you on-screen access to the basic device settings including the volume.

Just activate the virtual Home button via Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch. You can further select Customize Top Level Menu, if needed.

This lets you pick from a massive host of shortcuts to various features and functions including volume control, for the virtual round key which will follow you everywhere.

Conclusion:

Those were the most helpful iPhone tricks you may want to try out right away. We will keep adding more information on iPhones including iOS tips, iPhone hacks and secret iPhone features in the latest iPhone models.

Do be sure to bookmark this page for more cool stuff.