Last week’s column covered the new iOS 26 operating system for iPhone, which comes with some nifty new features. But even before this version came out, iOS had some very handy features that a lot of people may not know about.
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Most of what I’ll cover in this column applies to iPhone X from 2017 or later when Apple dropped the physical Home button. If you have an earlier phone, check Apple’s website or do some research on Google or generative AI sites such as ChatGPT to see if your older iPhone offers similar features. And if you’re an Android user, don’t despair. It, too, has some little-known helpful features that I’ll cover in a subsequent column.
That black notch is not dead space
You probably noticed an oval shaped black notch at the top of the phone that hides the front-facing camera and other sensors. At first, I thought it was dead space but eventually discovered it has useful information. If you look closely, you may see a small icon representing an app that’s running, like a music player or a navigation app. Not all apps show up, and even those that do may only show up if they are active, such as music playing or active navigation. As an aside, whether you’re on iOS or Android, make sure you stop navigation when you’re not using it. It’s a big drain on the battery.
An even more useful feature that some don’t know about is the Control Center that you access by swiping down from any screen. It’s especially useful if you need to quickly stop audio or video from playing, such as when you need silence. Swipe, and you’ll get to a media player with a very handy pause button. You can also use the Control Center to turn on or off the flashlight, silence the ringer, set an alarm, record a voice memo and many other things. There is a little + (plus) sign on the top left that lets you add or remove functions.
Easy to read state of charge
It’s important to know your phone’s state of charge. By default, the iPhone shows a battery icon in the upper right corner that doesn’t display percentage. You can change that by going to Settings/Battery, but even if you do, it’s too small for many people to easily read. A solution is a widget called Battery with a big display not only of your iPhone battery but accessories such as Apple Watch and Airpods, if you have them. If you need help, use Google to search for “add iPhone widgets.”
Searching, programming
If you have a lot of apps, it can sometimes be a hassle finding the icon you need. One trick is to search for them. There’s a little search icon on the bottom of the screen, but the best way is to swipe down from the middle of the home screen to get a large search box. You can also use this to search for a contact, the web or even an address.
Older iPhones have a physical mute switch in the upper left corner, and that’s still its default function. On newer phones, it’s called the Action button, which lets you assign different tasks to that switch. I use it to turn my flashlight on and off, because I often have to do that in the dark. You can assign a different function by selecting the Action button from Settings and scrolling left or right.
App menus
You know that you can tap any icon to load an app, but what you might not know is that if you hold down the icon, a menu appears with additional options such as holding down the camera icon to take a selfie or a video.
Finding your phone
Have you ever misplaced your phone? I do all the time. One way to find it is to have someone call it but that only works if the ringer is on and loud enough. But, even if the ringer is off, you can make it ring loud by going into iCloud.com and logging in. It will also find your phone’s location and let you erase the phone in case it’s lost or stolen. There is also a Find My app that you can use on the Apple Watch.
Accessibility
The iPhone has many accessibility settings for people with visual, hearing and other impairments, but I’ve discovered some that may be useful even if you don’t have what are traditionally considered to be accessibility needs. For example, my optometrist tells me that my eye site is pretty good with glasses, but I still struggle with the default iPhone text settings. The “Display and Text Size” options in the accessibility menu has enabled me to increase the size of the text in many apps and increase contrast to make the phone more readable. There is also a zoom feature that magnifies the entire screen, though it may have unintended consequences such as magnifying apps in ways that impair their use.
The Touch section of Accessibility is also worth exploring. One option puts a floating dot on your screen that brings up a menu that’s superimposed on all your apps and home screens. You can use it to quickly go to the Home screen, run the Control Center, adjust volume and more. If you click on Device followed by the word “More,” you get other options, including adding being able to restart your phone without having to turn it off, an option not otherwise available on an iPhone. The downside is that this floating dot might obscure parts of apps, which is why I disabled it after I tried it. But I have a friend who swears by it.
These are a few of many off-the-beaten-path things you can do with an iPhone. You can discover more by doing some web searching or just exploring all the options in the Settings menu. Just make sure you know how to undo anything you change. Sometimes the default settings are there for good reasons.
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Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist. Contact him at [email protected].
