Apple releases new features and updates often. Let’s talk about some of the most useful tools and settings.

Find My App

You can use find my app to share your location with your family and friends. Open the app from the home screen. You will see your current location listed under the people tab. Press the start sharing location button and then enter the contact you would like to share with. The person must be a contact in your contact list.

You can also use it to find any Apple device registered to your account. When you select a device, you will have the option to play a sound, get directions to where your device is located, tag your device as lost or remotely erase your device.

Turn on Find My Phone

This is one of the first things you should do when you get a new iPhone. If your phone is ever lost or stolen, you can use find my phone to locate it. Find My Phone

Hide Photos

We often pass our phones to others to show them pictures, but you may have pictures that you don’t want others to see when they are swiping through your images.

You can hide the photos that you want to keep private. To do so, open the photos app on your iPhone. Select the image or images that you want to hide. Then tap the share button and choose hide.

The photos will be hidden but you can view them in the folder named hidden in your albums.

Organize Apps Using Folders

Instead of scrolling through multiple screens to find the app you want, create folders to organize them. Store similar apps in the same folder for easy access.

To create a folder, press and hold an app and then drag it into another app that you want to group together in a folder. Give the folder a name.

Do this for all similar apps. Once the apps are organized into folders you can just drag and drop new apps into the folders you already have.

Display Contact Information on Lock Screen

If your phone is lost you can display your name and alternate phone number or other contact information on the lock screen so that if someone finds your iPhone they can contact you.

Use the Apple Health app to do this. You will find the health app in the settings menu. Tap medical ID and then tap edit. Enter the information you want displayed. Turn on the option “Show when locked” The Medical ID was intended to be used to display your medical information in case of an emergency but can be used for identification purposes as well. Once the Medical ID information has been saved it will appear on the lock screen under emergency.

Reboot Your Phone

Many people never think to reboot their iPhone but doing so can free up resources and close apps that are running. If you notice your phone is slowing down or acting buggy restarting should get things back to normal.

Setup Emoji Shortcuts

If you often use the same emojis you can create text shortcuts for them so that they are easier to access. Open Settings >General > Keyboard > Text replacements. Tap the plus (+) icon and then choose the emoji you want to create a text shortcut for. Once this is setup each time you type the text shortcut that emoji will appear.

Setup Text Replacement

Similar to emoji shortcuts you can use the text replacement feature to enter words or phrases you use often. It’s great if you often type longer lines of text. Just tap Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement.

Tap the plus (+) to add a new replacement then enter your text shortcut and what text you want the shortcut to replace. For example, you might use the shortcut WTD for “did you walk the dog?” Tap save when finished. You can setup as many text replacements as you like. Just tap the plus sign to add another. You can remove any text replacements you have saved in the same menu. Tap edit, then tap delete. Tap done when finished.

Setup a Timer to Stop Playing Music and Videos

Maybe you like to listen to music or watch video’s while you’re falling asleep or while you are performing a certain task but you would like the music or video to turn off at a certain time.

Open the clock app and tap timer in the bottom right corner. Tap when timer ends and then scroll down and tap stop playing. Then tap set.

When you use this feature, you want to be sure that when you are finished you go back into the clock app timer setting and change the stop playing action back to a ringtone. If you don’t do this the timer app will not play a ringtone for other timers you have setup.

Update Your Apps

The apps on your iPhone are updated regularly but not all at once and updating them all might take some time. You can manually update all of your apps at once. Just open the app store and click your image at the top to open your account. Scroll down and click update all.

Speed Up Charging

To get a quicker charge turn on airplane mode. Open Settings > Airplane Mode and slide it on.

When airplane mode is turned on Wi-Fi, phone calls, text messages, email, mobile data and other services will be disabled. Once charging is complete turn airplane mode off.

You can also speed up charging by turning your phone off. Since everything is shut down it will charge much faster.

Dark Mode

Dark mode is well suited for low-light situations. The phone does not throw off such a bright light so it can be less disturbing to you and the people around you. When you enable dark mode, it will apply to the entire operating system and to Apples native apps. 

Visual Notification of Alerts

This feature can be very useful if you are in a noisy location or if you are hearing impaired. The phone will flash when calls, text messages and other notifications are received. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual. Turn on LED flash for alerts.

Block Unknown Callers

We all get them, spam calls. If I don’t recognize a number, I usually do not answer the phone. You can set it up so that calls from numbers not in your contact list go directly to voice mail. Open settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers and slide it on.

Use Night Shift

Looking at a bright screen in the evening can disrupt sleep patterns. You can use night shift to automatically adjust the display so that the brightness level is adjusted to a more comfortable tone for the evening.

Open Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift. Choose a time to activate and a brightness level.

Two Sets of Air Pods or Beats Headphones on One iPhone

You can use two sets of Air Pods or Beats Headphones on one phone so you can share your music, podcasts and other content with someone else. You will first need to pair the devices then just start sharing. Share Audio with Air Pods & Beats Headphones

Use your iPhone as a Tape Measurer

Did you know you could measure real world objects using your iPhone? The measure app uses the camera. Find the measure app inside the utilities folder in the app library.

These are just some of the useful features you can use. Explore your iPhone to find even more and check out the support page at Apple for more information. iPhone Support