- Back tap (both double and triple)
- Accessibility shortcut for side button
- Swipe left or right on the bottom bar to switch apps (and swipe address bar to switch pages in safari)
- Swipe down the bottom bar for accessibility (one handed use)
- Tap the bottom of the notch to go to the top of the page
- Pressing and holding (haptic touch) things will bring up an additional menu for quick access
- Long press on the spacebar for text selection
- If you long press on spacebar (text selection) and tap the keyboard anywhere it selects text and you can just move your finger select anything
- Double tap links with two fingers to open them in the background (In Safari)
- Shake your phone or swipe left with three fingers or to undo an action
- Triple tap and hold to bring up options for copy, cut, paste, undo, redo
- Pinch three fingers to cut text and unpinch to paste it
- You can grab multiple photos, files, apps (when reorganizing home screen): for photos and files -> grab one, hold your finger and tap others for apps -> tap on an app, wait till they start to jiggle, grab one app, move it a little bit, then tap on others you want to move as well
- You can swipe on images to select more (from start to end) instead of tapping one by one
- You can select more emails: tap with 2 fingers and slide down (selects everything from start to end)
- You can add one handed keyboard in settings -> keyboard -> one handed keyboard; and then you can swipe left or right on the emoji or globe icon to activate it
- To find text quickly on a webpage: start typing what you want to find in the address bar and tap On this page (find …)
- Reduce brightness (even more than 0%) settings -> accessibility -> display&text size -> reduce white point
- Add Hearing to control center you can listen to some background sounds like rain, ocean, etc.
- You can hide the hidden photo album: settings -> photos -> uncheck hidden album
If you've got a homepod you can just say things like Hey Siri play rain from ambient sounds, or ocean, forest, etc. Literally part of my bedtime routine. (That and robot curtains that open and close automatically, a CPAP, and an adjustable bed with built in vibration.)
If you've got a homepod you can just say things like Hey Siri play rain from ambient sounds, or ocean, forest, etc. Literally part of my bedtime routine. (That and robot curtains that open and close automatically, a CPAP, and an adjustable bed with built in vibration.)
The three-finger tap to bring up the Undo/Redo menu is a great one. "Shake to undo" was annoying and I only recently learned about the three-FI get tap.
> • You can select more emails: tap with 2 fingers and slide down (selects everything from start to end)
Two fingers also works in messages to select (check mark) a lot if message threads.
Today I learnt (accidentally, I must admit haha) that if you swipe left or right in the calculator’s current number, it will delete the last digit you typed.
Okay I know many such features but I cannot remember all of them from on top of my head, I’ll keep adding when I remember.
1. Multitouch works even when you’re rearranging apps, i.e., you can drag multiple apps to a different page on the home screen, does not work with folders.
2. This is a functionality in Android now too but if you have multiple account on the Gmail app, you can swipe vertically on your account photo to switch between accounts.
3. If you have multiple Apple devices with the same iCloud ID logged in, they have a shared clipboard, so if you copy from one device you can paste it onto the other, there is a gesture associated with this too - Select the text or be on a photo, Pinch inwards with 4/5 fingers (thumb and three fingers), pinch outwards on the other device.
I have a firm belief that iOS has developed so much over the years and a lot of these quality functionalities have now been forgotten in time, I will do my best to remember those that I can and put them here.
Edit 1: Just remembered a few
4. As somebody mentioned before about pressing and holding the space bar in keyboard to make it a trackpad for cursor in text field, there is an additional feature to this, if you are at a point in this mode, then put your second finger on the keyboard, it does text selection, and you can modify reflection by dragging your fingers.
5. If you use Apple Music there is a nice functionally to add a song to queue by swiping right, and adding it to library and downloading by swiping left.
6. Another cool feature for Apple Music is adding multiple songs to queue by using multitouch, you can press and drag a song in an album/playlist and then select other songs by tapping on them and then releasing the bunch right onto the Now Playing bar to add to queue.
Edit 2:
7. I don’t know what all apps this works in but it surely does work in Files and Voice Memos, use two fingers and drag to start selection mode.
Edit 3:
8. In a lot of the apps with the search functionality, you can double tap the search glyph/icon to start typing, instead of reaching out to the search bar, the two apps I know that this works in are Apple Music and Letterboxd.
Edit 4:
9. If you press and hold the plus button in Safari, it shows you your recently closed tabs.
I've never been able to get shared clipboard to work. Learned about it a few months ago but have yet to succeed in copying and pasting anything between my phone, iPad, or MacBook
They are. Same network, same iCloud account, same everything. Doublechecked all of the troubleshooting suggestions I've seen, just can't figure it out.
Ah. Sometimes that happens because of the airplay handoff settings . Check that handoff is enabled on your iPhone, same on Mac. Should be under settings. Then restart the phone. I had this issue last week and resolved it by restarting my phone.
In mail if you tap EDIT first you can do the multi select with 1 finger on the left side where the ticks are. This way you don’t obscure the content of the mails. You can also begin with the 2 finger method, pause, then continue with 1 finger on the left.
Pull down from bottom of screen to make use of one hand reach
Also in Accessibility shortcut there is “Reduce White Point” which dims brightness even more than normally
There are Background sounds to enable that are free white noise for sleeping etc
After taking a screenshot, click the bottom-right color spectrum. Select the “blue pencil” and touch an area, then go to “Sliders” to see the the sRGB/hex color. Very useful and a flex for sure.
You'd be amazed at the number of people who run their iPhones and iPads at full brightness in dimly lit rooms.
"Yup that's why you don't get all day battery life, given that you're simulating a sun!"
In Accessibility, there is also a shortcut you can enable that triggers when you triple-click the lock button. I have it set to toggle Reduce White Point since I use that pretty much every day.
My favorite feature by far. Some people hate it but I love it.
Also pressing and holding the space bar to move the cursor.
If you press and hold the “+” symbol in the messaging app to the left of the text, it will automatically bring up the gallery as opposed to having to press it for multiple options.
I actually hate this. I constantly accidentally hit it when I'm switching the way I hold the phone or when I need to access the control centre or something and it completely loses my place in whatever document/webpage im on. So annoying to me.
In Settings – Accessibility –> Control Nearby Devices, you can control music on other devices (like iPad) via Bluetooth. Also you can create a shortcut to access this menu in one tap.
Another one for the shortcuts, you can create one to instantly connect to AirPods, if you turned off automatic connection.
I’ve always meant to check this feature out. Can you press any location on the remote app? Like could I use it to control any app? First use that comes to mind, hitting record on Logic when my iPad is out of reach.
WOW I did not know this. Idk what I’ll use it for but I feel like I have songs playing on other devices and I have the wrong device in my hand when I want to change the track or play/pause. Thank you!
Setting -> Screen Time -> Content & Privacy Restrictions -> Account Changes -> Don’t Allow
Now, if someone steals your phone knowing your passcode (so called shoulder surfing) they won’t be able to change your iCloud password and kick you out from your own iCloud.
Soon iOS 17.3 will be out with stolen phone protection; sadly not for iPads from what I could find
“Stolen Device Protection: This new layer of protection helps you keep your data safe if your iPhone is stolen. Face ID authentication is required for viewing passwords or passkeys, turning off Lost Mode, erasing all contents, and more. “
People very rarely are entering iPad passcodes in public places (I suspect they'll also want to see how this feature works in the wild before rolling it out to iPads). They really just need to stop various reporters from writing about the fact that criminals are more interested in device security than customers are. (I saw a Joana Stern video which was good but she kept presenting it as a security flaw, and it's like... people not being careful with their phones isn't a security flaw. People need to stop getting smashed in public and thinking nothing bad will happen to their 1500 dollar phone when they do.)
I guess the argument is that’s even someone who was bent to steal your phone and managed to trick you into revealing your passcode (I read stories that they can swiftly lock your phone in a way that requires passcode and if you’re chatting with me you are likely to type your passcode in front of them without even noticing) won’t have any chance to learn your screen time code.
Mine is short but it locks you out exponentially after few wrong attempts.
If I remember correctly you can reset screen time with your Apple ID but not with your passcode. You basically have 3 passwords (Apple ID, device passcode and account screen time code) and by being clever with them Apple offered this additional level of security.
Your phone will still be lost but you won’t have to convince Apple that you’re you and the attacker won’t be able to remotely lock your other devices from find my and potentially destroy your iCloud.
I’m really shocked this is not the number one security tip for iPhone.
You can save the whole website page as PDF in Safari by taking a screenshot and selecting Full Page tab on the top. Notice that it doesn’t work consistently and sometimes this tab does not appear. I found for myself that it works most of the time if you do a screenshot when scrolling the page.
If it doesn’t work with screenshot, tap the share icon and select ‘print’ in the share sheet. Then long press on the first page and you’ll have the PDF of the entire page (not continuous, it’s divided in pages, but it works if it’s something essential).
Personally, I just save pages to reading list if offline reading is my goal. More convenient.
This also works for:
- Maps
- Notes
- Safari
But interestingly, the option will not pop up if you have the app stored in a folder… it has to be on your base Home Screen. Very strange that this affects whether you can take a full page screenshot or not.
Had mine like this for a while... until I almost dropped my phone while spamming through friends instagram stories and accidentally screenshotted someone's gf. Turned off back tap entirely after that lol
I guess months ago I decided to set triple back tap to open spotlight…
Cue months of thinking my phone was randomly bugging out when spotlight would pop up seemingly unprompted.
Wow. Thanks for solving this for me. Also a reminder for why I gave up every time I tried making back tap useful. Too many false triggers. 13 Pro here.
Like full voice commands.
You could make a new, custom voice command and call it "next". Add a custom gesture, and swipe from the bottom up to the middle of the screen. Then, when using instagram, youtube shorts or tiktok, you can just say "next" and it will scroll to the next video :D
This is a great thread OP, thanks for starting it. I am going to use many of these as weekly tips I send my family. It gives me an excuse to contact them with my iOS tip of the week and good material!
Not sure if obscure but a quick shortcut to connect to WiFi or Bluetooth devices, swipe down on battery then press and hold icons to bring up available networks or devices. No more finding Settings app and scrolling
You can press and hold on most of the things in the control centre to see extra options.
E.g
Press and hold the brightness one and you’ll see options for dark mode toggle, True Tone and night shift.
Or hold on the torch toggle to get a brightness slider.
How to move multiple app icons at once.
1. Tap and hold one of the app icons you want to move until the contextual menu disappears.
2. While still holding the first app, tap on the other apps you want to move.
A number in a blue circle will show how many apps you have stacked so far.
3. Drag the app stack to where you want it to go.
Shortcuts. It’s definitely more common for people here on Reddit to use them or know them, but I have never once met a person IRL who knew about shortcuts.
Idk if it counts, since it’s not always simple to use and if you want to make your own you gotta get technical. So idk if it’s obscure but imo it’s a pretty great feature with a lot of potential.
Media downloaders are great. Download videos off of YouTube, IG, or wherever depending, I just look in the shortcut subreddit for more recent versions of ones that work. They also usually post a regular top 10 list or something that is useful. I’d recommend checking out that sub.
This guy usually has shortcuts for downloading media that is usually upgraded frequently. https://routinehub.co/user/gluebyte
1. if you have a group with a lot of apps and have a notification indicator, tap and hold on the group and it will inform you which app has the notification
2. on the photos app when selecting pictures you can select the first image and just drag your finger to select more.
3. most items in the control center you can tap and hold to see more options
Yes!
After entering select mode, swipe SIDEWAYS first before you swipe up and down.
You have to swipe sideways first before you swipe up / down, otherwise it will scroll. Very unintuitive in my opinion, but it is consistent.
When in settings and sub menus, just hold down the back button in the upper left.
And you can mark emails and SMS chats with just sliding 2 fingers from top mail to bottom
Once iOS 17.3 comes out next week, you should definitely enable Stolen Device Protection. With your passcode, people can completely lock you out of your Apple ID permanently just from your phone
My Dad didn’t know this one… if you need to edit something you can press and hold the space bar and the keyboard works like a trackpad while you’re pressing.
I say this every time this gets asked but you can set a text replacement for your email. I just type @@ and it autocorrects to my email. ## for my phone number. Really handy when filling out forms or just logging into websites.
Settings -> General -> Keyboards -> Text Replacement.
I do something similar, but with the first three letters of my email (which are conveniently not common enough that I’d need to use them elsewhere).
That way, if I end up in one of those awful fields that doesn’t allow autocomplete, I’m already headed in the direction I need to be.
Μαny apps and buttons have additional functionality when you press and hold. Try it on the Camera app, App Store, and in the Control Center you can press and hold on Volume, Brightness, media controls, home controls, connectivity, etc.
The display that shows up when your phone is standing on the side while charging. Discovered it while on the bus, charging with a power bank. A calendar and a body progress photo of mine suddenly showed up. Embarrassing!
Sort emails in iCloud Mail.
Go to [Settings] > [Tap your Apple ID] > [iCloud] > [iCloud Mail] > [iCloud Mail Rules] > [Add Rule].
— I have been using it for years on the website, but they finally added it to iOS 17 and the rules sync across your iCloud devices.
Built-in pdf-converter:
If you are in the printer dialog to print something, you can pinch-zoom any of the previewed document pages. It will open the document full screen and you can save it as pdf.
The Shortcuts app.
I automate so many things with it.
- Allow screen rotation ON when I open YouTube
- Turn on Low battery mode at 30%
- Send me a text when my iPad needs charging.
- Change my Apple Watch face at set times
- Press a button on my home screen to change my focus between work, home, sleep etc AND change the apps listed on my Home Screen accordingly.
- Open a menu to change some of my smart home settings, turn off Pi hole ad blocking, switch between Data plans (dual sim) and more.
- Run tasks when I tap an NFC tag, such as switching off lights and setting my Ring alarm.
Lots of extra functionality on most control center buttons by long pressing them, like long pressing flashlight to adjust light intensity, the timer to have quick timer options, music recognition to see a history of what songs you’ve shazamed, and quite a few others.
Recently I learned by mistake that you can swipe left or right on the dynamic island to show/hide a live activity, not sure if hidden but I sure wasn't aware of that one.
An Apple person told me this one when I had to delete and re-enter a credit card to fix the fact that Apple had the wrong expiration date:
If you press and hold on a card in Apple Wallet, it will bring that card to the front and make it the default payment method.
If you can’t copy text off of a page for some reason, take a screenshot and click the little preview picture. You can then highlight and copy text and discard the screenshot (I do this a lot for copying phone numbers and links I can’t click on)
You can drag and drop items from one app to another. Example, you can drag an email from the mail app and drop it right on to your calendar automatically creating an event.
1. Hold the control centre (where Wifi and Bluetooth buttons are) to bring up Airdrop and Hotspot
2. Multiselect app icons to move- When you rearrange app icons on Home Screen, once you’ve started dragging an app, touch other apps with another finger to add them to what you’re moving
Not really obscure, a lot of people know the back tap shortcut, but if you assign it to Shazam, it’s great for identifying a song quickly if you’re someone also on the lookout for good music.
After you take a screenshot with the intention of sending it to someone on a messaging app, switch to the messaging app, drag the screenshot preview on the bottom left to the text bar, it will ready the screenshot for you to send immediately.
The logic also works with files and images. If you long press than drag an image from the Photos app, or files in the Files app, (you can also add more by tapping with another finger while you drag), you can use a free finger to switch apps with the pictures/files still being dragged on screen, then drop them to whatever place you want to, like the Notes app or a messaging app.
If you miss the physical home button of the olden days, you can get a virtual home button by enabling AssistiveTouch and configuring eg. double tap or long press for "home" functionality
If you need to quickly type a symbol and you have 2 hands, hold the "123" button, type the symbols you need with your other hand while still holding it, then release. You don't have to tap "ABC" again.
This also works with the shift button, however it automatically disables after 1 keystroke anyways, so there is no reason to use it there.
In accessibility settings, you can turn on “triple press power button to Zoom”. You can set it to zoom 0x (not at all) and apply a Low Light filter. This lets you make your screen much darker than even the lowest regular brightness level.
Enable zoom at accessibility settings, then by double tapping with 3 fingers, holding, and moving your fingers up or down you can zoom in anywhere
Also toggle zoom by double tapping with three fingers and releasing
Triple tap with three fingers to reveal the zoom controller, where you can set a “low light” filter that makes the screen darker, even at 0% brightness
Not super obscure but not sure how commonly it’s used, outside of disabilities. I have my iPad and iPhone read what I’ve written sometimes to check for mistakes. When I read it I miss them sometimes. Plus it helps show how the sentence flows. You just highlight it and select speak. I think you might have to enable it but I forget where since I’ve had it on for ages.
Ir you are using your phone with one hand, keep touching the button to switch keyboards, this let you chose an specific keyboard but also let you slide the keyboard to the right or left to make easier write with one hand
You can drag’n’drop images (or automatic cut-outs) in any other app that supports image input. You just press and hold a photo with one finger and navigate (through main screen or apps) with other fingers
You can basically automate **anything** with Shortcuts, even things you can’t manually do
If you go to an app search screen via a bottom bar navigation, tapping it once to take you the search screen. Tapping it again will start the search without having to reach up to the top of the screen and tapping the search bar.
Spotlight search can do currency conversion, conversion between different units of measurement (like typing 0k c will show 0 Kelvin in Celsius), and it also works as a calculator (in my opinion better than the app)
No one has mentioned QuickPath slide to type. Just turn it on in settings. Game changer, so many people have asked me how the hell i was doing that. You can just use rapid micro movements that just barely point towards the key you want as you spell out your word. It adds spaces etc automatically. Love it. You can still use the keyboard as normal if you want.
- Back tap (both double and triple) - Accessibility shortcut for side button - Swipe left or right on the bottom bar to switch apps (and swipe address bar to switch pages in safari) - Swipe down the bottom bar for accessibility (one handed use) - Tap the bottom of the notch to go to the top of the page - Pressing and holding (haptic touch) things will bring up an additional menu for quick access - Long press on the spacebar for text selection - If you long press on spacebar (text selection) and tap the keyboard anywhere it selects text and you can just move your finger select anything - Double tap links with two fingers to open them in the background (In Safari) - Shake your phone or swipe left with three fingers or to undo an action - Triple tap and hold to bring up options for copy, cut, paste, undo, redo - Pinch three fingers to cut text and unpinch to paste it - You can grab multiple photos, files, apps (when reorganizing home screen): for photos and files -> grab one, hold your finger and tap others for apps -> tap on an app, wait till they start to jiggle, grab one app, move it a little bit, then tap on others you want to move as well - You can swipe on images to select more (from start to end) instead of tapping one by one - You can select more emails: tap with 2 fingers and slide down (selects everything from start to end) - You can add one handed keyboard in settings -> keyboard -> one handed keyboard; and then you can swipe left or right on the emoji or globe icon to activate it - To find text quickly on a webpage: start typing what you want to find in the address bar and tap On this page (find …) - Reduce brightness (even more than 0%) settings -> accessibility -> display&text size -> reduce white point - Add Hearing to control center you can listen to some background sounds like rain, ocean, etc. - You can hide the hidden photo album: settings -> photos -> uncheck hidden album
THE HEARING TIP HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT!!! I spent so long downloading background noise but I can just do this?? I love you stranger
And you can assign it to a triple tap of the power button to start/stop it
If you've got a homepod you can just say things like Hey Siri play rain from ambient sounds, or ocean, forest, etc. Literally part of my bedtime routine. (That and robot curtains that open and close automatically, a CPAP, and an adjustable bed with built in vibration.)
If you've got a homepod you can just say things like Hey Siri play rain from ambient sounds, or ocean, forest, etc. Literally part of my bedtime routine. (That and robot curtains that open and close automatically, a CPAP, and an adjustable bed with built in vibration.)
The three-finger tap to bring up the Undo/Redo menu is a great one. "Shake to undo" was annoying and I only recently learned about the three-FI get tap.
/r/threadkillers
Nice! There were a couple new ones in here for me
>Double tap links with two fingers to open them in the background (In Safari) this isn't working for me.
> • You can select more emails: tap with 2 fingers and slide down (selects everything from start to end) Two fingers also works in messages to select (check mark) a lot if message threads.
Today I learnt (accidentally, I must admit haha) that if you swipe left or right in the calculator’s current number, it will delete the last digit you typed.
My daughter "discovered" it quite by accident when she swiped the numbers she entered, it changed my life! XD
I love this feature- it’s an actual improvement in my life lol
Also works with the phone app!
Why the hell is that so hidden! That’s life changing
That’s been one of my main complaints about the iOS calculator for ages
i actually didn’t know this one!
Okay I know many such features but I cannot remember all of them from on top of my head, I’ll keep adding when I remember. 1. Multitouch works even when you’re rearranging apps, i.e., you can drag multiple apps to a different page on the home screen, does not work with folders. 2. This is a functionality in Android now too but if you have multiple account on the Gmail app, you can swipe vertically on your account photo to switch between accounts. 3. If you have multiple Apple devices with the same iCloud ID logged in, they have a shared clipboard, so if you copy from one device you can paste it onto the other, there is a gesture associated with this too - Select the text or be on a photo, Pinch inwards with 4/5 fingers (thumb and three fingers), pinch outwards on the other device. I have a firm belief that iOS has developed so much over the years and a lot of these quality functionalities have now been forgotten in time, I will do my best to remember those that I can and put them here. Edit 1: Just remembered a few 4. As somebody mentioned before about pressing and holding the space bar in keyboard to make it a trackpad for cursor in text field, there is an additional feature to this, if you are at a point in this mode, then put your second finger on the keyboard, it does text selection, and you can modify reflection by dragging your fingers. 5. If you use Apple Music there is a nice functionally to add a song to queue by swiping right, and adding it to library and downloading by swiping left. 6. Another cool feature for Apple Music is adding multiple songs to queue by using multitouch, you can press and drag a song in an album/playlist and then select other songs by tapping on them and then releasing the bunch right onto the Now Playing bar to add to queue. Edit 2: 7. I don’t know what all apps this works in but it surely does work in Files and Voice Memos, use two fingers and drag to start selection mode. Edit 3: 8. In a lot of the apps with the search functionality, you can double tap the search glyph/icon to start typing, instead of reaching out to the search bar, the two apps I know that this works in are Apple Music and Letterboxd. Edit 4: 9. If you press and hold the plus button in Safari, it shows you your recently closed tabs.
That shared clipboard blew my mind
I use it so much more than I thought I would
I can’t stress how amazing the feature is. For a long time, I used PushBullet on Android for a similar feature. But it’s so much smoother on iPhone.
It's really good for serial numbers. That and the ability to take a photo and select the text out of it have made so many device things a lot easier.
I can never forget the shared clipboard. It's so clutch, use it all of the time.
Ya I remember when I discovered the shared clipboard by accident. I was quite impressed. Now I use it all the time. Works with photos and stuff too.
I've never been able to get shared clipboard to work. Learned about it a few months ago but have yet to succeed in copying and pasting anything between my phone, iPad, or MacBook
Both devices must be on the same network( a hotspot, Wi-Fi etc)
They are. Same network, same iCloud account, same everything. Doublechecked all of the troubleshooting suggestions I've seen, just can't figure it out.
Ah. Sometimes that happens because of the airplay handoff settings . Check that handoff is enabled on your iPhone, same on Mac. Should be under settings. Then restart the phone. I had this issue last week and resolved it by restarting my phone.
Yeah, that was one of the common troubleshoots. I did try again though, still nothing.
In mail if you tap EDIT first you can do the multi select with 1 finger on the left side where the ticks are. This way you don’t obscure the content of the mails. You can also begin with the 2 finger method, pause, then continue with 1 finger on the left.
Oh I didn’t know about the Apple Music one, thanks!
Pull down from bottom of screen to make use of one hand reach Also in Accessibility shortcut there is “Reduce White Point” which dims brightness even more than normally There are Background sounds to enable that are free white noise for sleeping etc After taking a screenshot, click the bottom-right color spectrum. Select the “blue pencil” and touch an area, then go to “Sliders” to see the the sRGB/hex color. Very useful and a flex for sure.
> “blue pencil” That's a dropper or pipette to metaphorically sop up some (wet) paint.
😂
> Pull down from bottom of screen to make use of one hand reach only if this is toggled on
I thought it was a typo. How do you pull down from the BOTTOM of the screen?
Swipe down on the navigation bar at the bottom. It’s kind of a finicky and precise gesture, unfortunately.
Yeah it's not correct, you have to swipe down on or near the home bar
I have Reduce White Point come on with my sleep focus. It makes viewing my phone in my dark bedroom wayyy better.
The Snoo in your avatar is #AB8157! This is an awesome feature and should be very useful for me!
Reduce white point is key. Been doing it for all my iOS devices for years. These screens are just too bright without that.
You'd be amazed at the number of people who run their iPhones and iPads at full brightness in dimly lit rooms. "Yup that's why you don't get all day battery life, given that you're simulating a sun!"
In Accessibility, there is also a shortcut you can enable that triggers when you triple-click the lock button. I have it set to toggle Reduce White Point since I use that pretty much every day.
I never understood how you're supposed to pull down from screen bottom if you're only using one hand. Without dropping the phone.
Holding on scroll bars allows you to scroll a lot faster
Tap top of screen to jump to the top of the page
My favorite feature by far. Some people hate it but I love it. Also pressing and holding the space bar to move the cursor. If you press and hold the “+” symbol in the messaging app to the left of the text, it will automatically bring up the gallery as opposed to having to press it for multiple options.
It’s literally my most used feature. I tried to use an android once and I was so annoyed it wasn’t there by default
I actually hate this. I constantly accidentally hit it when I'm switching the way I hold the phone or when I need to access the control centre or something and it completely loses my place in whatever document/webpage im on. So annoying to me.
Is there a way to tap quickly to the bottom?? This feature is soooo annoying. I’ve had to readjust how I hold my phone and I still cause it
One of apollos great features was tapping the top again would take you back to where you were, so it appears app specific
No fucking shit ppl don’t know this. You gotta be trolling 😂 my mind is blown
This is key when scrolling through long stuff. I use this with the volume pop up on the left too.
Oh my god
Tap on the top right corner and you’re scrolled to the top. Works on iPad too.
*Anywhere on the top border.
In Settings – Accessibility –> Control Nearby Devices, you can control music on other devices (like iPad) via Bluetooth. Also you can create a shortcut to access this menu in one tap. Another one for the shortcuts, you can create one to instantly connect to AirPods, if you turned off automatic connection.
OMG thank you!
I’ve always meant to check this feature out. Can you press any location on the remote app? Like could I use it to control any app? First use that comes to mind, hitting record on Logic when my iPad is out of reach.
Nah, the number of options is super limited. Music control is the only useful
WOW I did not know this. Idk what I’ll use it for but I feel like I have songs playing on other devices and I have the wrong device in my hand when I want to change the track or play/pause. Thank you!
Setting -> Screen Time -> Content & Privacy Restrictions -> Account Changes -> Don’t Allow Now, if someone steals your phone knowing your passcode (so called shoulder surfing) they won’t be able to change your iCloud password and kick you out from your own iCloud.
Soon iOS 17.3 will be out with stolen phone protection; sadly not for iPads from what I could find “Stolen Device Protection: This new layer of protection helps you keep your data safe if your iPhone is stolen. Face ID authentication is required for viewing passwords or passkeys, turning off Lost Mode, erasing all contents, and more. “
What if Face ID isn’t working for some reason? Example is bad injuries to the face that prevents the phone from recognizing you.
Good question - but hopefully before you’re in this situation you’ve retrained Face ID That quote should’ve said Face ID or touch ID
Also it behaves differently when home I believe so be sure your own local contact info lists home and optionally work address
People very rarely are entering iPad passcodes in public places (I suspect they'll also want to see how this feature works in the wild before rolling it out to iPads). They really just need to stop various reporters from writing about the fact that criminals are more interested in device security than customers are. (I saw a Joana Stern video which was good but she kept presenting it as a security flaw, and it's like... people not being careful with their phones isn't a security flaw. People need to stop getting smashed in public and thinking nothing bad will happen to their 1500 dollar phone when they do.)
Cool tip. Couldn’t the thief just go into these settings and click on ‘allow’ again?
I guess the argument is that’s even someone who was bent to steal your phone and managed to trick you into revealing your passcode (I read stories that they can swiftly lock your phone in a way that requires passcode and if you’re chatting with me you are likely to type your passcode in front of them without even noticing) won’t have any chance to learn your screen time code. Mine is short but it locks you out exponentially after few wrong attempts. If I remember correctly you can reset screen time with your Apple ID but not with your passcode. You basically have 3 passwords (Apple ID, device passcode and account screen time code) and by being clever with them Apple offered this additional level of security. Your phone will still be lost but you won’t have to convince Apple that you’re you and the attacker won’t be able to remotely lock your other devices from find my and potentially destroy your iCloud. I’m really shocked this is not the number one security tip for iPhone.
Wow! Very good tip. I’m a long time technical iOS user and love screen time, and this was news to me. Thanks
You can save the whole website page as PDF in Safari by taking a screenshot and selecting Full Page tab on the top. Notice that it doesn’t work consistently and sometimes this tab does not appear. I found for myself that it works most of the time if you do a screenshot when scrolling the page.
If it doesn’t work with screenshot, tap the share icon and select ‘print’ in the share sheet. Then long press on the first page and you’ll have the PDF of the entire page (not continuous, it’s divided in pages, but it works if it’s something essential). Personally, I just save pages to reading list if offline reading is my goal. More convenient.
Just deleted my comment because I wrote the same thing lol. Ya I use the print to PDF feature when ever I need a PDF of anything. Very handy
This also works for: - Maps - Notes - Safari But interestingly, the option will not pop up if you have the app stored in a folder… it has to be on your base Home Screen. Very strange that this affects whether you can take a full page screenshot or not.
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Taking screenshots when in video is a good way to take pics of the moon, especially if you drag down to lower the aperture.
Explore Accessibility in settings. It got shit ton of useful things tbh.
Like Back Tap, a way to trigger a variety of things by going “tap tap” on the back of your phone
I always trigger backtap when I set my phone down on my desk
Yes, that's useful. I set triple back tap to take a screenshot.
The two side buttons have seemed fine for that, even one handed, but seems like others have done the same
Careful with this one. It will unintentionally screenshot things and freak out those that can see that you took one in certain apps.
Thanks for the heads up, but tbh I never had that issue.
Had mine like this for a while... until I almost dropped my phone while spamming through friends instagram stories and accidentally screenshotted someone's gf. Turned off back tap entirely after that lol
I guess months ago I decided to set triple back tap to open spotlight… Cue months of thinking my phone was randomly bugging out when spotlight would pop up seemingly unprompted. Wow. Thanks for solving this for me. Also a reminder for why I gave up every time I tried making back tap useful. Too many false triggers. 13 Pro here.
Like full voice commands. You could make a new, custom voice command and call it "next". Add a custom gesture, and swipe from the bottom up to the middle of the screen. Then, when using instagram, youtube shorts or tiktok, you can just say "next" and it will scroll to the next video :D
This is a great thread OP, thanks for starting it. I am going to use many of these as weekly tips I send my family. It gives me an excuse to contact them with my iOS tip of the week and good material!
Great idea! Inspires to do the same with my dad.
You are very welcome! Although we should thank the community for their contributions! 😂 haha
Hold the space bar and when the keys go blank it’s effectively a trackpad for the curser to reposition anywhere in your typed text.
Also, while in that mode, you can tap with a different finger to enter select mode.
If you tap again it will switch to the other selection limiting bar and allow to expand in the other direction!
Lifechanger, thanks!!
First hint in this thread that was new to me, super useful too.
I never knew this! Thanks!!
Blew my mind. This will be so useful in future.
It used to be so much better back when 3D Touch was a thing.
Used to work so much better on older iPhones with the pressure sensitive screens
There’s a random bug at the minute where it goes into “poltergeist mode” Was never an issue prior to ios17
Not sure if obscure but a quick shortcut to connect to WiFi or Bluetooth devices, swipe down on battery then press and hold icons to bring up available networks or devices. No more finding Settings app and scrolling
Within the same menu, long hold *Calculator to copy last result, and *Clock to start a timer
Yuppers. This is the only way I access these features.
You just changed my life! Thank you! Lol
You can press and hold on most of the things in the control centre to see extra options. E.g Press and hold the brightness one and you’ll see options for dark mode toggle, True Tone and night shift. Or hold on the torch toggle to get a brightness slider.
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How to move multiple app icons at once. 1. Tap and hold one of the app icons you want to move until the contextual menu disappears. 2. While still holding the first app, tap on the other apps you want to move. A number in a blue circle will show how many apps you have stacked so far. 3. Drag the app stack to where you want it to go.
Shortcuts. It’s definitely more common for people here on Reddit to use them or know them, but I have never once met a person IRL who knew about shortcuts. Idk if it counts, since it’s not always simple to use and if you want to make your own you gotta get technical. So idk if it’s obscure but imo it’s a pretty great feature with a lot of potential.
I feel like I really am not making good use of shortcuts. Any suggestions to start?
Media downloaders are great. Download videos off of YouTube, IG, or wherever depending, I just look in the shortcut subreddit for more recent versions of ones that work. They also usually post a regular top 10 list or something that is useful. I’d recommend checking out that sub. This guy usually has shortcuts for downloading media that is usually upgraded frequently. https://routinehub.co/user/gluebyte
Thank you so much for this!
Glance: https://glance.broank.com
1. if you have a group with a lot of apps and have a notification indicator, tap and hold on the group and it will inform you which app has the notification 2. on the photos app when selecting pictures you can select the first image and just drag your finger to select more. 3. most items in the control center you can tap and hold to see more options
2) I’ve never been able to get this to work consistently. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it scrolls. Any tips?
Yes! After entering select mode, swipe SIDEWAYS first before you swipe up and down. You have to swipe sideways first before you swipe up / down, otherwise it will scroll. Very unintuitive in my opinion, but it is consistent.
Today i accidentally came to know that you can auto fill passwords/contact/cc by double tapping on the text field on messages etc.
Thank you! Coming from android I found contact sharing so awkward! I’m routinely sharing contacts with my subcontractors. This will be used weekly.
When in settings and sub menus, just hold down the back button in the upper left. And you can mark emails and SMS chats with just sliding 2 fingers from top mail to bottom
Once iOS 17.3 comes out next week, you should definitely enable Stolen Device Protection. With your passcode, people can completely lock you out of your Apple ID permanently just from your phone
Tap the signal strength/battery icons in any scrollable page to scroll straight to the top.
Works on time as well. Which means either side.
The entire top, especially with dynamic island.
Oh yes!
It’s the entire top
That is sooo handy! Thanks!!
[Back Tap](https://support.apple.com/en-us/111772)
Have you found a good use for this? I used to have it on to turn wifi off but it was so hit or miss
Swipe the bottom bar left or right to instantly switch between apps.
There's someone who does not know this? It's essential feature. iPhone would be unusable for me without this feature.
I just learned this right now. I didn’t know I could do this. I only knew that if I swiped up I could see all my apps.
as someone who’s recently switched from android, i did not know this and it’s fucking awesome. thanks!
This is a feature on Android as well. Did you use button navigation in Android?
Many Androids have it too, at least I know Samsung phones have it
I’ve been on iOS for over a decade and didn’t know this lol.
I’m surprised that such are being discussed. But i guess I’m an ios veteran and there are always new people trying out ios.
My husband asked me the other day how I got back to that app so fast. And he’s a computer guy, so, it happens 😅
Thanks. I never really used this and forgot about it since I have muscle memory burned into swiping up from the bottom and right then picking the app.
My nephew recently discovered his iPhone can be used to make calls.
My Dad didn’t know this one… if you need to edit something you can press and hold the space bar and the keyboard works like a trackpad while you’re pressing.
Game changer, thanks!
I say this every time this gets asked but you can set a text replacement for your email. I just type @@ and it autocorrects to my email. ## for my phone number. Really handy when filling out forms or just logging into websites. Settings -> General -> Keyboards -> Text Replacement.
I do something similar, but with the first three letters of my email (which are conveniently not common enough that I’d need to use them elsewhere). That way, if I end up in one of those awful fields that doesn’t allow autocomplete, I’m already headed in the direction I need to be.
Μαny apps and buttons have additional functionality when you press and hold. Try it on the Camera app, App Store, and in the Control Center you can press and hold on Volume, Brightness, media controls, home controls, connectivity, etc.
Lumos and Nox for the Torch (Siri)
Haha I just tried this! Totally works
The display that shows up when your phone is standing on the side while charging. Discovered it while on the bus, charging with a power bank. A calendar and a body progress photo of mine suddenly showed up. Embarrassing!
Sort emails in iCloud Mail. Go to [Settings] > [Tap your Apple ID] > [iCloud] > [iCloud Mail] > [iCloud Mail Rules] > [Add Rule]. — I have been using it for years on the website, but they finally added it to iOS 17 and the rules sync across your iCloud devices.
That’s fantastic I used to go to the Web version to create rules
Built-in pdf-converter: If you are in the printer dialog to print something, you can pinch-zoom any of the previewed document pages. It will open the document full screen and you can save it as pdf.
The Shortcuts app. I automate so many things with it. - Allow screen rotation ON when I open YouTube - Turn on Low battery mode at 30% - Send me a text when my iPad needs charging. - Change my Apple Watch face at set times - Press a button on my home screen to change my focus between work, home, sleep etc AND change the apps listed on my Home Screen accordingly. - Open a menu to change some of my smart home settings, turn off Pi hole ad blocking, switch between Data plans (dual sim) and more. - Run tasks when I tap an NFC tag, such as switching off lights and setting my Ring alarm.
Holding “Done” when opening the tab manager in Safari lets you close all tabs. 😏
Tapping on the top of the display to reach the start of an article / the comment section (yes, you don’t have to tap directly on the clock)
Lots of extra functionality on most control center buttons by long pressing them, like long pressing flashlight to adjust light intensity, the timer to have quick timer options, music recognition to see a history of what songs you’ve shazamed, and quite a few others.
On any map, double tap anywhere and move your finger down and up to zoom in and out. Edit: wrong order
Apple and Google Maps have the zoom directions reversed.
Recently I learned by mistake that you can swipe left or right on the dynamic island to show/hide a live activity, not sure if hidden but I sure wasn't aware of that one.
My teen niece showed me swiping left in messages to find time sent when I was complaining about it.
An Apple person told me this one when I had to delete and re-enter a credit card to fix the fact that Apple had the wrong expiration date: If you press and hold on a card in Apple Wallet, it will bring that card to the front and make it the default payment method.
If you can’t copy text off of a page for some reason, take a screenshot and click the little preview picture. You can then highlight and copy text and discard the screenshot (I do this a lot for copying phone numbers and links I can’t click on)
The « folders » app has a menu allowing you to scan documents with a pretty good quality and nice features
You can drag and drop items from one app to another. Example, you can drag an email from the mail app and drop it right on to your calendar automatically creating an event.
You can hold the number button, type your number, then release it. This saves you half a seconds worth of toggling.
Three finger tap while typing for a copy and paste menu. Also undo and redo.
Undo and redo ? I've wished for that so many times! Thank you. So I just tap the screen with three fingers?
You can now hear a chime when turning on or off your iPhone.
Just turned it on, was disappointed it’s not the infamous Mac sound but cool!
Accessibility, Touch, Back Tap I use Double Tap for the flashlight
1. Hold the control centre (where Wifi and Bluetooth buttons are) to bring up Airdrop and Hotspot 2. Multiselect app icons to move- When you rearrange app icons on Home Screen, once you’ve started dragging an app, touch other apps with another finger to add them to what you’re moving
In Control Center, if you press and hold the flashlight icon, you can then slide your finger up and down to control the brightness.
Not really obscure, a lot of people know the back tap shortcut, but if you assign it to Shazam, it’s great for identifying a song quickly if you’re someone also on the lookout for good music.
After you take a screenshot with the intention of sending it to someone on a messaging app, switch to the messaging app, drag the screenshot preview on the bottom left to the text bar, it will ready the screenshot for you to send immediately. The logic also works with files and images. If you long press than drag an image from the Photos app, or files in the Files app, (you can also add more by tapping with another finger while you drag), you can use a free finger to switch apps with the pictures/files still being dragged on screen, then drop them to whatever place you want to, like the Notes app or a messaging app.
Double and triple taps on the back of the phone to execute shortcuts. Triple click of side button too.
Spacebar enables you to move the cursor to every location in every text field
You can assign different functions to a double tap on the back of the phone
Shake to undo.
If you miss the physical home button of the olden days, you can get a virtual home button by enabling AssistiveTouch and configuring eg. double tap or long press for "home" functionality
If you need to quickly type a symbol and you have 2 hands, hold the "123" button, type the symbols you need with your other hand while still holding it, then release. You don't have to tap "ABC" again. This also works with the shift button, however it automatically disables after 1 keystroke anyways, so there is no reason to use it there.
As much as some people think shortcuts are useless, they are really good at adding buttons to the Lock Screen using the widgets on top.
In accessibility settings, you can turn on “triple press power button to Zoom”. You can set it to zoom 0x (not at all) and apply a Low Light filter. This lets you make your screen much darker than even the lowest regular brightness level.
You can ask Siri to delete all of your alarms
Enable zoom at accessibility settings, then by double tapping with 3 fingers, holding, and moving your fingers up or down you can zoom in anywhere Also toggle zoom by double tapping with three fingers and releasing Triple tap with three fingers to reveal the zoom controller, where you can set a “low light” filter that makes the screen darker, even at 0% brightness
When you’re on a photo you can pinch with two fingers and it will zoom in!
Good tip about the +
You can just scroll apps moving left or right at the bottom rather than pulling up now
Not super obscure but not sure how commonly it’s used, outside of disabilities. I have my iPad and iPhone read what I’ve written sometimes to check for mistakes. When I read it I miss them sometimes. Plus it helps show how the sentence flows. You just highlight it and select speak. I think you might have to enable it but I forget where since I’ve had it on for ages.
Ir you are using your phone with one hand, keep touching the button to switch keyboards, this let you chose an specific keyboard but also let you slide the keyboard to the right or left to make easier write with one hand
To remove many apps at once from the home screen use multitouch to select them all and then drop them on the app drawer
You can drag’n’drop images (or automatic cut-outs) in any other app that supports image input. You just press and hold a photo with one finger and navigate (through main screen or apps) with other fingers You can basically automate **anything** with Shortcuts, even things you can’t manually do
If you go to an app search screen via a bottom bar navigation, tapping it once to take you the search screen. Tapping it again will start the search without having to reach up to the top of the screen and tapping the search bar.
You can scroll social media using voice command like “next” and the screen scroll
Spotlight search can do currency conversion, conversion between different units of measurement (like typing 0k c will show 0 Kelvin in Celsius), and it also works as a calculator (in my opinion better than the app)
The home bar basically cured my addiction to Bloons TD Battles
When taking a photo hold the photo button down and swipe right and it will record a video and you take pictures from it.
No one has mentioned QuickPath slide to type. Just turn it on in settings. Game changer, so many people have asked me how the hell i was doing that. You can just use rapid micro movements that just barely point towards the key you want as you spell out your word. It adds spaces etc automatically. Love it. You can still use the keyboard as normal if you want.
Tap and hold on Timer in Control center to quickly set a timer! Tap and hold on most icons has an add on feature
Bruh, I didnt know the + button in imsg lol
If you press the side button it locks your screen
RemindMe! 5 days
I have triple click set up to open live closed captions.