Unlock the potentiality of the iPhone with these features that you probably do not use
iPhone is the world’s most popular smartphone brand. People become crazy to buy the new iPhones every year. Apple always included the latest features in the operating system that runs the iPhone. The operating system that powers the iPhone is known as iOS. People love the iOS because of its well-crafted features that perform perfectly, ease of use, and simplicity. Apple includes every single feature on their iPhone with a well-organized that makes the iPhone better. But the interesting fact is that there are useful features on the iPhone that most of the users do not use regularly or do not know about the features. But once you know about those features and start to use them, your experience of using an iPhone will completely change. In this article, we will explore some of the useful iPhone features that will unlock the potentiality of the iPhone even more. So, without any further delay, let’s jump into exploring some useful iPhone features.
Spotlight search is one of the best features of the iPhone. It is used to search for anything on the iPhone. It is the search engine of the iPhone. You can access the Spotlight by swiping the finger down on the home screen. Once you access the spotlight, a keyboard will appear along with a search box so that you can type in the search box to search for anything. Besides, an icon of the Siri will also appear to ask anything and use the knowledge of the Siri.
You can use the spotlight to search any images, videos, files, notes, or apps quickly. You can perform simple mathematical calculations and currency conversations on the spotlight by typing on the keyboard.
Spotlight will help you to find out any settings of the iPhone including web search results, app results, email contacts, shortcuts, and many more. You can customize the spotlight content that you want to see once searching on the spotlight. To customize it, Go to the Settings> Siri & Search. Now, you can exclude any app and suggestion that you do not want to see while searching in the spotlight.
Spotlight is a quicker way to find anything on your iPhone rather than find it manually. It saves a lot of time for iPhone users. But most iPhone users do not use it so much or do not know the exact potentiality of Spotlight.
iCloud keychain and Authenticator
You can store all of your passwords on the iPhone and the iPhone will suggest the password when needed. As Apple provides a strong ecosystem with its other devices, you can access the password and the saved password will be synced to other Apple devices such as iPads and MACs. Besides, when you create an account for any service, the iPhone will suggest a strong password and if you use the iPhone’s suggested strong password rather than your manual password, it will be automatically stored on the device. Next time when you visit the website where you have to provide the same credentials, the iPhone will automatically prompt that a saved password exists and you can verify that using the Touch ID or Face ID.
You will find all of your passwords under Settings> Passwords on an iPhone or iPad, or System Settings > Passwords on a Mac.
iCloud keychain also offers two-factor authentication like the Google authenticator. In that case, you do not need to use any 3rd party authenticator app on your iPhone.
One-Handed Keyboard
While typing on the keyboard of the phone, sometimes it becomes hard to type with one hand specifically for the larger phone. But Apple makes it easy by featuring a one-handed keyboard on their iPhone keyboard. Though it is possible to type using one hand on the iPhone’s keyboard, the use of a one-handed keyboard makes it more convenient. To enable the one-handed keyboard, Tap on the Emoni Icon on the left side of the bottom corner or Tap and hold on the Globe Icon> Select the keyboard that’s pinned to the left or right side of the screen.
Boost your privacy with the Guided Access
Guided Access is one of the best accessibility features of the iPhone, though most iPhone users do not use this feature so much. The Guided Access feature will limit you to a single app. To illustrate, while you are using any app, if you turn on the guided access feature, you cannot view, open, or use any other app on your device. Besides, you can make certain areas of the screen non-touchable, which means the area of the screen will not be able to Tap if you want. The practical use case of this is that suppose you give your iPhone to your children to play a game or any other known person to make a call but do not want your children or the other person to access any other apps or settings of your iPhone. You can simply turn on the guided access after going to the individual app and then your children or other person will not be able to use any other stuff on your phone except for that particular app. You can also restrict them to tapping on a certain screen area so that they can not navigate to any other stuff of that particular app. The greatest thing about this feature is that you can set the time limit and after the time limit the guided access will be turned on automatically.
To turn on the Guided Access, Go to Settings> Accessibility> Tuned on the Guided Access.
After turning on the Guided Access, you must set the passcode for that guided access that you have to use to stop the guided access.
Once you set up the guided access for the first time open the app>triple click on the side button for the iPhone with Face ID or triple click on the Home Button for iPhone with Touch ID to start the Guided Access >Start the session of the guided access. Or, you can add the Guided access to the control center or set up an accessibility shortcut to quickly turn on this.
Once, you start the session of the Guided access, you will get several options that you can customize based on your needs.
Drag and Drop Features
Drag and Drop feature is a convenient way to Drag and Drop any files such as photos from one App to another App. Though the Drag and Drop feature on mobile phones is not so well-organized, apple makes it more than good enough to easily Drag and Drop any files from one app to another. The drag-and-drop feature is a multitouch operation that means you must use at least two fingers at the same time.
For example, If you want to Drag and Drop a photo from the Photos app, go to the Photos app> Tap and hold the photo that you want to Drag and Drop>move your finger slightly to grab the image.
Now, using the second finger or hand go to the home screen by tapping on the home button> Go to the destination app from the home screen while you want to drop the images (Note that, the image that you have grabbed previously using the one finger needs to be still holding on)
Now, suppose, you want to drop the photos in the Notes app, then Go to the Notes app> release the holding photos in the appropriate place of the app.
Below is the video that demonstrates the process of Drag and Drop features of the iPhone.
Scan Documents using the Notes APP
Scanning of the documents is most often necessary for the users. Apple provides the scanning documents features to its default notes app.
To scan the document, Go to the Notes app> Create a new note> Tap on the Camera Icon> Select Scan Document> Point the camera to the Document> Note app will scan the document and optimize the size within the app.
Save the full webpage to a PDF file
Sometimes while reading any article on any website, we need to save that page so that we can read the article later when needed. There are a few options to save the webpage to read later. One is to bookmark the webpage, but the most convenient one is to make the webpage into a PDF file as it is more convenient to read the PDF file. You can save the full webpage to a PDF file using the Safari Browser.
To do that,
- Go to the Webpage from Safari> Click on Share Icon> Tap on Options> Tap on PDF and Done.
- Now, Scroll Down and Tap on Save to Files, and Choose the location where you want to save the File.
Use the live Text feature to Grab the text using the camera app
Live Text feature allows you to grab the text from the image. By grabbing the text from the image, the camera can copy the text, share the text, look up the text, and translate the text. Besides, the camera app also provides quick actions like calling phone numbers, converting currencies, visit websites based on the text that appears in the camera frame. To do this you have to enable the live text features from the settings.
- Go to the settings> Camera> turn on Show Detected text.
- Then, Open the Camera App> Locate the image> Click on the live text icon that is in the lower right corner of the screen
- Finally, you can select all the text that appears within the frame. Then, you can copy, look up, translate, or share the text.
Control your iPhone using the voice command
The voice control accessibility features will allow you to navigate and control the iPhone using the voice command. Your iPhone needs to be updated to iOS 13 or later to use these features. Before using the voice control for the first time, a file will be downloaded and then you do not have to connect to the network to use the voice control.
To enable the voice control:
- Go to the Settings> Select Accessibility.
- Select Voice Control> Select Set up Voice Control> Then, A file will be downloaded
- After the download is completed, you will show an icon of the Microphone at the status bar.
Now, you can use voice commands to control the iPhone just like the touch control. For example, you have to say” Swipe down” to access the spotlight search from the Home Screen, to long press certain apps, you have to say “ Long Press[App Name], to tap any app you have to say “ Tap [App Name]. If you are not sure about the app name then say “Show Names” to display the name. You can also say “ Show Numbers” instead of “Show Names” so that the screen shows you the number of the item that is available on the screen. You can also see the list of available commands by saying “Show me what to say”.
You will find all of the available commands following the below steps:
- Go to the Settings> Select Accessibility
- Select Voice Control> Customize Commands and then all of the available commands will show there.
Download and create the custom shortcuts from the Shortcut app for better workflow
You can create a powerful automated workflow using Apple own’s Shortcut app. A shortcut is a quicker way to do more than one task with a single Tap. Inside the shortcut app, you will get Apple’s pre-built-in shortcut or can create your custom shortcut. The interesting fact is that there are plenty of websites present such as ROUTINEHUB which developed and shared their custom build shortcut, you can easily download those shortcuts to your shortcut app for better workflow. For example, if you want to make a PDF of multiple images, then you can use the shortcut that will allow you to create the PDF from the selected images with a single Tap. That’s works like magic. Besides, the Automation features add an extra layer to this shortcut app. The main purpose of the automation is that you do not have to Tap on the shortcuts manually, rather than it will activated at a specific event such as a specific time or date.
To find out the shortcuts, you have to go to the Shortcuts App> Go to the Gallery. There you will find the Apple pre-built shortcut.
Now, if you want to create the custom shortcut, click on the + button that is corner of the upper right side.
Finally, you can also download already-developed shortcuts by visiting websites such as ROUTINEHUB, and ShortcutsGallery.com which is specifically developed for shortcut sharing.
The main interesting fact is that you can add the shortcuts to the home screen as an App icon to quickly access, or integrate with Siri so that while you ask Siri, Siri can run those shortcuts. Moreover, you can add the shortcuts as the widgets. Note that, you have to download the shortcut apps from the Appstore if the app is not already present on your device.
Conclusion
That’s all from today’s article. There are tons of iOS hidden features, tips, and tricks that will change your iPhone user experience. In another article, we will discuss the later part of the best and hidden features of iOS that increase the potentiality of the iPhone even more.
