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Credit: Tom’s Guide
Your iPhone’s settings menu contains features that most people never discover. Features range from useful daily tweaks to truly surprising capabilities hidden in your settings.
And these are not obscure developer tricks or complex solutions. They are built into the iPhone, waiting to be turned on. Once you know they exist, you’ll wonder why Apple didn’t make them more obvious.
From handy shortcuts to very unique capabilities, here are five hidden iPhone features that really improve how you use your device.
1. Dim the screen more than the minimum brightness
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This feature is a game changer when you’re scrolling late at night and even the lowest standard brightness seems too harsh. Open Settings and go to Accessibility, then Display and text size. Scroll down until you Find the Reduce White Point option and enable it.
Adjust the slider to control how dim you want. This setting softens the intensity of bright colors and whites, making the screen appear darker than the standard minimum brightness setting allows.
You can also add Reduce White Point to Control Center by going to Settings, Control Center, and tapping the plus icon next to Reduce White Point.
2. Get alerts for specific sounds
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This feature is a game changer. It works even when you’re wearing headphones or in another room, essentially giving you an extra set of ears monitoring your surroundings. Once enabled, it runs continuously in the background.
Go to Settings, Accessibility and tap on Voice Recognition. Then turn it on and your iPhone starts listening for important sounds you might miss, like doorbells, alarms, or a baby crying.
Then choose which sounds you want your iPhone to detect. Tap Sounds and select from the options provided including fire alarms, smoke detectors, dogs barking, appliance beeps, door knocks, etc.
Enable only those that apply to your situation to avoid message overload.
3. Use Back Tap to create a hidden button
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To enable this, go to Settings, Accessibility, Touch and select Back Touch. This feature turns the back of your iPhone into a customizable shortcut and action launcher.
Choose what should be done twice and thrice. For maximum benefit, choose actions that you use often. Options include taking screenshots, locking the screen, opening Control Center, and launching Siri.
Test your choice by touching the back of your phone. A firm double or triple tap anywhere on the rear glass activates the selected action. It works in most situations and feels surprisingly responsive once you make the right move.
4. Set timers directly from the control center
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It’s a really useful feature because you stay in whatever app you’re using instead of going into the Clock app, making the whole process faster and less disruptive.
Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center. If you don’t see the timer buttontap the plus icon in the upper left corner and add a timer from available controls.
Long press the timer icon to expose the slider interface and drag to set the desired time. Then just tap the start button.
5. Create text shortcuts using text replacement
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This makes up for the iPhone’s lack of clipboard history by allowing you to quickly insert frequently used text without copying and pasting or retyping.
Open Settings, General, Keyboard and tap Text Replacement. another, tap the plus sign in the upper right corner to add a new link.
Enter your full phrase in the phrase boxe.g. email mailing address or home address. Then type a short trigger in the Shortcut field – something memorable like @@ email e-mail address or your address Then tap save.
Keyboard shortcuts work in all applications where you type. Type a trigger and iOS automatically expands it to a full phrase.
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