Whether you’ve got yourself anPhone 13or you just updated your existing iPhone, getting some tips on how to make the most of it can be really useful.
Most of the features highlighted are available for all iPhone models running iOS 15 or later, but there are one or two that are limited to the newer models that won’t be applicable to older models. So, make sure you’re running iOS 15 or later on your iPhone - or get out your iPhone 13/13 Pro- and work your way through some of our favourite, less-obvious features.
you may watch the video guide above or follow the written steps beneath that. Whichever you find most convenient.
Apple iPhone 13
1 - Stop apps from tracking you
If you want to block apps from tracking just open Settings > Privacy and now tap “Tracking”. Right at the top there’s a toggle that says “Allow apps to request to track”. If you don’t want any apps to request tracking information, just toggle this off. Or, alternatively, you can manually toggle tracking on or off for apps individually in the list below.
2 - See which apps access what data
On a similar note, this is just a quick tip: scroll down to the bottom of the Settings > Privacy screen and tap “Record App Activity”. Toggle it on, and now wait for a week or so. After a few days go back to that menu option and you’ll see a breakdown of how various apps have been using permissions on your phone, and you’re able to see if any of them are accessing things like your location or other personal information far too regularly. You can also opt to save a report as a blank binary file that you can share and save.
3 - Bring the old Safari back
In iOS 15 we got a new Safari with a search bar and tab switcher at the bottom. It’s actually quite convenient for one-handed use and lets you easily swipe between tabs. However, if you want the old layout back - with the URL bar at the top - youcan switch back.
There are two ways to do it. Either go to Settings > Safari and scroll down until you see the two tab icons. Now select “Single tab”. When you relaunch Safari it’ll now have the bar at the top.
The other quicker way to switch is to open Safari itself, open any webpage and tap the “AA” icon in the search bar. Now you’ll see a pop-up menu appear. Tap the option that says “show top address bar”.
4 - Bundle non-important notifications
iOS 15 has a feature called “Scheduled Summary” that lets you bundle all the less important notifications together and deliver them at the same time, rather than getting lots of random pings throughout the day.
To enable it, go to Settings > Notifications and tap “Scheduled Summary”. Now toggle it on and go through the setup process. Now you choose the apps you want to include in your summary and tap “Add Apps” at the bottom.
On the next screen - choose the times you want the first and second summaries to appear. You can also tap the “+” to add more frequent summaries throughout the day. So you could have one appear at breakfast time, lunchtime and one in the evening if you want. When those are chosen just hit the “Turn on Notification Summary” option at the bottom.
Now you’ll only be notified by direct messages or apps not included in your selection through the day, until the time you choose to have the summary appear.
5 - Announce notifications on AirPods
If you have a pairof AirPods Pro(or other AirPods or Beats headphones) you can have Siri announce notifications through them whenever you have them in your ears and connected to your iPhone. To switch that on, go to Settings > Siri and Search and now tap “Announce notifications” and then toggle the option on at the top of the page. And toggle on the “Headphones” switch as well.
6 - Switch off HDR video
By default, the newer iPhone 13 Pro models record video in HDR orDolby Visionwhich not only takes up lots of space but also isn’t compatible with a lot of other devices. To switch it off, go to Settings > Camera and tap “Record Video”. Toggle off the option that says “HDR Video”.
7 - Reachability
Back in the day when iPhones had buttons, you could bring stuff down from the top of the screen to make them easier to reach by lightly double tapping on the home button. And you may actually do it on the new phones without buttons too, but you have to activate it first.
Go to Settings > Accessibility and tap “Touch”. Toggle on the Reachability option. Now when you swipe down at the bottom of the screen, it drops the stuff from the top of the screen further down, making it easier to reach.
8 - Double tap the back to screenshot
With the right accessibility function enabled, you’re able to simply tap twice on the back of your phone to take a screenshot. Rather than fiddling with the button combination.
Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch and now select “back tap”. Choose the double-tap option and find Screenshot in the list. Now when you double-tap your phone’s back, it’ll take a screenshot. you’re able to - of course - choose other functions like dropping down notifications or control centre, which can be hard to reach.
9 - Use Live Text
One cool new feature is Live Text, which allows you to use your camera to read and display text in real-time. You could - for instance - use it to instantly send a sentence from an article or document in a message.
Open a messaging app. Double-tap on the text field and then tap the little icon that looks like text in a box. It will now open up a camera view and start scanning text and will then display it in the field as you show it to the camera.
To be more precise, just tap the little capture icon in the corner to take a quick still of the text you want. You can now highlight the specific block of text you want to include by just dragging your finger across the text you want.
Another way you can do it is just opening the camera app and making sure you’re in Photo mode. Now point at the text you want, or tap to focus on the text manually, and tap the live text icon in the corner. It will take a scan of the text, and you can now highlight text within the popup image to share with someone. Copy and paste to wherever you want it.
10 - Live text in a screenshot
There is another way to use Live Text. With a screenshot. Take a screenshot and tap on it to open up the editor view. Tap on the markup/pen icon at the top and now tap the live text icon in the bottom corner. Now you can drag to highlight the text you want to copy and paste it to any app you like.
