iPhone Tips To Use Now

Ever pick up your phone and find that a recording is running and you did not mean to do that? You might accidentally send it with sounds or conversation you don’t want to share. Turn off that action by going to the “Raise to Listen” feature. This feature is for you to be able to listen to audio recordings when you put the phone up to your ear, but it also works the other way. When you have iMessage open and put the phone up to your ear (or close to it — the phone gets confused sometimes!), it can trigger the audio recording. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages. Scroll all the way down until you see the “Raise to Listen” feature. Toggle this OFF if you don’t want to use it. (It’s way towards the bottom under AUDIO MESSAGES)

Add a “button” to the back of your iPhone to take an action, i.e. double tap to turn on flashlight or perhaps several other choices. Set this up at System>Accessibility → Touch → Back Tap. Select either Double Tap or Triple Tap, then pick an option from the extensive list.

After taking a picture of a plant or animal you might be able to identify it. Open the picture in Photos and click on the “i” icon under the picture. You should see an option like “Look up Plant”. Press this and see what results you might get an “actual” description or a “maybe” as an attempt is made to tell you what the image it. 

Name that tune. You phone can help recognize it. Do this to set it up. Open the Control Center by swiping down from your iPhone’s top-right corner. From here, tap the plus-sign button (+) in the top-left corner, tap Add a Control, type “recognize music” in the search bar, and then tap the result. The next time you hear a song you can’t identify, open the Control Center and tap the Shazam button, and it’ll identify the song within seconds. I love this feature. 

Tap to turn on your phone’s flashlight (or ask Siri), and the icon will appear in the Dynamic Island. It’s not just a reminder that it’s on—tap it and you’ll be able to adjust the light beam by moving left (to make the beam narrower and more intense) or right (to make it wider and more diffuse). You can also move your finger up and down to increase or decrease the light’s strength as usual.

Measure things by doing this. Tap the Search box on your iPhone’s Home screen and type “Measure” to find the Measure app. Open it, and it’ll activate the rear camera with two options: Measure and Level. To measure something, aim your phone at one edge of the object you want to measure, tap the plus-sign symbol, then move your camera to the other edge and tap the plus-sign symbol again. The length of the object will appear on your screen. You can calculate multiple lengths by tapping plus again after you’ve taken the first measurement.

Widgets are a handy addition to your phone and can even be seen on the lock screen. To add widgets: From the Home Screen, touch and hold a widget or an empty area until the apps jiggle.

1. Tap Edit in the upper-left corner.
2. Tap Add Widget.
3. Select a widget, choose a widget size, then tap Add Widget.
4. Tap Done.

Apple has given us more options to use the apps we want as a default app. So start customizing your app choices, open the Settings app and go to Apps → Default Apps. You’ll see several options, from email and messaging to web browsing and translation. Just tap one, and then pick an app from the resulting list. Your options will be limited to apps installed on your iPhone, so make sure you’ve downloaded your apps of choice before getting started.

Improve your typing by using text replacement. This automatically fills out words and phrases when you enter a shortcut. For instance, you could create a text replacement shortcut that enters your email address whenever you type @@ or to automatically capitalize BBQ when you type “bbq.”

This feature can be enabled in Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement. There, tap + to add a new entry. The Shortcut box contains the condensed word or phrase you want to use, while the Phrase box is for the full version that will be inserted by your phone. Alternatively, if there’s a word or phrase that you don’t want to be corrected, create a new text replacement entry and type it into the same field, but keep the Shortcut box empty.

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Most of these tips require an iPhone 12 or later, some Pro models have even more refinement. 

Summary of an article in MacWorld, June 2025. You can see this and more in your Apple News + account.