4 of the perfect obscure iPhone options you a...

Apple touts many

iPhone
options from the hills, no matter how necessary they’re in observe. Take into account the

Camera Control
button on the

iPhone 16
, for instance — I largely solely use it for opening the Digital camera app, taking a shot, and adjusting zoom, and a few folks do not use it in any respect. This kind of factor is to be anticipated, although, because it’s within the nature of capitalism to assert any benefit you may over the competitors.

Often, nevertheless, Apple does introduce options that obtain little if any advertising and marketing regardless of being genuinely helpful. That additionally is sensible in its personal means, as a result of a number of the issues that make a product higher aren’t essentially simple to promote by means of TV commercials and roadside billboards. These are a number of the extra obscure iPhone options I like — your individual checklist might range.

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1

Again Faucet

Like Double Faucet in your iPhone

Again Faucet is much like the Double Faucet gestures Apple launched with the Apple Watch Sequence 9 and Extremely 2, letting you employ movement gestures to set off instructions as a substitute of clicking a button or utilizing a touchscreen. Arguably, it is higher — particularly since you may assign your individual customized features everytime you double- or triple-tap the again of your iPhone, resembling turning on the flashlight, taking a screenshot, or opening Management Heart.

Why have not you heard a lot — if something — about Double Faucet? For one, Again Faucet continues to be thought of an “accessibility” function, meant to simplify iPhone use for folks with bodily impairments. The opposite is that it’s important to flip it on manually by going to Settings > Accessibility > Contact > Again Faucet. It is off by default, presumably as a result of it could be all too simple to set off instructions unintentionally if you happen to had been unaware of the function’s existence. How usually do you drum on one thing once you’re bored?

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2

ChatGPT integration into Siri

Lastly, Siri can truly let you know concerning the Mongols

Apple / Pocket-lint

Till iOS 18.2, Siri was notoriously dangerous at answering data questions. It may reply some apparent ones, resembling who the US President was or what the climate was going to be like, however too usually it could throw up its palms or ask you to faucet on an internet hyperlink — even if you happen to had been speaking to a HomePod. Actually, that is nonetheless how questions work on Apple’s good audio system.

iOS 18.2 added ChatGPT integration for iPhones with Apple Intelligence, specifically the iPhone 16 sequence and the iPhone 15 Professional. So in the end, if you happen to ask a fancy query, Siri can produce a solution with out making you go some other place for it. You’ll have to attend a second whereas Siri contacts OpenAI’s servers, but it surely nonetheless makes the assistant really feel much more highly effective. You possibly can even make it generate photos in some conditions, resembling Messages.

Apple does truly promote this function a bit, however solely within the context of different Apple Intelligence choices. It is most likely none too wanting to shine the highlight on a product it is not answerable for, and it is seeking to recruit different AI companions too, resembling Google.

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3

Altering default apps

Use your most popular on a regular basis instruments

Apple would favor that you just use its personal apps every time doable, but it surely additionally lives in the true world — different apps are generally extra widespread, and antitrust lawsuits can (and do) preserve its habits in verify. Should you go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps, you may select your individual preferences for issues like electronic mail, internet searching, translation, and passwords. In some international locations, at the least, you may even select a substitute for Apple Pockets for dealing with NFC transactions.

The primary catch right here, aside from doable regional restrictions, is that some apps you’d suppose could be selectable merely aren’t. Google Translate cannot be chosen as a substitute for Apple Translate, as an illustration, though it is undoubtedly extra widespread. Regulate this function — the gates could also be compelled all the way in which open by legislators in some unspecified time in the future. You would not tolerate a Home windows PC that locked out Chrome and Firefox, in spite of everything.

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4

Textual content Substitute

Create shortcuts and repair shortcomings

Plenty of human communication includes the repetition of inventory expressions. That is not a judgment of the species — that is simply how language works. As a result of expressions like “see ya” and “on my means” are so commonplace, they’re loaded with that means, and we do not have to hassle formulating a brand new phrase every time we talk the identical basic idea. You’d suppose somebody was losing their time in the event that they stated “I sit up for seeing you once more once I return to work tomorrow morning” earlier than heading out to their automobile.

To save lots of much more time, when typing at the least, you may go to Settings > Basic > Keyboard > Textual content Substitute and generate shortcuts that robotically swap in your most used expressions. Utilizing “omw” to set off “on my means” is an apparent instance, however I may probably use “@rf” to insert one thing like my electronic mail handle, telephone quantity, or Bluesky deal with. In a really perfect world, I would be capable of share an entire contact card, however that is not right here simply but.

NameDrop
can do one thing related if each folks have an iPhone (they usually’re standing proper subsequent to one another).

An fascinating trick Apple helps is utilizing Textual content Substitute to power iOS to not change one thing, say if it is a bit overzealous about “correcting” product names, tune names, or swear phrases. Within the Textual content Substitute menu, you merely enter a phrase or sentence into the Phrase discipline, however go away Shortcut clean. Actually, that is one among my largest pet peeves about iOS, so I am reminded that I ought to sit down someday and enter a flurry of recent shortcuts. Sooner or later, iOS will cease attempting to right me concerning the obscure ambient and industrial bands I like from locations like England and Germany.

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