iPhone 17 Top Tips & Tricks: Hidden Features & Settings

The iPhone 17 collection is one in all Apple’s boldest in latest reminiscence. The bottom iPhone 17 has adopted as soon as Professional-only options, such because the long-requested 120Hz ProMotion Show, whereas the iPhone Air pushes the boundaries of design and engineering, and the iPhone 17 Professional and Professional Max boast a swathe of really skilled new options, together with ProRes RAW and GenLock.

In addition they arrive with the newest iOS 26 person expertise, a visible departure from the flat interface of earlier releases. Liquid Glass, plus a couple of notable additions, adjustments the look, really feel and behavior of iOS in new and attention-grabbing methods.

Whether or not you’re new to the iPhone 17 collection or a long-time iPhone person upgrading to one in all Apple’s finest and brightest new entries, you’ll undoubtedly discover some useful suggestions and methods on this information. It’s written by somebody who’s reviewed nearly each mannequin of the final decade, and spent a variety of time optimising the iOS expertise consequently.

The vast majority of the following pointers ought to work throughout the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Professional and iPhone 17 Professional Max, in addition to latest however older fashions together with the iPhone 16 collection. Learn on for the complete run-down.

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Customise the lock display clock

With iOS 16, Apple added the power to customize the lock display clock’s font and color however, with iOS 26, it expanded on the diploma of personalisation accessible.

Now, you even have the choice to scale the clock which, paired with the All the time On Show, makes for a helpful one-two punch of performance. You may as well nonetheless customise font and color, in addition to select whether or not it adopts the Liquid Glass aesthetic, or the extra conventional flat look of earlier generations of iOS.

HOW? Out of your lock display, press and maintain on a clean space till the lock display wallpaper zooms out. Subsequent, faucet the Customise button, which seems on the backside of the display. Bounding containers will seem round all the important thing UI parts you’ll be able to work together with, together with the clock.

Faucet and drag on the seize deal with seen within the backside proper of the clock’s bounding field, after which merely drag downwards to increase the clock to your most popular peak.

When you’re proud of the place of the lock display clock, faucet wherever inside the clock’s bounding field to convey up the Font & Color menu. In addition to adjusting font and color, there’s now a brand new Glass / Stable toggle, which you’ll experiment with too.

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Spatial Scene lock display

Sticking with lock display suggestions, iOS 26 additionally introduces a fake 3D impact on sure photographs. Referred to as Spatial Scenes, this impact might be utilized to your lock display.

Supplied you’ve chosen a lock display picture that the cellphone deems suitable with the function (often one with a transparent foreground topic), it’s best to be capable of create a Spatial Scene lock display.

HOW? First, head to Settings after which search for and faucet on Wallpaper. From right here, faucet + Add New Wallpaper, or just swipe alongside till you see ‘New’ on the high, after which faucet the + icon to create a brand new wallpaper pair.

From right here, faucet on the Images app icon within the high left of the display. Subsequent, select a photograph you need to use as your lock display. Your cellphone will then swap to a full-screen lock display preview, along with your chosen picture entrance and centre.

Supplied your cellphone deems the picture you’ve chosen suitable with Spatial Scenes, you’ll see two icons in direction of the underside proper of your display, simply above no matter lock display shortcut you’ve assigned within the backside proper nook (often, it’s the Digicam app).

The left of those two icons ought to resemble a hexagon with a strikethrough. To allow Spatial Scenes in your lock display, faucet this hexagonal icon. After a quick little bit of processing, the place your cellphone will generate your new Spatial Scene lock display, faucet Add within the high proper of the display.

As you’re creating a brand new lock display from scratch, faucet Set as Wallpaper Pair on the next pop-up. You’ll then be taken again to the Wallpaper Settings display, however you’ll be able to swipe as much as shut Settings or just lock your cellphone.

Subsequent time you faucet the display or energy button to wake your cellphone up, you’ll be capable of tilt your cellphone in your hand and benefit from the cool parallax impact of your newly-created Spatial Scene lock display.

Observe: Spatial Scene wallpapers solely seem on the lock display. On your own home display, they’ll simply current as static photographs. Additionally, each time you modify your lock display picture, you’ll have to re-enable the Spatial Scene function. Your lock display will turn out to be static and dimmed in case you have a Focus Mode – like Do Not Disturb or Sleep – lively.

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Spatial Scene in Images

If you wish to see what the Spatial Scene impact could be like on a number of images in your gallery, with out having to undergo the rigamarole above every time, you’ll be able to simply view any suitable photographs as Spatial Scenes, proper in iOS’ native Images app.

HOW? Merely open Images, faucet on a picture you need to view as a Spatial Scene, and in case your iPhone decides it’s suitable, it’s best to then see a small hexagonal icon with an arrow on its proper, in direction of the highest proper of the display.

Faucet the hexagonal icon and, after a second of processing, your chosen picture ought to now be a Spatial Scene. You may view the 3D impact by merely tilting your cellphone in your hand.

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Quicker haptics for a greater really feel

When Apple switched from an everyday standard spinning vibration motor (formally known as an ERM or Eccentric Rotating Mass) to its Taptic Engine (Apple’s branded tackle a Linear Resonant Actuator or LRA) again in 2015, it fully reworked the texture of interacting with an iPhone.

The Taptic Engine is a lot better than a spinning motor at conveying totally different sensations by way of haptics, with larger precision, pressure and distinction.

Efficiency is already typically nice on the iPhone 17 collection, however if you would like your cellphone to really feel even snappier, this one tweak within the Settings menu will make your machine really feel even quicker.

HOW? Head to Settings, scroll down and faucet on Accessibility, and search for Contact. Inside the Contact menu, the third choice must be Haptic Contact. Choose this and also you’ll be offered with three period choices, with a check button beneath.

Out the field, your iPhone’s haptic contact period will seemingly be set to Default, however attempt the opposite two choices out, or just swap it to Quick, with a faucet.

When you’re proud of the brand new really feel of your iPhone’s haptics, again out of the Settings app with a swipe up from the underside of the display.

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Hidden keyboard shortcuts

There’s extra to the iOS keyboard than meets the attention. Regardless of the criticism the iOS keyboard has come below, it does additionally boast a number of highly effective hidden options, which until about, are simply missed.

In addition to swipe-typing (the place you don’t raise your finger from the display between key presses to kind a phrase), do you know you don’t must toggle Shift or the numbers key to entry capital letters and numbers? You may even transfer a cursor round to shortly scrub via textual content with out ever having to the touch a textual content field, and there are compact left and right-justified keyboards, all unseen, however proper at your fingertips.

HOW? Entry to most of those hidden options comes right down to a tap-and-hold gesture.

Within the case of capitalisation, relatively than tapping the Shift key, after which tapping the letter you need capitalised, you’ll be able to merely long-press on the shift key and – with out taking your finger off the display – drag over to the letter you need capitalised. Releasing your finger will then create a capital letter and swap the keyboard again to decrease case in a single fell swoop.

Equally, relatively than tapping the numbers key, choosing the quantity you need after which switching again to the letter view in your keyboard, you’ll be able to simply long-press on the numbers key, drag your finger over to the quantity you need, and launch.

Lengthy-pressing on the emoji key within the backside proper, beneath your keyboard brings up a menu which incorporates three keyboard structure choice: the full-width keyboard you’re seemingly already utilizing, or a left or right-justified compact keyboard, good for one-handed typing. Simply drag your finger over and launch in your most popular structure, or faucet on the structure you need to use.

Lastly, relatively than long-pressing on a textual content field and utilizing the resultant magnifying glass to see the place the cursor is as you scrub via textual content, long-press on the spacebar as a substitute. You’ll see the letters of the keyboard disappear, when you stay in touch with the display, successfully turning it right into a trackpad, which you’ll then swipe round to extra simply transfer the cursor in a given textual content entry area above.

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Disable Management Centre in your lock display

Management Centre is the de facto method to shortly toggle or entry key options in your iPhone, however the comfort on provide is one thing of a double-edged sword, particularly the place theft is worried.

Whereas options like Discover My iPhone are extremely useful and highly effective, their real-time monitoring hinges in your cellphone’s potential to take care of a mobile, Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth connection. A savvy prison who simply swiped your machine may shortly interact Airplane Mode with out ever needing to unlock your cellphone or enter your passcode, basically chopping off the breadcrumb path Discover My tries to depart.

The most effective defence – on the expense of solely a bit comfort – is to disable Management Centre entry out of your lock display.

HOW? Head to the Settings app, then scroll right down to and faucet on Face ID & Passcode. Enter your machine’s passcode on the following display and also you’ll then be offered with a run of various safety settings.

Scroll right down to the Enable Entry When Locked part, and lastly faucet the toggle subsequent to Management Centre to disable entry to the function in your lock display.

To check it, lock your cellphone, wake it again up and check out swiping down from the highest proper nook of your lock display. Management Centre ought to now not seem.

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Set a customized ringtone

Creating or setting your personal ringtone was all the trend, however Apple made the method on iPhone a bit too convoluted for many customers, pushing them to purchase ringtones via iTunes or just depend on the pre-loaded default ringtones.

Fortunately, these days, it’s a lot simpler to set your personal customized ringtone, supplied you’ve a suitable audio file (comparable to a .mp3 or .m4a) at hand.

HOW? When you’ve downloaded the audio file you need to use as your new ringtone to the Information app, open the app and discover your downloaded audio.

Lengthy-press on the file and on the next pop-up menu, faucet Share. In the direction of the underside of the Share display that follows, you’ll see the choice to Use As Ringtone.

Observe: Audio information should be shorter than 30 seconds to work as a ringtone.

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Battery Share

A small however helpful tweak to the look of iOS comes with enabling Battery Share. Whereas Apple would in all probability relatively you don’t take into consideration battery life an excessive amount of and easily fork out for one in all its newest chargers or MagSafe equipment, with the ability to hold tabs in your cellphone’s cost, or see how enabling/disabling totally different options impacts longevity is helpful.

Particularly for these of you who’ve opted for the super-slimline new iPhone Air, battery life is arguably one of the necessary facets of the cellphone’s efficiency to be monitored.

Turning on Battery Share makes it a lot clearer the place your battery life is at at a given second. As soon as enabled, relatively than a battery icon within the high proper of the display that merely reduces in measurement as you utilize your cellphone, the image may also comprise a quantity, which pertains to accessible cost remaining.

HOW? To see battery share, open Settings, scroll down and faucet on Battery, and on the following display, scroll down once more and search for the Battery Share toggle. Flip it on and also you’ll instantly see the battery icon within the high proper replace to incorporate your machine’s present cost degree.

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Set a Cost Restrict

In the event you’re the sort of iPhone proprietor who retains maintain of their machine for a number of years, you’re going to massively admire the Cost Restrict function.

The character of present Li-ion smartphone batteries is that they function finest at between roughly 20% and 80% cost, and totally depleting to 0% or charging to 100% has truly been proven to cut back battery well being over time, which means the precise quantity of cost your battery holds on to after multi cost cycles – even when it nonetheless claims to be 100% – is probably going lots much less.

To fight this, cellphone makers comparable to Apple have began added cost limiting performance to their software program expertise so as to prolong long-term battery well being.

HOW? Head to Settings, scroll right down to and faucet on Battery, after which search for Charging, in direction of the underside of the Battery display. Inside the Charging sub-menu, you’ll see a Cost Restrict slider, which most often will likely be set to 100% by default.

Drag the slider down as little as you’re snug with, understanding that the extra strict the cost restrict, the higher your battery well being will likely be over time (I’d suggest 80%).

Observe: In the event you determine you don’t need to use a Cost Restrict, at the very least make sure that Optimised Battery Charging is enabled on the identical Charging settings display. When charging your cellphone in a single day, this can restrict cost to 80% for almost all of the night time, till simply earlier than you get up and begin utilizing your machine, at which level the cellphone will proceed to fill as much as the complete 100%.

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Allow Adaptive Energy Mode

Likelihood is, you don’t have to run your iPhone at full brightness or with the chipset operating at full tilt all the time and, whereas iOS natively adjusts these facets dynamically, there’s a extra aggressive choice when your iPhone detects increased energy draw than typical.

Enabling Adaptive Energy Mode mechanically scales again issues like brightness degree, or will activate Decrease Energy Mode within the pursuit of prolonging battery life.

How? To show this function on, head to the Settings menu after which, as soon as once more, faucet on Battery. Scroll down the Battery sub-menu and the penultimate choice must be Energy Mode. Opening up the Energy Mode menu, you’ll then be offered with a trio of toggles, the highest one being Adaptive Energy. Flip this on and your iPhone will extra aggressively monitor its energy calls for towards battery longevity.

Observe: In order for you extra perception into what Adaptive Energy is doing, it’s also possible to toggle on Adaptive Energy Notifications for extra info.

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Activate Car Movement Cues

Whether or not you’re a passenger princess or the primary to name “shotgun!”, in case your cellphone use brings on movement illness when using in a automotive (or bus or boat), Movement Cues is perhaps the answer.

This accessibility function provides little dots across the edges of no matter it’s you’re taking a look at on display and, utilizing movement knowledge out of your cellphone’s varied sensors, strikes these dots in opposition to any movement you might be experiencing whereas travelling. The dots give your mind a bit one thing to latch on to, and assist cut back the sense of nausea that may come from taking a look at a cellphone display on the go.

HOW? Open the Settings app and scroll right down to Accessibility, discovered just below the Normal choice. Inside Accessibility, it’s best to see an choice known as Movement: faucet on this. Faucet Routinely in Car for it solely to provoke when your cellphone detects you’re in a transferring car, in any other case you’ll be able to swap it On or Off as you see match.

Observe: Tapping Customise Look will allow you to customise the look of the movement cue dots, by way of place, color, variety of dots and measurement of dots.

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Make Apple Intelligence… extra clever

Regardless of Apple’s ever-evolving Siri expertise and, extra lately, Apple Intelligence, the corporate’s efforts within the AI division have been… missing, in comparison with a lot of the competitors.

Actually, Apple’s had a lot bother constructing a reliable AI expertise of its personal that it’s turned to one of the outstanding gamers within the house, OpenAI; baking its assistive ChatGPT expertise into iOS and, extra particularly, Apple Intelligence.

HOW? So as to add ChatGPT search and outcomes into iOS, open Settings, scroll down and faucet on Apple Intelligence & Siri. On the following display, scroll right down to a piece known as Extensions, and it’s best to see ChatGPT as an choice. Faucet on ChatGPT, and also you’ll transfer to a different display, with the phrases Set Up subsequent to Use ChatGPT, which you have to faucet to proceed.

Faucet Subsequent on the ChatGPT pop-up display, adopted by Allow ChatGPT in direction of the underside of your display, and also you’ll then be good to go.

Observe: You don’t want a ChatGPT account or the ChatGPT app put in in your iPhone so as to use this function, however you’ll be able to log in from the identical ChatGPT sub-menu should you do have one.

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4K 60fps video by default

The iPhone 17 collection all possess impressively competent cameras, however should you’re somebody who shoots a variety of video, the out-of-box settings seize sub-par footage, with the 1080p 30fps being the default decision and body charge.

Dive into your cellphone’s Digicam settings, nonetheless, and you may enhance the seize decision to 4K (that’s 4 instances the default), in addition to upping the body charge (as much as 120fps, relying in your mannequin of iPhone).

HOW? Head into your cellphone’s Settings app, open up the Digicam sub-menu, faucet on File Video and choose 4K at 60fps, as a sure-fire means to make sure you get this decision and body charge each time you turn to video mode within the native Digicam app.

Alternatively, open the Digicam app, faucet Video on the backside of the display (when holding your cellphone in portrait) to modify to video recording mode, after which faucet the decision and body charge button within the high left of the viewfinder. You’ll see the button increase to point out assorted resolutions and body charges, which you’ll choose independently, simply by tapping on the configuration you need.

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Add a grid and degree to your digicam

In the event you’re severe about snapping footage or capturing video along with your iPhone, there are a few helpful instruments to assist with framing, which I allow on each iPhone I exploit.

Grid provides a 3×3 grid throughout the viewfinder that will help you higher body up your topic, permitting you to use established photographic ideas, just like the rule of thirds (whether or not you realise it or not).

Stage, in the meantime, acts like a spirit degree, utilizing the cellphone’s inner sensors to ascertain whether or not your cellphone’s digicam is perpendicular to the bottom and straight, serving to mitigate perspective distortion of your topic (if that’s one thing you’re making an attempt to keep away from).

In the event you’re pointing your digicam immediately down on the floor, the extent switches to a crosshair, which supplies you perception into the pitch and roll of your cellphone; permitting you to verify it’s completely parallel to the bottom, or angled offset as a lot as you want.

HOW? Open the Settings app and faucet on the Digicam sub-menu. From right here, scroll right down to the Composition part, the place it’s best to discover Grid and Stage on the high of the listing, with toggles beside every one you can faucet to allow.

Subsequent time you open your digicam, it’s best to then see each the grid and degree working as promised.

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Disable Macro Management

One of many minor annoyances I’ve with the native iPhone digicam expertise has to do with macro images. By default, whenever you convey your iPhone’s digicam near a topic (only some centimetres away), it’ll mechanically swap to Macro Mode, which includes transferring from the cellphone’s most important, to its ultrawide lens.

Whereas this swap means you will get a lot nearer to your topic, the weaker talents of the smaller ultrawide sensor in comparison with the primary digicam turn out to be evident. Photographs typically undergo from weaker dynamic vary, extra processing and a lesser depth of area.

When the cellphone switches to Macro Mode, you do have the choice to toggle again to your cellphone’s most important sensor by tapping the flower icon which seems on display, however it is a non permanent repair.

If, like me, you’re completely satisfied to take macro pictures with the primary lens from a bit additional away within the pursuit of a greater general picture, change this one function.

HOW? Open the Settings app, then scroll down and faucet on Digicam. Scroll all the best way right down to the underside of the Digicam sub-menu and some toggles up from the underside it’s best to see an choice titled Macro Management. Faucet on it to disable the auto-switch.

Observe: Disabling Macro Management means it’s a must to repeat this course of and faucet the toggle as soon as extra to re-enable any type of macro seize, which is a bit irritating and long-winded, however feels just like the lesser of two evils.