Live Photos and Apple Pay, iOS is stuffed
with attention-getting features that grab
headlines and demand rounds of applause at
Apple keynotes. But some of iOS’s most
useful features are, in fact, the oldest ones.
They’re easily overlooked, particularly by
new iPhone and iPad users.
Read on for 10 basic iOS features that every
iPhone owner should know, like how to take
a screenshot, the ability to long-press your
way to draft Mail messages, a physical
button that doubles as the Camera app’s
shutter release, and more.
1.Take a screenshot
One of the oldest iOS features around also
happens to be one of the most powerful: the
ability to quickly snap a photo of whatever’s
on your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) screen. It’s
handy for everything from documenting
buggy iOS apps to quickly sharing a text
message thread with a friend.
To find your iPhone screenshots, open the
Photos app, then navigate to the
Screenshots album.
To take a screenshot, just press the Sleep/
Wake and Home buttons at the same time;
when you do, the screen will flash and you’ll
hear a telltale camera snap. You’ll find your
screenshot sitting in the iOS Photos app’s
Screenshots album or in your Camera Roll.
From there, you can share it by tapping the
Action button (the square button with the
upward arrow).
2.Unfreeze a frozen iPhone
Every once in awhile, your iPhone may come
to a grinding halt, perhaps because of an
errant app, or maybe iOS itself has wandered
into a corner that it can’t get itself out of.
“Force resetting” your iPhone or iPad is a
good way to unfreeze a frozen app or iOS
device.
Generally speaking, quitting a frozen app (by
double-clicking the Home button, then
swiping up on the app’s multitasking card) is
enough to fix the problem. You could also
try a standard restart (press and hold the
Sleep/Wake button until the “slide to power
off” slider appears).
But if an app remains stubbornly stuck—or,
worse still, if iOS becomes completely locked
up—there’s another way to get things
moving again: by force restarting your
iPhone (a.k.a., a “hard” reset).
On pre-iPhone 7 models: Press the Sleep/
Wake and Home buttons—but instead of
letting them go immediately as you would
when taking a screenshot, keep holding them
until the screen goes blank. In a moment or
so, you should see the Apple logo, a sure
sign that your iPhone (or iPad) is rebooting
itself.
On iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and
hold the Sleep/Wake and volume-down
buttons until you see the Apple logo.
3.Take a picture with volume
buttons
Keeping your iPhone steady while snapping a
photo can be tricky when you’re trying to tap
the shutter-release button on the slippery
touchscreen.
Having a hard time with the iPhone’s on-
screen shutter release? Try snapping
pictures with the volume button instead.
If you miss the feeling of a physical shutter
release, here’s a tip: pressing either of your
iPhone’s volume buttons will also take a
picture, handy for snapping photos while
holding your iPhone firmly in both hands.
4.Silence the incoming call ringer
Whenever you duck an incoming call by
tapping the Decline button or double-clicking
the Sleep/Wake button, you send the caller
straight to voicemail. That might be fine if
you’re declining an unknown or spam caller,
but you might want to think twice before
sending your touchy boss directly to
voicemail purgatory.
Instead of tapping the “Decline” button, you
can single-press the Sleep/Wake button to
silence the ringer without sending your caller
immediately to voicemail.
Instead, try clicking the Sleep/Wake button
once instead of twice. Doing so will silence
the ringer without sending the caller straight
to voicemail. After a few rings, they’ll roll
naturally to voicemail, just as if you were
simply unavailable to take the call rather
than declining the call outright.
5.Type in all-caps
Nope, there’s not a separate Caps Lock
button on the stock iOS keypad, but there’s
still an easy way to type in all-caps mode:
just double-tap the Shift key.
Want to say it in ALL CAPS? Just double-tap
the iPhone’s shift key.
When you do, the Shift button will turn bold,
and you’ll see a little underline just beneath
the arrow. To go back to standard typing
mode, double-tap the Shift key again.
6.Type characters with accent
marks
Just because you don’t see any accent
marks in the stock iOS keyboard doesn’t
mean they’re not there.
Just tap and hold a letter key on the stock
iOS keyboard to see all the available accent
marks.
To type, for example, “voilà” instead of
“voila,” tap and hold the “a” key. When you
do, a pop-up with a series of accents will
appear, everything from acute and grave to
circumflex and umlaut. Slide your fingertip to
the accent mark you want to type, then
release.
7. Shake to undo
When you’re tapping out a message but have
a sudden change of heart about how to
phrase your thought, there’s an easier way
to start over besides tapping the Backspace
button over and over.
The next time you make a type in a text
message, just shake your iPhone rather than
tapping the Backspace key.
Instead, just shake your iPhone; when you
do, an Undo Typing pop-up will appear. Tap
the Undo button to undo what you just
typed. To redo the typing you just undid,
shake your iPhone again.
8. Jump directly to your draft Mail
messages
If you tap Cancel while composing a new
Mail message, you’ll get the option to save
the unfinished message as a draft. All well
and good, but retrieving a saved draft
message the regular way—that is, by tapping
the Mailboxes button and navigating to the
Drafts directory—can be a royal pain,
particularly if you’re using multiple email
accounts on the iOS Mail app.
You’re just a long-press away from all your
iOS Mail draft messages.
Luckily, there’s a handy but hidden shortcut
that will take you to all your Draft messages,
regardless of which account you created
them in: just tap and hold the Compose
button. To continue a draft message, tap to
open it, or swipe to delete it.
9. Create an event directly from a
Mail message
If you receive, say, an invitation to lunch via
email, there’s no need to memorize the date
and time and plug them into a new Calendar
event.
You can create Calendar events from
directly within an iOS Mail message.
One of Mail’s handiest features is its ability
to detect dates and times within a message.
Mail will underline the date within the body
of the message, and it will also put an
“Event found” banner at the top of the
screen.
Tap the underlined date (or just tap the
“Event found banner”), then tap Create
Event. When you do, a new calendar event
will slide into view, with the date and time
already filled in. Just fill in any additional
details, then tap Add.
10. Put a website shortcut on your
home screen
If there’s a site that you’re constantly
visiting on your iPhone, you can create an
icon for the site and pin it to your home
screen. Once you’ve created the icon, it will
act just like a standard app icon, meaning
you can tap and hold it to rearrange it on
your home screen, tuck it into an app folder,
or even put it into the app dock.
Does your favorite website deserve more
than just a bookmark? Go ahead and pin it to
your iPhone’s home screen.
Just visit a site in Safari for iOS, tap the
Action button (the square one with the
upward arrow), then tap Add to Home
Screen. You’ll have a chance to rename the
icon before you pin it to the home screen.
