If you’re new to the iPhone then you certainly could use this post, but even if you upgraded from the 5 or 6 then there are some significantly different features that you probably didn’t even know you could do. With the addition of 3D touch, no real home button anymore and other small features there’s more change than you could possibly every figure out through trial and error. While you won’t ever use all of these tips and tricks, they’re good to know for saving time and also just because sometimes it’s just fun to play with your new toy.
3D Touch
If you had the iPhone 6 you’re probably familiar with 3D touch already, but the 7 has some new features that the 6 didn’t have. For example, press hard on the message icon to send a quick text to more popular contacts, or push down on the calendar to add an event super quickly. You can even use it for setting a quick timer for 1 minute, 5 minutes, 20 minutes and an hour, as well as adjust the intensity of the flashlight by pressing down and choosing low, medium or bright light.
Bring Up All The Apps
In the past, if you wanted to go to the app managing screen you would press the home button twice and up it would come, but now there’s a faster and arguably more fun way to do it. Press down like you would on 3D touch on the left side of the screen and swipe upward and across. This will bring up the same screen and although it takes a bit of practice, can actually be a quicker way to access it.
Change Home Button
Although the Home button is no longer a button, it still has a small vibration when you press it to acknowledge it’s received your request to unlock the phone. However, what you may not know is that you can actually change how that button feels from three given options.
To try them out you go to settings > general > Home Button and from there select which of the three haptics you prefer.
Force Restart
Before if you wanted to force restart your iPhone you would hold down the Home button and the lock button. Now, while that still works, it’s a bit harder since the Home button is no longer an actual button. Instead, hold down the lock button and the volume down to force the restart—much easier.
Raise To Wake
The system on the new iPhone 7 is much faster, which means if you click the home button and immediately take your finger away it will still unlock. This can be annoying when you only want to check the time, so instead opt for the raise to wake option. This can be found in settings > display and brightness > raise to wake. This means when you simply pick up your phone it will light up the lock screen.
The iPhone 7 has so many amazing features and you could spend weeks figuring it all out, but these few tips and tricks should tide you over for now.
