30 iOS tips to discover after unboxing your new iPhone or iPad

Every year, many iPhones end up under the tree on Christmas Eve. Many lucky people will therefore have an Apple smartphone in their hands for the new year 2025. Some of them will be connoisseurs, but for many, it will perhaps be the first slot machine.iOS 18, or even the first iPhone or iPad altogether. So to welcome newcomers to the world of iOS, here are 30 tips to try immediately for a (very) small overview of what the freshly unboxed Apple tablet or smartphone can do, whether it is a 16 model , 15, 14 or even SE, or an older one, under iOS 18 at least. We identifymore than 400 articles of tips and tutorials, you can then go further!

• Customizable lock screen:the locked screen can be personalized extensively, wallpaper, font and even widgets. See details about this inour dedicated tutorial
• Freeform :this app allows you to create plans, images, diagrams, for example, using several tools, with the possibility of even integrating links, videos into your document or sharing them with your colleagues for a advanced collaborative work
• Picture in picture:iPhone and iPad can view video in windowed mode. This allows you to follow a video while doing other things on your iOS device. The operation is very simple. After switching the video to full screen, simply return to the home screen.See the details here

• A funny shortcut on the back of the iPhone:By tapping the back of the iPhone two or three times, you can initiate an action, like turning up the volume, switching to silent mode, or even opening a shortcut. To activate the function, go toSettings >Accessibility > Touch > Touch the back of the device. And for more explanations,see here
• Widgets:these allow you to change the monotony of the home screen.We have detailed how it works here
• The app library:this pagevery specialon the Home screen is a list of all the apps installed on the iOS or iPadOS device. It has intelligent automatic storage and can also display apps hidden from other classic app pages. Don't hesitate to take a look to understand how it works and the benefits you can get from it.

• Dark mode:Dark mode can be activated manually or automatically in the “Brightness & display” section in the Settings app. It is also possible to quickly activate and deactivate it from a new shortcut in the control center
• Optimized battery charging: this “Optimized battery charging” option limits the aging of the battery during recharging. When this option is enabled, iPhone uses the user's daily charging habits to limit charging below 80% and wait until the iPhone is used again. Because beyond 80%, recharging degrades the battery cells more quickly. The setting is inSettings > Battery > Battery Status
• Clavier QuickPath: The iOS virtual keyboard allows you to quickly enter text with one hand by sliding your finger continuously over the different letters. Seehere the detailed operation of this functionality
• Connect a PlayStation or Xbox controller: it is possible to connect a PlayStation PS5 or Xbox One controller to play iOS games compatible with the controllers. Note that a large number of games from the serviceApple Arcadeare compatible with controllers
  
• Graphs to learn more about battery consumption: InSettings > Battery, it is possible to see complete graphs of the energy consumption of your device, in the last 24 hours, but also the last two days
• Hide an apps page:Do you have too many application pages? You can decide to hide one or more simply, with a long press on an app, followed by “Modify home screen” before touching the circles at the bottom of the screen
• Siri draws your portrait: Just ask Apple's virtual assistant to “Take a selfie” and it will automatically open the Photos app with FaceTime camera enabled. Enough to easily immortalize the discovery of your new device!
• When the camera serves as a magnifying glass: useful for the visually impaired, but not only that, a “Magnifying glass” mode is integrated into iOS. It allows you to zoom in significantly to make it easier to read small characters, for example. To take advantage of it, go to the device settings, in the sectionGeneral > Accessibility > Magnifier, then activate the corresponding function. Back on the home screen, press the “Home” button three times, then choose “Magnifying glass”
• Quick access to camera on locked screen: A simple swipe to the left on the locked screen takes you to the camera without even having to unlock the iPhone. To photograph faster than your shadow… or almost!
• Create a secret message in Messages: we can send messages that the interlocutor must decipher by passing their finger over them. To do this, write your message, long press on the send arrow and choose “Invisible ink”, then send
• Siri and third-party apps: Apple's voice assistant can work with third-party applications, provided they are compatible. To take advantage of this function, simply quote the name of the app in the Siri request, for example: “Hey Siri, send Hello to Jérome on WhatsApp”
• Markup Image Editing: this editing function allows you to write and draw on images and photos or to apply a zoom, in order to highlight certain details. It is available in Messages and Photos. To access it, nothing very complicated,follow the leader

• Smart searches in Photos: Photos is able to perform searches based on the object present in the photo. To test it, you must click on the small magnifying glass at the top right in any tab of the Photos app. For example, we can try the word car, so that all the photos in which there is a car are displayed. Even more impressive, just type a letter and Photos automatically suggests a wide choice of keywords
• Record screen video: it is possible very simply to start a recording of what is happening on the screen of the iPhone or iPad. You must add the “screen recording” function in the control center, by going toSettings > Control Center. Then, once you are ready to start recording, bring up the control center and press the corresponding button. To stop everything, just press the button again

• Easy and powerful screenshot: once a capture has been made (by simultaneously pressing the “Home” and “Power” buttons on iPhone 8 and older, or the buttons“Volume +” and “Power” on iPhone with Face ID) just press it. Annotations, drawings, colors, etc., everything is there to highlight certain elements of the image or directly write a comment
• The Notes app scans your documents: no need for third-party apps to scan paper documents using the Notes app. The feature is accessible via the “+” button in Apple Notes and offers automatic edge detection, manual cropping, as well as several filters to produce a grayscale, black & white or color result.See our dedicated tutorial here
• The iPhone becomes a “Measurement” instrument in Augmented Reality: taking advantage of the augmented reality capabilities of the iPhone, this app allows you toperform measurements of real objectsthanks to a virtual meter
• How to use the side keyboard: this function makes it easier to reach certain letters at the other end of the screen, especially on large iPhones or simply for small hands. To take advantage of it, when the keyboard is displayed, simply click on the keyboard change icon to the left of that of the microphone and choose the left or right orientation

• Drag and drop: this is a feature seen on Mac and PC and welcome on iPad and iPhone. It is in fact possible to perform drag and drop commands, for example, to drag a photo seen on Safari into an email, or to drag a piece of text seen in an email to a new note, etc.
• Long press on the “Reader” button in Safari: on the left in the Safari address bar is the button allowing you to switch to reader mode. This mode displays, for example, only the text and images of an article. A long press on this button allows you to use reader mode, either for the currently open site or on all subsequently visited websites
• Network settings shortcut: by long-pressing the settings app icon, you have quick access to the wireless, Blutooth, Wi-Fi and 3G-4G connectivity settings, the same by clicking with a long or stronger press on the Wi-Fi icon in Control Center
• Create your Memoji (iPhone with Face ID): evolution of Animojis, Memojis are in fact the customizable alter egos of animated figures. These are avatars that the user can create, modify and adapt according to the features and characteristics of their own face. It is obviously possible to create a completely offbeat Memoji without any link to an existing person. The avatar thus created will then be able to come to life by detecting and following the face, eyes, mouth and even tongue of the person using the iPhone, thanks to its special Face ID camera. To create your own animated man, go to the messages and choose Emoji, the creation of Animojis is then proposed (“+” sign otherwise)
• Portrait mode: the sensors of these iPhones allow, like the human eye, to measure the depth of what they “see”. This translates in photos into an effect of blurring the background and highlighting the foreground. To use this mode, you must select “Portrait” in the iOS shooting application

• Code Wi-Fi visible :under iOS and iPadOS 16, you can easily find the code of the Wi-Fi network to which you are connected in the settings, likeexplained in our columns
• Easy clipping of an object in a photo:very simply cut out an object seen in a photo with a long press to paste it anywhere, in a new image, an email or a note, for example
• Translation from camera:target a text with the iPhone camera, tap the text selection icon at the bottom right then select the text and tap Translate in the menu that appears on the screen. You are now multilingual

There you have it, you have certainly tamed your new iPhone or iPad a little and learned some techniques to impress the gallery. Now it's time to really get our hands dirty and see what iOS really has in store.

The latest information about iOScan be found here.

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.