With each update, Apple seems to quietly add hundreds of highly impactful but often overlooked features and settings. These aren’t big highlights, but small features that once you know about them will make your daily life a lot easier. Here are 15 features and settings every iPhone owner should know, but probably don’t.
To see all of this (and more) in action, be sure to check out the video below.
1. Blur faces, license plates, etc. in the Photos app
Apple introduced a cleanup feature in the Photos app in iOS 18. This feature was touted as a way to remove unwanted objects and people directly from images within the Photos app. However, one of the byproducts of this feature is that it is also built to hide sensitive information. You can now blur or pixelate faces, license plates, credit card numbers, and more. Here’s how:
- Open the Photos app and select an image
- Tap “Edit”
- Select cleanup
- Prepare the image for cleanup
- Circle your face or license plate to instantly blur it
- Tap Done to save
2. Change how incoming calls are displayed
There are several options for how to view incoming calls on your iPhone. For years, the default was one main view that took up the entire screen. Therefore, if you wanted to do anything while it was ringing, it was impossible. Apple is finally giving us a choice. So if you just need a small dropdown while your phone is ringing, you can use that and it won’t interrupt what you’re currently doing.
- Open settings
- Go to Apps → Phone
- Tap “Incoming call”
- Choose Banner or Full Screen
In this way, the problem was resolved.
3. Stop changing ringer volume using volume buttons
By default, the physical volume buttons control both media and ringer volume. This may be frustrating if you primarily watch videos or listen to podcasts. This is one of the most annoying default settings. Here we will show you how to change the volume buttons so that they only change the media volume and not the ringer volume.
- Open settings
- Go to Sound and Haptics
- Toggle changes by turning off the button
- Volume buttons now control media only
Have you ever dealt with this problem?
4. Manually control macro mode
I’m actually a big fan of the new iPhone’s macro camera. Capture truly unique images that cannot be captured with regular camera modes. However, if you bring your iPhone’s camera close to a subject to capture the natural blur from the main sensor, it may automatically switch to macro mode, which can ruin the photo you’re trying to take. Raise your hand if this happens to you! The good news is that you can turn this off in settings.
- Open settings
- go to camera
- Tap “Macro Control”
- When turned on, a flower icon will appear for manual control
- Turn off to let iOS handle it automatically
5. Share your podcast from the moment you listen to it
Podcasts apps are continually improving with each update. Apple seems to be putting a lot of effort into making its podcast app more accessible to people than its competitors. One feature that was missing was the ability to share specific moments from a podcast episode. Podcasts are now much longer and cover a variety of subjects. So if you have a short 5-minute section that you want to share with a friend, you can now do it directly from your podcast app. Here’s how:
- Open the podcast app
- play episode
- Tap the caption button in the bottom left corner
- Long press on any line in the transcript
- Tap “Share”
- Send it to someone and it will jump instantly
final thoughts
As I mentioned at the beginning, Apple has added a lot of really useful iOS features. Still, the problem is that many of them are buried in settings or introduced quietly in iOS updates and aren’t really explained. Therefore, these features are rarely used. My goal is to highlight a few of them to help you become more aware of everything you can do with your iPhone. We’ve just scratched the surface here.
Let us know what you think. Are there any features we’ve seen here that are worth trying out? Check out our video that explains all these features and more.
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