iOS10 has a lot of flashy bits. Siri has been applied to virtually everything. Messages is now basically Snapchat. Underneath the flash, though, there’s plenty of genuinely useful stuff. But, Apple being Apple, it doesn’t really tell you about the basic day-to-day handy stuff in iOS that you’ll actually, y’know, use. So here’s a guide to some of the more useful touches.
Better Camera Tools
First of all, if you want a quick snapshot without unlocking your phone, just swipe left on the lockscreen. That’ll pop open the camera, although you can’t get at your galleries, and of course you can tweak this in the Settings menu. Siri also has a useful feature for selfie-takers. Ask it to take a selfie and it’ll open the front-facing camera for you. It won’t actually take the picture, but it’s a bit more convenient.
Car Locator
The first thing most people likely did when they got the iPhone 7 was download Google Maps, but Apple has given its rival app a new automatic feature that helps you find where you parked. When you stop driving, Apple Maps detects it automatically and drops a pin for you. So if you’re lost in the parking lot, pop open Apple Maps and you can find your way.
Shut Off Read Receipts In Conversations
Read receipts can be both a blessing and a curse. They’re a good way to know somebody got an urgent message, but, conversely, we’ve all had that awkward moment where somebody asks why it took you so long to reply to their message. If you’ve got somebody you’re talking to you’d rather not have that conversation with, tap the “i” at the bottom of the message, and you can shut off read receipts for that conversation alone.
Notification Alerts Let You Multitask
One of the more useful and weirdly undiscussed features is that if you’re in one app, and a notification for another app pops up, you can drag down on that notification and open a quick reply screen without swapping out apps. It’s especially useful for replying to texts while doing something else on your phone.
Text Multilingually
This one is buried a bit deep, but if you text in more than one language, it’s worth it. Go to Settings –> General –> Dictionary and select the languages you need, and then go to Keyboards, under General, and check off the keyboards you need as well. Now when you text, iOS10 will look at all the keyboards you have selected and revise your texts accordingly.
Tweak The Home Button
Some people don’t like pressing the Home button, or think it’s too twitchy when double clicking. Fortunately, that’s an easy fix: Go to Settings –> General –> Accessibility –> Home Button, and you can tweak the speed of a double click and whether you press Home or rest your finger on it to unlock your iPhone.
Adjust The Flashlight
The flashlight is a useful tool for finding your keys in a movie theater or quickly checking something, but it can also be a bit glaring. Fortunately, if you hit the Control Center, and hard-press on the flashlight, you now have three brightnesses to choose from.