Most of us use the same handful of iPhone features every day and never open the rest of the Settings app. You don’t need new apps to get more out of the phone. These seven features are already on it, mostly tucked away in Accessibility, and each takes under a minute to set up.
The paths below are from recent versions of iOS. If a menu looks slightly different on your phone, type the feature’s name into the search bar at the top of Settings.
1. Back Tap: turn the back of the phone into a button
You can make a double or triple tap on the back of the iPhone do something: take a screenshot, switch on the torch, open the camera, mute the sound, or run a shortcut.
Where: Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Pick Double Tap or Triple Tap and choose an action. It works through most cases.
2. Scan documents with the Notes app
Notes has a proper document scanner built in. It finds the edges of the page, straightens it, and saves a clean PDF.
How: open a note, tap the paperclip (attachments) button above the keyboard, and choose Scan Documents. Hold the phone over the page and it captures automatically. Keep going to add more pages to the same PDF, then share it or save it to Files.
3. Drag and drop between apps
You can carry a photo, a block of text or a link from one app to another with your fingers.
How: press and hold a photo in Photos until it lifts off the screen. Keep holding it, and with another finger swipe up to go home or switch apps. Open Messages or Mail and let go over the message box. To move several photos at once, tap more of them with your other finger while you’re holding the first.
4. Live Captions for any audio
Live Captions shows real-time captions for whatever is playing: a video without subtitles, a podcast, a phone call or a FaceTime. The transcription happens on the phone itself.
Where: Settings > Accessibility > Live Captions. A small floating panel appears that you can move, shrink or pause. It’s available in a growing list of languages and countries, so it may not appear on every phone.
5. Background Sounds to help you focus
The iPhone has a built-in noise machine with sounds like rain, ocean, stream and balanced noise. It can keep playing quietly under other audio, which helps in a noisy office or on public transport.
Where: Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds. Add the Hearing control to Control Center to switch it on and off quickly.
6. Announce Notifications through your headphones
With AirPods or compatible Beats headphones in, Siri can read new messages and notifications out loud, and you can reply by voice without picking up the phone.
Where: Settings > Notifications > Announce Notifications. Choose which apps get announced so it doesn’t read out every alert.
7. Sound Recognition alerts
Your iPhone can listen for specific sounds, such as a smoke alarm, a doorbell, a baby crying, a dog barking or running water, and send you a notification when it hears one. That’s useful when you’re wearing headphones in another room.
Where: Settings > Accessibility > Sound Recognition. Turn it on and pick the sounds. You can also train it to recognise your own doorbell or appliance beep.
Don’t rely on Sound Recognition as your only smoke alarm alert. Apple says it shouldn’t be used where you could be harmed or in emergencies.
