Apple’s software design strives to be intuitive, but each iteration of iOS contains so many additions and tweaks that it’s easy to miss some useful iPhone settings. Apple focused on artificial intelligence when it unveiled iOS 18 in 2024, but there’s a lot under the hood that adds to the steady stream of intriguing customizations and lesser-known features from the last few years. Several helpful settings are turned off by default, and it’s not immediately obvious how to switch off some annoying features. We’re here to help you get the most out of your Apple phone.
Once you have things set up the way you want, it’s a breeze to copy everything, including settings, when you switch to a new iPhone. For more tips and recommendations, read our related guides—Best iPhone, Best iPhone 16 Cases, Best MagSafe Accessories—and our explainers on How to Set Up a New iPhone, How to Back Up Your iPhone, and How to Fix Your iPhone.
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Customize the Control Center
Screenshots courtesy of Simon Hill
Swipe down from the top right of the screen to open the Control Center, and you’ll see it’s more customizable than ever. You can tap the plus icon at the top left or tap and hold on an empty space to open the customization menu. Here you can move icons and widgets around, remove anything you don’t want, or tap Add a Control at the bottom for a searchable list of shortcut icons and widgets you can organize across multiple Control Center screens. You can also customize your home screen with iOS 18 to change the color and size of app icons, rearrange them, and more.
Change Your Lock Screen Buttons
You know those lock screen controls that default to flashlight on the bottom left and camera on the bottom right? You can change them. Press and hold on an empty space on the lock screen and tap Customize, then Lock Screen. Tap the minus icon to remove an existing shortcut, and tap the plus icon to add a new one. You can also change the weather and date widgets, the font and color for the time, and pick a wallpaper.
Extend Screen Time-Out
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While it’s good to have your screen time out for battery saving and security purposes, I find it maddening when the screen goes off while I’m doing something. The default screen time-out is too short in my opinion, but thankfully, you can adjust it. Head into Settings, Display & Brightness, and select Auto-Lock to extend it. You have several options, including Never, which means you will have to manually push the power button to turn the screen off.
Turn Off Keyboard Sounds
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The iPhone’s keyboard clicking sound when you type is extremely aggravating. Trust me, even if you don’t hate it, everyone in your vicinity when you type sure does. You can turn it off in Settings, Sound & Haptics by tapping Keyboard Feedback and toggling Sound off. I also advise toggling off the Lock Sound while you’re in Sound & Haptics.
Go Dark
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Protect yourself from eye-searing glare with dark mode. Go to Settings, pick Display & Brightness, and tap Dark. You may prefer to toggle on Automatic and have it change with the sun setting, but I prefer to be in Dark mode all the time.
Change Your Battery Charge Level
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If you’re determined to squeeze as many years out of your iPhone battery as possible, consider changing the charging limit. You can maximize your smartphone’s battery health if you avoid charging it beyond 80 percent. The iPhone’s default is now Optimized Battery Charging, which waits at 80 percent and then aims to hit 100 percent when you are ready to go in the morning. But there’s a slider you can set to a hard 80 percent limit in Settings, under Battery, and Charging.
Set Up the Action Button
Folks with an iPhone 15 Pro model or any device in the iPhone 16 range have an Action Button instead of the old mute switch. By default, it will silence your iPhone when you press and hold it, but you can change what it does by going to Settings, then Action Button. You can swipe through various basic options from Camera and Flashlight to Visual Intelligence, but select Shortcuts if you want it to do something more interesting. If you’re unfamiliar, check out our guide on How to Use the Apple Shortcuts App.
Turn Off Apple Intelligence
Much vaunted but slightly underwhelming, Apple Intelligence isn’t fully baked yet, and we are still waiting for an improved Siri. If you prefer to opt out of certain features or opt out completely, go to Settings, Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap on it to toggle Apple Intelligence off. If you prefer to keep select features on, you can find instructions in our How to Turn off Apple Intelligence guide.
Hide Sensitive Apps
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Whether you are embarrassed by your Candy Crush addiction or risque photos, or perhaps you’ve been using the Notes app to plan your partner’s birthday party, you can hide them from prying eyes. I’m not here to judge. To protect an app, you have two options: tap and hold on the icon and select Require Face ID, then Require Face ID or Hide and Require Face ID. The first option leaves the app in place, but no one can access it without a Face ID check. If you prefer to hide the app, choose the second option and then Hide App, and it will be obscured inside a Hidden folder at the bottom of your App Library that requires a Face ID check to open.
Stop Videos Autoplaying or Looping
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If you find it irritating that videos automatically play as you scroll through the Photos app, or it bugs you that they loop and repeat instead of stopping at the end, you can change that behavior. Tap Settings, Apps, then Photos, and scroll down to toggle Auto-Play Motion and Loop Videos off.
Enhance Speech in Movies and TV Shows
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It can be tough to make out the dialog in some TV shows and movies, but Apple has a fix for muffled speech on your iPhone. When you’re playing a video, tap the screen to bring up the menu and select the audio icon. You can select Enhance Dialogue and choose Enhance or Enhance More to make the voices louder and clearer.
Set Up Do Not Disturb
At an absolute minimum, you should shut up your iPhone at night so it doesn’t disturb your sleep, but Apple offers a wide range of tools to automate or schedule downtime to help you focus. Go to Settings, Focus, and choose Do Not Disturb to get started. You can turn off notifications but set up exceptions so that specific contacts or apps will get through. You can also go to Screen Time and Downtime to set a specific schedule for each day.
Change Your Default Apps
You don’t have to use Safari as your browser or Apple’s Mail app for emails. You can change the default apps on your iPhone by going to Settings, Apps, and Default Apps. If you have valid alternative apps installed for Email, Messaging, Browser, and a few other categories, you can select them instead of Apple’s apps.
Keep iCloud Files Local
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You can choose to keep certain files that you have synced with iCloud stored locally on your iPhone, which is handy if you want to access them when there’s no internet available. Open the Files app, go to the Browse tab, and choose iCloud Drive. You can tap and hold on any folder or file and select Keep Downloaded to keep a copy on your iPhone.
Limit App Permissions
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It’s worth reviewing your app permissions and limiting them. There are a few routes to do this, but Settings, then Privacy & Security, might be the easiest. There’s a lot here, but I advise looking at Location Services and removing or reducing permissions for apps you don’t think need them. You can toggle off Precise Location for many, since an approximate location is often enough for them to function the way you want. Other apps to keep an eye on are Contacts and Photos, as both now give you the option to allow limited access.
By the way, if you want to turn off Background App Refresh to stop apps sucking down data and draining the battery when you aren’t using them, go to Settings, Apps, and choose any you don’t need to refresh unless you open them to toggle it off.
Change Siri’s Voice
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Apple offers a whole range of voices for Siri now. Go to Settings, choose Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap Voice to see a list of variations (American, Australian, British, Indian, Irish, South African) and voices (Irish Voice 2 is my pick). Just be aware that if you choose a new one, it may take a while to download.
Set a Shortcut for Your Email Address
Forget about typing out your whole email address every time. Go to Settings, General, and choose Keyboard. Tap Text Replacement and then the plus icon at the top right to set up text shortcuts, such as “eml” for your full email address, or “addy” for your mailing address. This can also work for any other text you type out frequently.
Show Notifications on Lock Screen
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Apple is all about privacy, but having to unlock your iPhone to see the content of an incoming message can be annoying. You can change how this works by going to Settings, Notifications, and selecting Show Previews. It is set to When Unlocked by default, but you can choose Always or Never.
Make Some AI Art
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If you decide to give AI a chance and fancy generating some art with AI assistance, open up the Playground app. You can pick photos, themes, costumes, accessories, places, or type prompts. Here’s a full guide on how to use Apple’s Image Playground. It’s available on Apple devices running iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, or macOS Sequoia 15.2.
Reduce Car Sickness
Do you get nauseous when you use your iPhone as a car passenger? Go to Settings, Accessibility, choose Motion, then Show Vehicle Motion Cues. You can turn it on or off to display dots that help reduce motion sickness, but if you tap Automatic, it will turn on when it detects you are in the car.
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