iPhone Tips & Tricks: The Hidden Features Most iOS Users Never Find

Back Tap and the Action Button — Two Features Worth Setting Up Today

Back Tap is one of the best-kept secrets in iOS and works on every iPhone since the iPhone 8. Open Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap and assign a double-tap or triple-tap on the back glass to any system action — screenshot, flashlight, magnifier, scroll down, or a Siri Shortcut. Once you set it up, it feels like a hidden button the phone has always had. Double-tap the back for a screenshot with no thumb gymnastics, or triple-tap to open the magnifier when you're squinting at small text. Because it uses the accelerometer to detect taps on the glass, it works even through most cases.

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16, the Action Button on the left side can be configured in Settings > Action Button. Most people leave it on the Silent/Ring toggle, which is reasonable — but you can assign it to a Siri Shortcut instead, and that's where it becomes genuinely powerful. One press of the Action Button can start a workout log, toggle your Wi-Fi, open your camera to video mode, or trigger any multi-step automation you've built in Shortcuts. The button does whatever you need it to do. Apple's default is just a guess at what that might be.

Focus Modes Are Not Just Do Not Disturb

Focus Modes arrived with iOS 15 and most users set up one Sleep mode and forget the feature exists. That's leaving a lot on the table. Open Settings > Focus and build a Work mode that silences everyone except your closest colleagues, hides social media apps from your home screen, and shows a focused lock screen with just your calendar and task widgets. Build a Personal mode that goes into effect at 6 PM and mutes work notifications until morning. The key insight is that each Focus Mode can have its own linked home screen and lock screen, which means your phone literally looks different depending on what mode is active — a clean, minimal layout for work and a relaxed one for evenings. This alone does more to reduce phone-driven distraction than any screen time limit you could set.

Siri Shortcuts for One-Tap Automation

Siri Shortcuts has existed since iOS 12 and remains the most underused feature in iOS. At its simplest, it lets you build one-tap workflows that chain multiple actions together. A "Commute Home" shortcut can send your ETA to a contact, switch on your Driving Focus Mode, and open Maps to your home address all at once — from a single tap on your home screen or a press of the Action Button. Open the Shortcuts app, browse the Gallery for inspiration, and start with automations that trigger automatically: arriving at a location, connecting to your home Wi-Fi, or opening a specific app. The learning curve is gentle because each Shortcut is just an ordered list of steps, and you don't need any coding knowledge to build ones that save meaningful time every day.

The Battery Drain Fix Most People Never Find

If your battery doesn't make it through the day, the most likely culprit isn't screen time — it's Background App Refresh. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn it off for every app that doesn't genuinely need to update behind the scenes. Social apps are the main offenders: they constantly poll for new content even when you're not looking at them. Turning off Background App Refresh for your five most-used social apps can add an hour or more of real-world battery life without changing how you use those apps. Pair this with enabling Optimized Battery Charging in Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging. This feature learns your daily charging schedule and holds the battery at 80% until just before you typically unplug, which dramatically slows long-term battery degradation. Most users have never looked at either setting. Both take under two minutes to configure.