With included documentation as sparse as Apple's, there are plenty of them...
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For reference, all useful answers from the previous Super User question Hidden features of the iPhone (now deleted) have been copied to this question.– GnoupiCommented Jul 29, 2010 at 20:51
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A lot of these answers are documented: apple.com/iphone/tips– JBRWilkinsonCommented Nov 11, 2010 at 11:47
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45 Answers
When using the keyboard, if you tap the 123 button, and slide your finger (without lifting it) to any number or punctuation symbol, when you lift your finger the keyboard will return to the alphabetic keyboard automatically. One less tap!
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14The same is true for the shift key; press-slide-release instead of tap-tap to get an uppercase letter. Commented Aug 6, 2010 at 19:46
Really, really hidden features that will only appear if you chant the correct spells:
Dial :
**3001#12345#* *
to bring up the spirit of iPhone's Field Test mode (this is different from the DFU mode familair to jailbreakers), which will give you information about towers and signal strength, 3G/EDGE network and much more info which no mortal would ever need.
*#06#
will display your IMEI. No need to tap Call.
And some spells that only works in AT&T land:
*777# and tap Call. Account balance for prepaid iPhone.
*225# and tap Call. Bill Balance. (Postpaid only)
*646# and tap Call. Check minutes. (Postpaid only)
And a few more enchantments related to call forwarding :
*#21# and tap Call. Setting interrogation for call forwards.
Discover the settings for your call forwarding. You'll see whether you have voice, data, fax, sms, sync, async, packet access, and pad access call forwarding enabled or disabled.
And lots and lots of other spells for all occassions, phew...
*#30# and tap Call.
Calling line presentation check.
This displays whether you have enabled or disabled the presentation of the calling line, presumably the number of the party placing the call.
*#76# and tap Call.
Check whether the connected line presentation is enabled or not.
State whether the connected line presentation is enabled or disabled. Presumably similar to the calling line presentation.
*#43# and tap Call.
Determine if call waiting is enabled.
Displays call waiting status for voice, data, fax, sms, sync data, async data, packet access and pad access. Each item is either enabled or disabled.
*#61# and tap Call.
Check the number for unanswered calls.
Show the number for voice call forwarding when a call is unanswered. Also show the options for data, fax, sms, sync, async, packet access and pad access.
*#62# and tap Call.
Check the number for call forwarding if no service is available.
Just like the previous, except for no-service rather than no-answer situations.
*#67# and tap Call.
Check the number for call forwarding when the iPhone is busy.
And again, but for when the iPhone is busy.
*#33# and tap Call.
Check for call control bars.
Check all the usual suspects (voice, data, fax, sms, etc) to see whether barring is enabled or disabled for outgoing.
originally submitted by GeneQ on Super User.
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3You can't access the Field Test Mode in iOS4.– Mark RobinsonCommented Aug 4, 2010 at 15:37
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5You can't in 4.0. You can in 4.1 (barely meaningfully). You can in 4.2. Commented Nov 10, 2010 at 18:39
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Clicking the home button and power button will capture your screen and put it on your Photo Albums
Scenario: You are trying to take a picture of yourself (and perhaps a friend), so you have the phone turned around, and you cant seem to hit the "shutter" button to take a picture.
Tip: Hold your finger on the "shutter" button, turn the phone around, and when you are ready to take a picture remove your finger. The picture will be taken when you remove your finger. This is much easier than the "old" approach.
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4Nice trick, +1. Btw: in iOS 5, you can use the volume-up-button to take a picture. Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 7:59
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1In iOS 8 and above, holding your finger on the shutter triggers burst mode, so you will need to use the volume buttons instead. Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 17:29
Special characters on the keyboard.
- Hold down E, Y, U, I, O, A, S, L, Z, C, or N to bring up accented letters
- Hold down $ in the number/symbol keyboard to display other currency symbols
- Hold down “ or ‘ in the number/symbol keyboard to access alternative quote characters
- Hold down ? or ! in the number/symbol keyboard to bring up the ¿ or ¡ symbol
- Hold down the .com key when entering Web addresses to bring up options for .net, .edu and .org. (You can also do this trick when entering email addresses in Mail by tapping and holding the . (period) key.)
(from http://mac.elated.com/2009/01/05/15-secret-iphone-tips-and-tricks/ )
originally submitted by Herb Caudill on Super User.
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7holding down the .com key will also display country-specific extensions for your locale e.g. .co.uk– Rich SellerCommented Jul 29, 2010 at 23:14
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Although it seems quicker just to type .com than wait for the hover selector to appear. Commented Nov 12, 2010 at 0:20
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Is is only hidden for people that don't have any umlauts (americans etc.). For everybody else, this is day to day business... Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 7:58
Tapping the status bar will almost always bring you to the top of the scroll view.
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2It's not necessarily a iPhone feature; it's more of a feature that many applications have, right?– Maxim ZaslavskyCommented Jul 15, 2010 at 17:40
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10Actually, it is built in to the standard table-view control provided by iOS, so developers don't have to do anything special to make it happen. Thus, practically any application that has a "scrolling list" will have this feature, unless the developer really screwed up.– Kristopher JohnsonCommented Jul 18, 2010 at 22:01
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3@Kristopher Johnson, not "table-view" but any scroll view.– user235Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 21:45
Go to Settings->General->Keyboard, and turn on Enable Caps Lock. When typing the shift key will still behave as before, but now you will have the option to double-tap it to turn on Caps-Lock (shift key will turn blue). Useful for acronyms, and shouting.
originally submitted by jwaddell on Super User.
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1+1: I love this tip - I had my phone for almost a year before I realized it was there! Commented Sep 21, 2010 at 15:37
Since the screen is multitouch, you can hold the Shift key while typing other keys to type them in uppercase (just like a real keyboard).
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2double tapping shift leaves it active to save you a bit of RSI– Rich SellerCommented Aug 6, 2010 at 18:10
If you hold your finger down on a link in Safari then you can open the linked page in a new "tab".
originally submitted by John Topley on Super User.
You can play videos even when the phone is locked.
Sometimes I listen to video podcasts, where all I am interested in is the audio. When doing this, if you lock the phone the podcast stops playing.
However, you can start the podcast playing again even with the phone locked. Just double press the home key to bring up the iPod controls and then press play.
originally submitted by andynormancx on Super User.
Everyone knows about pinch to zoom in/out on Google Maps. Many people know that they can double-tap to zoom in. Did you know that you can do two-finger-tap to zoom out? So useful when driving with iPhone mounted on dash.
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12-finger tap on maps to zoom out. I do mean 2. 3-finger tap doesn't do anything on maps on my iPhone. Commented Aug 7, 2010 at 19:16
Since the 3GS, you can use the headphones remote button to stop/start video recording
In 3.0, you can hold down the hyphen key on the keyboard to get an em dash character. Similarly hold down the period to get an ellipsis. You can also hold down keys such as "a" or "e" to get accented versions of those letters.
originally submitted by John Topley on Super User.
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The bonus of using this method to get your ellipsis is that it does not autocapitalize after it. Try typing 3 periods and you get it followed by a Cap if you have autocap enabled.– Kelly HCommented Apr 28, 2011 at 17:14
Double clicking the home button in iOS4 shows a custom task bar with your recently used and still running multi-tasked apps. Click and hold to close them one by one.
Also shows the iPod controls as before.
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Not on my iPhone. Double-home goes to phone favourites, or iPod controls if it's playing. Pressing home once when you're already on the home screen goes to the search page. There is a jailbreak app that puts recent apps on the search page, I have no idea what it's called (even though I'm running it).– EltarielCommented Jul 15, 2010 at 12:19
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This is an iOS4 feature– Ken PespisaCommented Jul 15, 2010 at 14:01
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It is iOS4, edited my answer to reflect - gimme back that vote ;) Commented Jul 18, 2010 at 16:15
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1Also, these apps aren't always 'still running', they just have their states saved in memory. Commented Nov 10, 2010 at 13:43
In 3.0, you can adjust the scrubbing speed through a song by touching the scrubbing slider, then moving your finger down on the screen. Different distances from the scrubbing bar mean different (slower) scrubbing speeds.
While it's not exactly private browsing, you can clear your Safari history, cookies, and cache from the Settings application in the Safari menu.
The Home button (when pressed in the Springboard) by default will send you to the first screen of applications. However, if you press Home, wait for the first page of apps to be displayed, then press Home again, the Search screen will be presented. Subsequent presses will toggle back and forth between the first apps page and the Search page. (Note that you have to delay slightly between presses, otherwise the two-press shortcut will kick in and launch some other app (iPod by default)).
originally submitted by Tim on Super User.
In 3.0, when editing some text, shake the phone to get the option undo your edits. To redo your edits, just shake the phone again.
originally submitted by andynormancx on Super User.
I've just discovered that if you scroll to the top of the list of Contacts in the Phone app, your own phone number is listed above the search field.
originally submitted by John Topley on Super User.
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1Only works when accessing the Contacts through the Phone app. In the Contacts app itself, your number is not displayed.– codinguserCommented Aug 30, 2010 at 7:13
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In the Mail application you can select the portion of text that you want to quote. Hit the Reply button and the selection will appear at the end of the email, instead of the whole original message.
originally submitted by John Topley on Super User.
In the maps app you don't have to pinch to zoom in and out. Double tapping zooms in and tapping with two fingers zooms out.
This makes it much easier when you are using the phone with one hand.
originally submitted by andynormancx on Super User.
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1And triple-tap to zoom out. When you use this double/triple-tap, you jump from one true scale to the next, avoiding muddy images that occur in between true scale steps. Commented Aug 6, 2010 at 20:03
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1
You can double tap the shift to keep caps lock on.
Tap just below the seek/scrub bar to hide/show it.
originally submitted by e11world on Super User.
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1(Does not work on my iPod Touch 2nd Gen with iOS 4.) Sorry, it DOES work, but only if you activate scroll lock in the keyboard settings (as posted somewhere below).– MartinCommented Aug 5, 2010 at 15:02
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You can listen to any audio that is being streamed through Quicktime in Safari (.mp3, .m3u, .pls etc files) in the background.
Start the stream via a link in Safari.app, and then hit the home button and the audio will continue to play.
This was very notable pre-iOS4, not sure if it worked pre iOS3 though.
In Maps, you can switch to street view by dropping a pin, tapping it, and then tapping the little orange guy.
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I tried it, but not working. The Orange guy is not highlighted when I tap the pin. (it still shows me the location) Commented Jan 24, 2011 at 18:45
VoiceControl has some undocumented features:
- If you have multiple phone numbers for people, you can say which phone number to call, 'call John Smith home', 'call Davey Jones mobile'.
- If you have assigned nicknames, you can use them too 'call wife', 'call dad'
If the iPhone is locked, and you double press the Home button to bring up the iPod controls while playing a song, shaking the iPhone skips to the next song.
While using the iPod/music app:
- single clicking the headphones remote button will pause the music.
- double clicking the headphones remote button will skip to the next song.
- triple clicking the headphones remote button will go back to the previous song.
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Seems obvious, but it took me an embarrassingly long time to notice the latter two! Commented Jan 24, 2011 at 15:16
When the iPhone is locked you can still access the iPod back/play/pause/next track buttons by pressing the Home button twice - only discovered that the other day and completely by accident...!
originally submitted by Mike McClelland on Super User.
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And if it's not currently playing, press Home thrice to get the same controls. Commented Aug 6, 2010 at 20:02
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To quickly access your draft email messages, press and hold the new email button on the toolbar. A new dialog appears showing "New Message" and an option plus all of your draft emails.
Starting from iOS4, while listening to music in iPod app the screen turns on for a second to show what song is currently playing. It won't happen if the iPhone is in your pocket.
You can have more than the 11 screen limit for apps. If you add them, they won't be displayed, but will still be installed on the phone.
You can still get to them by using a spotlight search for the app name and launch them, even though they're not visible.
originally submitted by Mark Struzinski on Super User.