{"id":372287,"date":"2025-12-27T03:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T03:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/372287\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T03:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T03:05:14","slug":"8-tips-and-tricks-for-your-new-iphone-from-setup-to-storage-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/372287\/","title":{"rendered":"8 tips and tricks for your new iPhone: from setup to storage, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you\u2019ve got an iPhone for Christmas? Welcome! Having bounced between Android handsets for a decade, I returned to iOS with the iPhone 14 Pro<\/a> in 2022, after my Samsung Galaxy S10e<\/a> was an accidental passenger when I dived into a pool on holiday. I haven\u2019t looked back since, other than to be more vigilant about checking pockets of swimming shorts.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve picked up some useful iPhone knowledge along the way. Here are some helpful pointers to get your started.<\/p>\n

1. Bring your digital life with you<\/p>\n

When you upgrade from an iPhone to another iPhone, Apple makes it all rather seamless<\/a>, with your settings and preferences all neatly transferred.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Apple can\u2019t make it quite as neat if you\u2019re coming from Android, but it has a pretty good go at it with the Move to iOS app<\/a>. Just download this to your Android device and follow the instructions. If, for some reason, it doesn\u2019t work for you, we have some more advanced guidance you can read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Learn to type again<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve spent years using Android, stabbing away at the iPhone\u2019s keyboard may feel a little disorienting. The main tip I have here is that you can control the cursor by holding down the spacebar and sliding your finger or thumb left or right, making fixing those \u2018ducking typos\u2019 nice and simple.<\/p>\n

Or you can get something more familiar. Since iOS 8<\/a> Apple has supported third-party keyboards, so you can try one to your liking. When I switched to iOS, I was thrilled to see that Google\u2019s Gboard was one of the options, allowing neat swipe-style controls and easy GIF access at your fingertips.<\/p>\n

3. Consider Apple One<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

\t\tApple One bundles Apple<\/p>\n

Digital subscriptions are, unfortunately, a part of modern life. Or \u201cfortunately\u201d if you happen to be an Apple shareholder, benefiting from the estimated $100 billion the company\u2019s services will generate this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself tempted by several of Apple\u2019s subscription services, you can save money by signing up for Apple One<\/a>. For $19.95 a month, you get Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and 50GB of iCloud storage, saving around a third of the price of subscribing individually. If your family are all on iPhone too, it becomes even cheaper with the Family plan, which allows up to six people access to the same services (and 150GB more iCloud space) for $25.95 a month\u00a0<\/p>\n

While on the subject of subscriptions, if you do want to subscribe to non-Apple services, double check the App Store price isn\u2019t higher than expected. Because Apple takes a cut, some developers charge more than going via a web browser, though this may be changing thanks to a recent court ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Learn to juggle storage<\/p>\n

Even with extra iCloud space, juggling iPhone storage can be tricky, especially if you\u2019ve opted for a 128GB model (note to future self: don\u2019t cheap out this way again).<\/p>\n

The main tip to free up space on your iPhone<\/a> is to enable two space-saving features. \u2018Offload Unused Apps\u2019 removes apps you don\u2019t seem to be using, while hanging on to your in-app data should you need to redownload. You can find it under Settings > Apps > App Store > \u2018Offload Unused Apps\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, in the Photos app, there\u2019s an option to \u2018Optimize iPhone Storage\u2019, which keeps high quality versions of your photos and videos on iCloud, while reducing the file size of local ones (Settings > iCloud > Photos > \u2018Optimize iPhone Storage\u2019).<\/p>\n

Photos, in my experience, are the root cause of all iPhone capacity headaches, but there are a couple of tips for staying on top of them. Firstly, in the Photos app, you can filter just screenshots, letting you delete years\u2019 worth of now-redundant screengrabs in seconds. For the rest, something like Swipewipe<\/a> gamifies and streamlines the tedious song and dance of deciding which photos you actually want to keep.<\/p>\n

5. Get to know Magsafe<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

\t\tApple<\/p>\n

Unless you\u2019ve acquired an iPhone 16e<\/a>, which doesn\u2019t have it for cost-saving measures, your new phone will support the MagSafe attachment system, which lets you magnetically attach accessories to the back of your new phone.<\/p>\n

This is predominantly used for taking the frustration out of wireless charging, with compatible chargers snapping to the back of the phone without slipping. But other neat accessories let you snap on a card holder, or even use your iPhone\u2019s excellent camera as a webcam for your Mac. You can see some of the best MagSafe accessories here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6. Try Back Tap controls<\/p>\n

The iPhone is known for its outstanding accessibility features. Most of these are only useful to those with specific needs, such as visual impaired people, but there\u2019s one that most people may want to try: Back Tap<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This lets you bind certain functions to a double or triple tap on the back of the iPhone. You can tie this to a pre-set list of specific functions (opening Siri, turning on the torch, taking a screenshot, etc.) or something more bespoke via the Shortcuts app.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just open Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap to get started.<\/p>\n

7. Use your Apple Wallet<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

\t\tApple<\/p>\n

While I appreciate the contactless payment infrastructure isn\u2019t the same the world over, I\u2019ve basically stopped taking my wallet with me, given Apple Pay is soo good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Apple Pay is just a small part of Apple Wallet, and I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with it. You\u2019ll often find digital tickets can be automatically added to your Apple Wallet for easy access, but for passes without the option, something like Passdrop<\/a> can turn anything into an Apple Wallet pass to keep about your person. Then these are quickly accessible via a double press of the power button, along with your credit cards.<\/p>\n

On the subject of keeping useful documents about your person, you can also quickly scan documents using the iPhone camera to convert them to PDF files. Just long press the Notes app, and tap \u2018Scan document\u2019 to get started.<\/p>\n

8. Set time limits!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very easy to lose hours a day on the millions of apps and other distractions that the iPhone offers. If, like me, you lack the self control not to go overboard, you can set up daily usage limits on the most addictive apps \u2014 in my case Reddit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just hit Settings > Screen Time > App Limits and set the apps you want to cap. Neatly, you can create groups of apps (social media, video, communications, etc.) to prevent you from bouncing off TikTok to Instagram as soon as one locks you out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is easily undone via a passcode should you need extra time on any given day \u2014 as I did on a six-hour train journey recently \u2014 but it does make you think twice about your usage, which is undeniably a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So you\u2019ve got an iPhone for Christmas? Welcome! Having bounced between Android handsets for a decade, I returned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[517,4536,165,12074,74],"class_list":["post-372287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-apple","tag-iphone","tag-mobile","tag-phones","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}