---
title: '10 iPhone Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know Existed'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=cFD_zTCulNw'
video_id: 'cFD_zTCulNw'
date: 2026-08-18
duration_sec: 459
channel: 'MacRumors'
---

# 10 iPhone Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know Existed

> Source: [10 iPhone Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know Existed](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cFD_zTCulNw)

## Summary

This video presents 10 useful iPhone tricks that are often overlooked, covering everything from home screen customization and hidden app features to privacy controls and media playback timers. The presenter demonstrates each trick on iOS 26, providing step-by-step instructions for users to follow along.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Hidden iPhone Features** [00:02] — The video begins by noting that iOS has become complex, with many useful features buried in unexpected places. The presenter promises to walk through 10 useful iPhone tricks, all demonstrated on iOS 26.
- **Bonus Tip: Multi-Select Messages** [00:41] — A bonus tip is shared: you can copy multiple messages in the Messages app by dragging one text bubble, then tapping additional bubbles with another finger to attach them, and finally dragging the group to paste elsewhere.
- **Turn App Icons into Widgets** [01:23] — You can turn almost any app icon into a widget by long-pressing the app and selecting a widget size from the row of squares that appears. This works with most Apple apps and many third-party apps. To revert, long-press and tap the four-square icon.
- **Apple Maps Location History** [02:16] — Apple Maps keeps a history of places you've visited. To access it, open Maps, tap your profile picture, select 'Places', then 'Visited Places'. The list is sorted by category and city. You can clear history or adjust how long visits are saved.
- **Custom Vibration Patterns for Contacts** [02:55] — You can assign custom vibration patterns to specific contacts. In Contacts, edit a person, tap 'Text Tone' or 'Ringtone', then 'Haptics' and 'Create New Vibration' to tap out a unique pattern. This lets you identify who's messaging without looking.
- **Customize Lock Screen Buttons** [03:33] — The lock screen's flashlight and camera buttons can be swapped for other controls. Long-press the lock screen, tap 'Customize', then remove the icons and add new ones from the list of available controls, such as ChatGPT or a car frunk opener.
- **Back Tap Gestures** [04:11] — Back Tap allows you to set a double or triple tap on the back of the iPhone to trigger actions like taking a screenshot or turning on the flashlight. Enable it in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap.
- **Full Page Screenshots** [04:38] — When taking a screenshot on a web page or PDF, tap the 'Full Page' option at the top to capture the entire content instead of just the visible screen. This creates a full-page PDF or article capture.
- **Hide Apps and App Pages** [05:03] — Individual apps can be hidden by long-pressing and selecting 'Face ID' to require authentication. Entire app pages can be hidden by long-pressing the home screen, tapping the dots at the bottom, and unchecking pages.
- **Quick Timer in Control Center** [05:30] — Add a timer control to Control Center for quick access. Tap the plus button, add the timer control, then long-press it to use a slider to set a timer from 1 minute to 2 hours without opening the Clock app.
- **Strip Location Metadata from Photos** [06:11] — Photos contain location metadata that can be stripped. In the Photos app, swipe up on a photo, tap 'Adjust Location', and set it to 'No Location'. Alternatively, when sharing, tap 'Options' and toggle off 'Location'.
- **Sleep Timer for Media** [06:49] — Use the Clock app's timer to stop playing music, podcasts, or audiobooks after a set time. Set a timer, tap 'When Timer Ends', and select 'Stop Playing'. This acts as a sleep timer for phone media.

### Conclusion

The video concludes by summarizing the 10 tips plus the bonus tip, encouraging viewers to comment with their own favorite hidden features. The presenter hopes the tips are useful and looks forward to creating more content.

## Transcript

of time, you probably feel like you know your way around it. But, here's the thing, iOS has gotten pretty complicated over the years. Apple keeps stacking new features on top of old ones with every single update, and a lot of the most
useful stuff is buried in places that you probably wouldn't think to look. So, today I'm going to walk through 10 useful iPhone tricks that you might not started though, these are all running iOS 26, so make sure your OS is up to
date. And of course, comment down below if you found any of these tips useful, you think we should know about. Now, I know I said I'm going to give you 10, Here's a quick bonus one that I literally just learned about yesterday,
and it has to do with being able to quickly copy multiple messages and paste them by simply just dragging one of these text bubbles here to start, like you would an app, let's say on your home screen, and then just like you would to
drag multiple apps on your home screen, find another finger that you can use to and you'll see that they start to become attached with a little number indicator messages you've kind of picked up here. And then of course, you can drag and
drop them to be pasted somewhere else. I'm not entirely sure exactly where I this, but one of you out there might find this useful. So, just a little honorable mention tip here to start us off. All right, now let's start with the
with one that completely changes how your home screen can look and function. You can turn almost any app icon into a widget without going through the whole widget gallery process of having to long press on the home screen and then going
to the top left and hitting the plus button, all that. All you have to do is find an app that you want to turn into a widget, long press on it, and then you'll see a little row of squares here. Tap which one of those squares, which is
indicating which size widget you want, and it'll automatically turn it into a right then and there. It works with basically any Apple app and most third-party apps that support widgets. And if you decide you don't like it,
just long press again and tap the icon in the top left with the four small squares and it goes right back to being a normal app icon. Next up is something a little creepy but also pretty useful and that's your Maps location history.
Apple Maps has been quietly keeping track of places that you've been to and that list. It's perfect for those moments where you're like, "What was the name of that restaurant that we went to on that weekend trip a few months back?"
To find it, just open up the Maps app, tap your profile picture, hit places, and then tap visited places. Everything is sorted by category, so leisure, shopping, that kind of thing, and also by the city that you're in. If this
scroll to the bottom and clear your history, choose how long the visits get saved, etc., etc., but I find it pretty useful, to be honest with you, so I like that I've been to and then save them if I want to go back at a later date. Now,
this next one is for people who keep their phones on silent at all times, which honestly is most of us. You probably know you can give specific people custom ringtones and text tones, but you can also give them custom
vibration patterns. So, even when your phone is faced down on the table or in your pocket, you can feel a very specific buzz pattern that you would make and you'll know exactly who's texting you without even looking. To set
this up, open up the Contacts app, pick the person that you want, tap edit in the top right, then tap either text tone or ringtone. From there, tap haptics and create a new vibration and you literally just tap out the pattern that you want
on the screen with your finger and it'll indicate that person every single time that they message you. While we're on the subject of customization, your lock flashlight and camera. Most people probably don't know that you can
actually swap these for almost anything from the control center, including change them, go to your lock screen, long press on it, tap customize to edit your current lock screen, and then tap the minus button on either of the icons
to remove them, and then go ahead and tap on it again, and you'll see a list of all the controls that you can add. I personally like ChatGPT, and then if I want to open the frunk of my Model Y, I can do that super quickly by making that
one of the options. This next one is a feature that Apple added years ago. Some that's back tap. You can set a double tap or triple tap on the back of your iPhone just by doing this, and it'll automatically take a screenshot, turn on
your flashlight, open a specific app, whatever you decide to set it to. To turn this on, just go to settings, accessibility, touch, and then scroll down to back tap, and pick whatever gesture that you decide you want to do.
drives people crazy if they don't know about it. When you take a screenshot, you only capture what's on the screen, obviously. But, if you're on a web page, and you want to capture that entire article or an entire PDF, there's a way
to grab all of it at once. So, take the screenshot like you normally would, and then look for the full page option at the top here. Go ahead and select that, and as you can see, it now changes from what was on your screen to the entire
PDF or article that you might be looking at. If you have apps you don't really want anyone to see on your home screen, you've got options on what you can do. You can actually hide individual apps by long pressing on them and choosing the
Face ID option. But, you can also hide an entire app page in one shot. If you just don't want that page anymore, simply long press on your home screen to apps are jiggling around screen here, and then tap the row of dots at the
bottom, and you'll see all of your pages come up. Just go ahead and check or uncheck the pages that you might want, and they quickly go away. Here's a quick the timer control to your control center, you don't have to open the clock
app every time you want to add a quick timer or use Siri. Just open Control Center, tap the plus button, hit add a control, and find the timer one. Once it's there, long press on it in your Control Center and you'll get the slider
that lets you pick anywhere from 1 minute up to 2 hours and you just go than having to go into the Clock app and set up a new timer that way. This next photos to people that you don't really know super well. Your photos have a ton
of metadata baked into them, including your exact location before you took that picture, which sometimes could be your house. So, to strip that out, open the photo in the Photos app, swipe up to see the details, and then tap adjust
location. From there, you can adjust to no location so that no one knows where that photo was taken. Or, if you go to share the photo, this might be easier, just tap the share button, hit options here at the top, and then toggle off
location before you send it. And the last one is honestly one of my favorite features that I think most people really don't know, and that's you can use a timer to stop your music, podcast, or audiobooks from playing after a set
amount of time, which is perfect if you like to fall asleep to something but don't want it running all night. So, open the Clock app, go to timers, set when you're going to bed and you're listening to a podcast, and then tap
when the timer ends option. And from here, you just scroll all the way down and pick stop playing. So, any media that's playing at that time will then stop once the timer runs out. It's basically a sleep timer like you have on
your TV, but for your phone's media. So, those are the 10 tips, plus that honorable mention here at the beginning, that you might not know about. And if those comments down below, or drop in your favorite tip that you think we
don't know, and maybe we'll include it in another video. This has been with and I'll look forward to seeing you around in the next video.