10 Features Apple Never Told You About

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Most people struggle turning off or rebooting their iPhone and waste too much time trying to find that tiny power button in the control center. But, there's a secret one-tap shutdown button that you can add to any of your home screens like this. Here's how to set it up. Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone, then tap the plus icon at the top right. In the search bar, type shut and you'll see shutdown. Select it. A quick side note, you can tap the blue highlighted shutdown wording and notice that restart is also a choice. We won't be setting that up right now, but you can follow these same steps if you want to to set it up later. Now, back to shutdown. Tap the name or the tiny carrot at the top center and select choose icon. Search symbols for power and let's select the universal power icon. Now, select cancel.

[00:00:48]Then, let's choose the color red.

[00:00:50]Then, swipe down on that selection screen. Tap the name again at the top and select add to home screen.

[00:00:58]Tap add and then return to your home screen. And now, you have a dedicated shutdown button. Your iPhone will ask you to confirm, but don't tap it right now or you'll miss the rest of these tips. Now that you have a custom shutdown button, let's talk about your favorite websites.

[00:01:15]If you visit a specific website on a regular basis like a news outlet or a recipe blog, then you don't need to open Safari and type it in every time.

[00:01:24]There's a much easier way. First, open Safari and head to the exact website or specific article you want to link. At the bottom of the screen, long press the web address and tap the share button.

[00:01:35]That's the [clears throat] square icon with the arrow pointing up. Scroll down and tap add to home screen.

[00:01:41]Here, you can rename it if you like, then tap add in the top right corner.

[00:01:45]Now, you have a dedicated icon on your home screen that at first glance looks like an app, but it's really just a link to your favorite website, which saves you from opening the Safari app just to locate it. Now, as you start adding more shortcuts and apps, your home screens can get incredibly messy and overwhelming.

[00:02:04]Most people waste time deleting apps one by one or stuffing them into an annoying folder, but you can actually hide entire pages of your home screens in seconds, keeping your layout clean without losing any of your data. Here's how. Find an empty space on your home screen. Press and hold your finger down until the apps start to jiggle. Look at the bottom of your screen right above the dock. Tap on the small row of dots that represents your pages. Your phone will zoom out to show a bird's-eye view of all your home screen pages. Simply uncheck the box for any page you want to hide. Then tap done in the top right corner. Just like that, those messy pages are completely gone, but they aren't deleted. If you ever need them, repeat these steps and check the boxes again to bring the pages right back. Now, if you want to keep a page, but you just need to reorganize the apps on that page, then stop moving them one by one.

[00:02:58]There's a hidden multi-screen gesture that allows you to grab multiple apps at the same time and move them instantly.

[00:03:05]Find an app you want to move, press and hold it until you can move it around and don't let go. While holding that one, use another finger to tap any of the apps you want to move. Now, simply use your holding finger to drag them into a folder or use another finger to swipe to the next page, let go, and they lay out perfectly. This turns a painful chore into an easy cleanup.

[00:03:30]We've all been there. You take a screenshot or a photo, and you try to circle something important to send it to a friend, and all you end up with is a messy scribble. But your iPhone actually has built-in autocorrect feature that turns your messy scribbles into perfect shapes. Check this out. Tap edit within any screenshot or photo and select the markup tool. That's the little pin icon.

[00:03:53]Choose a pin or a marker and draw a shape. It can be a circle, an arrow, a square, or even a star. When you finish drawing the shape, hold your finger down at the very end, your messy drawing instantly snaps into a flawless, perfectly straight, geometric shape.

[00:04:09]Now, stay inside this markup menu for one more hidden tool.

[00:04:14]If you want to highlight a tiny detail in a photo, the loop is the best way to magnify it. Tap the small plus icon at the bottom right. This opens another hidden menu of tools. Tap add loop. A magnifying circle appears on your photo.

[00:04:27]Drag it over to the exact detail you want to highlight. Notice the two small dots on the circle's edge. You can drag the blue dot to make the magnifying circle bigger or smaller. Drag the green dot to zoom in or out within the bubble.

[00:04:42]This is great when you need to point out small text in a document or a tiny object in the background of a photo. It looks incredibly clean and polished.

[00:04:51]Next, let's look at a quick way to isolate your photos and videos.

[00:04:56]There are filtering options built right into your photo library, so you can isolate exactly what you're looking for.

[00:05:02]Open your photos app and look at the very top right corner of your photo grid. Right next to the select button, you'll see a small icon that looks like three horizontal lines. Tap it, and from this menu, tap filter. Now, you can choose precisely what you want to see.

[00:05:19]Tap photos to completely hide your videos, or tap videos if you only are looking for a specific clip. It simplifies the headache of looking through a massive camera roll.

[00:05:30]Now, let's talk about photo privacy.

[00:05:34]We all have images that we don't want others to see when we're handing over our iPhone. Whether it's an embarrassing selfie, a snapshot of an ugly injury, or that surprise gift that you bought.

[00:05:45]Here's how to hide them. Open the photo you want to hide, tap the ellipsis at the top right. From this menu, tap hide.

[00:05:52]Your phone will ask you to confirm by tapping hide photo. The second you do, that image completely vanishes from your main library grid. To find it again, tap the back button, tap collections at the bottom, scroll down and look for the utility section, and tap on hidden. This will require your Face ID or passcode to open it, keeping those photos completely secure from anyone else. It's the ultimate way to protect your personal business. No one can access that hidden folder without your Face ID or your passcode. Next is another hidden gesture.

[00:06:26]If you're in a busy group chat or a text thread, you know how chaotic it can get when you're looking at all the reactions. It's confusing to see who sent what reaction, but there's a hidden gesture that lets you see who loved your message or who laughed at your message.

[00:06:41]Open your messages app, find the specific text message or photo that has multiple emoji reactions stacked on top of it. Press and hold your finger directly on the text box that everyone reacted to. Then you'll see a clean, organized list of every person in the chat alongside their exact emoji reaction. This is a great time saver for keeping track of your group responses.

[00:07:02]Next is a quick tip that could literally save a life.

[00:07:07]We all put our phones on silent, work, or do not disturb to get some peace and quiet. But what happens if there's a real family emergency? There's a hidden setting that forces your iPhone to bypass every single restriction. Open the contacts app, find the specific person you want to grant this access to, like a spouse or a best friend, and tap their name. Scroll down slightly and tap on ringtone. Look right at the very top of this menu and you'll see a toggle labeled emergency bypass. Turn that switch on, and then tap the blue check mark at the top right corner to save it.

[00:07:40]Now, even if your phone is completely silenced or stuck in a strict focus mode, their calls will always ring through at full volume. It gives you total peace of mind knowing that you're always reachable for the people who matter most. Before the life lesson, a quick thank you to all you subscribers.

[00:07:57]You are so encouraging. I love hearing from you. We've made a lot of new friends on this channel and we're continuing to grow every day. I welcome your comments and questions. I read them all and I do my best to answer as quickly as possible. I'd love to hear what's working for you and also what you're struggling with so that we can work through it together. If you haven't subscribed yet, it's free to do. Now, here's something I've been thinking about lately. A lot of these features most people don't use. Not because they're hard, but simply because they didn't know they existed. And that applies to way more than just your iPhone. There's this idea of the power of yet. Whenever you hear yourself saying, "I can't do that." add one word, "yet." I don't understand this yet. I'm not good at this yet. It turns something permanent into something temporary. And honestly, that's what this whole video is about. Things your iPhone couldn't do until now. This is Mike with Easy and Simple where we cover weekly iPhone tips. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time.