Four iPhone hidden features that you should be using

If your iPhone has the latest iOS 14 changes then there’s a heap of new features that you’re probably not making the most of.

If you’re an iPhone user and you’ve updated to iOS 14, chances are you’re not taking full advantage of all the awesome features that have come with the update.

In fact, in many new software iterations it’s easy to miss some of the numerous awesome features that Apple included. Let’s take a look at some of my favourite useful additions that you may have missed recently or even in the past.

Customise control centre

You will likely know what ‘Control Centre’ is even if you don’t know it by name. Control Centre is the place where you get quick and easy access to useful controls such as aeroplane mode or screen brightness.

To access this on your iPhone just swipe downwards from the top right hand corner of the screen and a collection of controls and apps will appear.

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You can now add icons to your iPhone’s Control Centre with one nifty move.

Now that you know how to access this I can let you in on my favourite hidden feature – you can customise what appears in Control Centre. Just go to Settings > Control Centre on your iPhone.

Once you’re there you can see most of the controls that are already appearing on this menu but also additional controls that you can include. Simply click the green plus or red minus button to add or remove controls. Now you can access more of your favourite apps and features even faster on the fly.

Easy timer

Speaking of quick and easy, when I’m cooking in the kitchen I’ll often use the timer feature to ensure everything is cooked to perfection, so I’ve added the Timer to my Control Centre.

If you tap the timer icon in Control Centre it would usually take you to the clock app to set up the timer. However, did you know that you can just press and hold this icon to set the timer in a couple of seconds?

Tapping and holding the icon will allow you to quickly swipe up or down to select the timer’s duration.

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If you hold down the timer icon instead of pressing it then you get this clever option.

Once you set it off you can press anywhere on screen to exit and you will be able to see it’s activated as the icon will have turned white and yellow. You can access this timer again by pressing the timer icon in ‘Control Centre’ or going into the clock app and pressing ‘timer’ on the bottom right corner of your screen. If you love this try pressing and holding the other icons and apps in Control Centre – you’ll be amazed at the other shortcuts that are built in.

Hidden folder

I know we all take a lot of photos these days. Sometimes it’s embarrassing taking 10 selfies in a row (or more!) just to get the right one. Well did you know you can actually hide photos from appearing in your main photo album? It’s easy, tap on an image you want to hide, press the icon that looks like a box with an arrow pointing upwards inside of it (the share button), scroll down and click the word ‘Hide’.

The icon on the bottom left enables you to hide photos.

Once this is enabled all of your hidden photos will appear in a folder called ‘Hidden’ which can be found in your Photos app under Albums, under ‘Utilities’.

Arguably this isn’t hidden because you can still find and see the ‘Hidden’ album – so here’s how to hide that too. Head to settings > photos > turn off hidden albums. Now the ‘Hidden’ album will be nowhere to be found. Simply toggle this setting off or on as desired.

LED flash alerts

Did you know you can make your device’s flash go off (in addition to the tone) when you receive a notification? This is a thoughtfully included accessibility feature. To turn this on head to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual. Next, turn on LED Flash for Alerts (also turn on Flash on Silent if you want LED flash alerts only when your phone is on silent).

Elly Awesome is an Aussie tech and lifestyle vlogger | @ellyawwesome | YouTube