The iPhone is a smartphone from Apple that runs the iOS mobile operating system. Between its apps, communication features, the camera, mobile internet access, and other functionalities, the iPhone has quickly become an integral part of many peoples tech lives.
If iPhone isn’t responding, and you can’t turn it off then back on, try forcing it to restart. A force restart uses the volume up button, the volume down button, and the side button on your iPhone. When the Apple logo appears, you’ll know it’s restarting.
You can import photos and videos directly to the Photos app from a digital camera, an SD memory card, or another iPad or iPhone that has a camera. You can also export unmodified versions of your photos and videos directly to an external drive, memory card, or other storage device that’s connected to your iPhone.
To import from a camera, you connect it with an adapter and make sure it’s in transfer mode.
From another device, such as a digital camera or an external drive, you can import saved photos and videos to the Photos app on your iPhone.
You can export photos and videos you took on your iPhone straight to a memory card, an external drive, or another storage device.
Note: For edited photos and videos, the export is the unmodified original version.
Photos and videos in the Hidden album won’t be transferred if the album is locked. To unlock the Hidden album, go to Settings > Apps > Photos, then turn off Use Face ID, Use Touch ID, or Use Passcode.
You can move apps and widgets anywhere on the Home Screen to create the ideal layout: frame your wallpaper photo, align apps and widgets along the side or bottom, or move them to other Home Screen pages. If you have multiple Home Screen pages, each one can have a unique layout.
You can also temporarily hide Home Screen pages and change where new apps get downloaded. And if you change your mind, you can reset the Home Screen and apps to their original layout.
Quick tip: One Home Screen page can hold all your apps and widgets for a particular Focus, such as your Work Focus, and you can make that page accessible during that Focus.
Drag the app or widget to the right edge of the screen. You might need to wait a moment for the new page to appear. The dots show how many pages you have and which one you’re viewing.
Apps you downloaded are arranged alphabetically after the apps that came with your iPhone, and any folders you created are removed.
Most of what has been written about iOS 27 describes Siri AI. These are the iOS 27 tips that are easy to miss. Settings buried two panes deep, a gesture Apple removed quietly, and features with a catch worth knowing first.
Every tip here is new in iOS 27 release, and comes from my own testing rather than from Apple’s feature list.
You can bring up Siri (by default), as in previous releases, by saying “Siri” or “Hey Siri,” or by pressing and holding the side button. However, the change introduced in iOS 26 that let you double-tap the bottom of the screen is gone. In iOS 27, you can swipe down on a Home screen to reveal the new combination of Spotlight and Siri: a field labeled Search or Ask. You can type into that field, or tap the Dictation icon and talk to Siri that way.
When you upgrade to iOS 27 or iPadOS 27, the last stages of the installation present a new screen that lets you choose to adjust Liquid Glass using a slider. If you don’t make the adjustment at that moment, you can do so later, or change your initial choice. Go to Settings > Appearance > Liquid Glass.
This new screen offers a slider you can drag from the left edge, which Apple describes as “More Clear” (most Liquid Glass effect) across a range to the right: “More Tinted” (most opaque). Apple makes it easy to visualize by providing a scrollable preview that shows Liquid Glass elements overlaid on a webpage with images and text.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and enable Reduce Transparency. This flattens Liquid Glass, removing transparency and providing an almost identical look to iOS 18/iPadOS 18. The level of Liquid Glass you have enabled doesn’t have an effect.
Use Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Increase Contrast to bump up the difference in tones. In iOS 27/iPadOS 27, the difference appears slight, where it was sharply distinct in the previous releases.
You can’t change the Liquid Glass intensity when either of those two options is enabled. When you attempt to change the Liquid Glass setting, you’re told that Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast must be disabled. You can tap Turn Off.
It took this long for Apple to let you set the volume of alarms and timers hitting zero seconds separately from your ringtone volume. Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and, under Alarms and Timers, disable Match Ringtone Volume.
In iOS 27, Apple rebranded the Wi-Fi Assist feature as Connectivity Assist, and if you had Wi-Fi Assist enabled—it was by default—you’ll find the new feature already turned on in Settings > Wi-Fi.
After many, many years of FaceTime supporting a single camera view on iPhone, you can now use the front and back cameras simultaneously. The proviso? You need an iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, or iPhone Air and iOS 27. The other person or people can see your dual-camera feed only if they have iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS 27. (This builds off the dual-capture mode in the Camera app on those models introduced in iOS 26.)
To use the dual-camera mode, in an active FaceTime session (or before someone has joined), tap the Flip Camera button in the inset selfie view. This shows both cameras by default.
Previously, you could share your location for an hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. Now you can set a custom period of time.
If you’re sharing your location with someone, you can hide your location from your end until the next morning (at 4 a.m.), and they’re not notified. They’re also not told when you resume sharing, or “unhide” your location. They simply see you with a “location unavailable” label.
It took many years, but you can finally apply keywords to media in the Photos app on an iPhone and iPad. Huzzah? (Keywords are a useful way to link images for searching and organization.) However, you can still only apply keywords to items one at a time, as opposed to singly or in selections of two or more on a Mac. To add keywords, tap the info button, then tap Add Keywords.
When you make a selection by tapping the Select button in the upper-right corner of any multiple-item view in Photos, a new Show Selected button appears at the bottom. Tap it, and it reveals just the items you chose. You can adjust the selection or view the images and videos in a carousel. Tap Deselect All to remove the current selection.
Apple adds two new albums in Collections > Utilities. Captured by Me contains images or videos you created using any iPhone or iPad, such as via the Camera app or by taking a screenshot. The Identity Documents album uses machine learning (not Apple Intelligence) to collect scans or photos of personally identifying documents. (Identity Documents hasn’t yet appeared for me in iOS.)
In iOS 27/iPadOS 27 (and on macOS 27 and at iCloud.com), you have access to several new features. However, you must first upgrade an album: select the album in Collections > Shared Albums, tap the More button, then tap Upgrade Shared Album. This may take some time—minutes or longer—depending on the size of the items in the library and your internet connection.
After upgrading, you have access to the following:
You can extract a frame from a paused video to save as an image. Tap the More button and choose Save Video Frame.
Photos often decides to pause syncing to iCloud to avoid draining the battery, even when the battery is quite full. You can now go to Settings > Apps > Photos > Sync Immediately and choose For Today. This prioritizes syncing instead of preserving battery life for the remainder of the calendar day. If Low Power Mode or Low Data Mode are enabled, Photos will still pause until those modes are turned off, such as by recharging the phone for the former.
Slideshows can now be built from any album or even a selection of media, rather than relying on memories.
If you navigate to a podcast’s view of all of its episodes by tapping the podcast and then tapping Episodes, you can now search against the title and show notes of all listed episodes.
This doesn’t search transcripts, which Podcasts generates for some shows. It searches only the per-episode notes published in the podcast feed.
On any page, tap the Page Info button and choose Notify Me. Here’s the interesting part: You write in plain language what you want Safari to check for, then tap Next. Safari will check daily by default. You can tap Edit while creating the notification or afterward to switch to hourly, weekly, or monthly, and set the time of day.
You can create entries for cards, membership cards, and other kinds of barcode/QR code-related proofs of entry or membership from scratch, a task formerly available only for third-party apps and websites.
Tap the Add button in Wallet, then tap Create a Pass. You’re guided through a few steps, one of which lets you scan the existing card, so that Wallet can pull in its number, barcode, or QR code. You can fill out details that aren’t present on the card or captured by Wallet.
Entirely new is Tap to Share with merchants at the point of sale, such as in a store or at a fair. This makes in-person Apple Pay more akin to Apple Pay in Safari. Tap to Share lets an entire set of interactions occur before you pay. You start by approving a connection with a merchant’s iPhone that has a supported payment app. (Ostensibly, this may encompass not just companies like Square and Stripe, but in-house developer apps for retailers like Old Navy or Lowe’s.)
Once you begin, you can choose what you share with the business—like contact details, a shipping address, or your email. This also means you don’t have to state this information aloud or rely on the merchant typing it in correctly! A merchant can offer to sign you up for a membership or loyalty program. You can use a pass from the merchant, or they can issue one, related to discounts, credits, or other transaction-related purposes. Finally, you see the full cart as a digital receipt before completing payment with Apple Pay.
Accessibility Reader used to require a shortcut trigger. Now, you can use the share menu in any app to open content in the reader.
Your iPhone and iPad now generate captions from any uncaptioned video you’re watching in Photos and other supported apps. (This isn’t related to tvOS or TV app captioning.) If captions already exist, you can have them automatically translated between supported languages.
In iPadOS 26, the menu bar had to be triggered either by swiping down from the top of the display or by hovering with a pointing device, at which point it would appear. It then hid, after a short delay, when it wasn’t in use or being hovered over.
In iPadOS 27, the default behavior appears similar, but there are two significant changes:
Along with that new behavior, you can also opt to have the menu bar remain in place, persistent at all times. Go to Settings > Multitasking & Gestures, then disable Automatically Show and Hide Menu Bar.
Apple previously didn’t offer a way to trigger an automation when a keyboard was connected to or removed from an iPad. This frustrated some users, who interact with their iPad differently when a keyboard is connected—such as in a dock-style environment—and when they are using only the touch screen or an Apple Pencil.
Now, you can use Shortcuts to create automations based on whether a keyboard was connected, disconnected, or the keyboard connection state changed. This includes the “Set multitasking mode to” item. You might want to switch between Full Screen Apps and Windowed Apps when using your iPad without a keyboard. You’d have to set up two shortcuts: one would trigger when the keyboard was attached; the other when detached.
For more iOS 27 tips and tricks, see the complete guide to every iOS 27 feature. There are also 36 changes that owe nothing to AI that I recommend you to check out.
Siri AI is the flagship of the version 27 releases. Most of what has been written about it describes what it can do. These are the Siri AI tips and tricks that are easy to miss. Settings that are not obvious, shortcuts Apple has not documented, and two limits that explain most failures. I tested these Siri AI tips on my iPhone, iPad and Mac rather than reprinting Apple’s feature list.
Open the Siri pane of Settings on an iPhone or iPad, or System Settings on a Mac. It tells you whether Siri AI is currently engaged, which is not always the case:
Among the reasons the old icon might appear are that your device, or Siri, is set to an incompatible language, that the two language settings described below don’t match, or that you have turned off Siri.
Initially, only English is supported for Siri AI, though Apple plans to add more languages over time. As a result, if you set language to anything other than English, your device reverts to the old Siri—with the old icon—rather than Siri AI, with the new one.
In addition, both your Siri language and your system language (in Settings > General > Language & Region > Preferred Languages) must be identical—including the dialect, if applicable on your device. For example, if one is set to English (United States) and the other is set to English (Canada) on a Mac, you’ll get the old version of Siri. Make sure the two match—and note that switching your system language may require a restart.
This automatic recognition of your query type means you don’t have to think about how you formulate a search or question: type what you want and let Siri figure it out. If the results list for a search doesn’t suffice, elaborate on what you’re asking.
You can also explicitly add “ChatGPT” to a request—for example, “Ask ChatGPT the best way to fry an egg.” This works with spoken requests, too!
To route a single question to ChatGPT from the Search or Ask field:
What if you just want a plain Spotlight search, without Siri’s involvement at all? You can still have it, with some extra effort.
On a Mac, activate Siri and type a search term, then press ⌘-2 to search for that term only within files and folders. You can also press ⌘-1 to look for apps, ⌘-3 to look for actions, or ⌘-4 to search your clipboard history.
On any device, you can also specify as part of your search term where Spotlight should look—for example, “Files about cats”, “Contacts named John” or “Emails about Apple”.
However you navigate to activate Siri, you can immediately type or speak something after its response to whatever your first question or requested action was.
This can be useful if Siri’s first response or action wasn’t sufficient, or if it provided information or succeeded and you want to follow up by using context. You don’t have to define your scenario once again, which Siri often required before Siri AI.
It has long been possible to choose among various male- and female-sounding voices and even different dialects, and Siri AI adds even more choices. But now, you can also adjust Siri’s speed and expressiveness. If you want a zippy, flat, “just the facts” response; a relaxed, cheerful response; or anything in between, you can go to Settings > Siri on an iPhone or iPad, or System Settings > Siri on a Mac, and click or tap Voice. On this pane, you can select a base voice and then drag the Pace and Expressivity sliders as sample responses are played to dial in exactly the tone you prefer.
This feature requires more advanced chips than are needed for Apple Intelligence. See which devices support Siri AI.
You have two choices as to how Siri responds to requests:
You can pin a selected conversation, which anchors it at the top of the list. To pin on a Mac, choose Conversation > Pin Conversation, or right-click or Control-click and choose Pin from the contextual menu. On an iPhone or iPad, you can swipe left and tap the Pin icon, or touch and hold and choose Pin.
To share a specific response—not a conversation as a whole—as a PDF, you can click the Share icon on a Mac, or touch and hold the response on an iPhone or iPad and choose Share.
In any conversation in the Siri app, you can click or tap the microphone button to speak your request rather than type it.
Your device can store all your Siri conversations indefinitely, or it can delete them after 30 days or a year. To configure this, go to Settings on an iPhone or iPad, or System Settings on a Mac, then Your Name > iCloud > See All > Siri, and choose 30 Days, 1 Year, or Forever from the Keep Conversations pop-up menu.
The same pane controls syncing. You can disable Sync this Device, which is enabled by default. The Keep Conversations setting is synced with the main Siri retention setting: change it here, and it’s changed globally, not just for iCloud.
Options that were formerly part of Writing Tools, such as Summary, Key Points, List, and Table, no longer explicitly appear in the Write/Edit with Siri interface, but you can still use them. In the Edit with Siri field, you can type “Summarize this” or “Make this into a list”, for example, and Siri does just that.
If the Siri icon doesn’t appear (as is the case in Messages, for example), you can right-click or Control-click (on a Mac) and choose Ask Siri, or tap once to bring up the text menu (on an iPhone or iPad) and then tap the Siri icon to display an “Ask Siri about this” field.
Unlike in the previous two generations of Apple’s operating systems, you can no longer disable Apple Intelligence completely, and if you want to disable Siri (along with portions of Apple Intelligence), you must scroll to the bottom of the pane, click or tap the red Turn Off Siri button, read a long description of all the things that will stop working if you do, and then click or tap Turn Off Siri.
Even if you turn off Siri, “Visual Intelligence will continue to work but with more limited capabilities,” though Apple doesn’t spell out what those limitations are, and other Apple Intelligence features such as Write/Edit with Siri, Image Playground, and Shortcuts continue to work. All this is Apple’s heavy-handed way of pushing these new features, even if you actively dislike them and don’t ever want to use them.
One thing you might be surprised not to see in the Siri settings pane is a setting for the keyboard shortcut that invokes Siri on a Mac. Although you can change the Spotlight keyboard shortcut and the shortcuts used for Siri screenshots (in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Spotlight and Screenshots, respectively), there’s no evident way to change the Siri shortcut to anything else.
Remember that the data has to exist for Siri to answer. I rely on a third-party email client, so Siri seems to have limited access to my email stores for now. But nearly everything else i do is stored in and synced by iCloud.
The second limit is music. Siri only knows about locally stored music from its metadata, as far as i can tell, or at least without asking further questions. For additional Siri AI tricks, see the complete guide to Siri AI.
Apple tends to release operating system changes as a two-beat sequence, like our heart going LUB-dub: The LUB beat is a major flex, like the introduction of Liquid Glass across all their operating systems in 2025. This year is a “dub,” a building-or-rebuilding year, in which Apple largely tweaks the previous cycle and offers incremental improvements, though some may feel quite large. If you have just upgraded, ten of them are worth trying first.
The 2026 set of releases, numbered 27—like car models are numbered in fall for the following year—is a “dub.” We see the rollout of the long-promised Siri upgrade, called Siri AI. Along with its improved performance, Siri AI and Apple Intelligence both extend much more deeply into apps and system functions across nearly all platforms. That’s the flagship feature.
This includes significant improvements to on-device searching. When you use Spotlight in iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 on devices with Apple Intelligence support, the Spotlight field has changed from Search to Search or Ask. You can perform searches or ask Siri questions via the same entry field, which expands Spotlight’s reach and Siri’s scope.
Starting in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 (as well as macOS 27 Golden Gate), Apple has leaned very heavily into so-called artificial intelligence to enhance the overall operating system experience and many apps. They rebranded Siri as Siri AI on devices with the minimum required hardware. (Check whether your device qualifies.)
Apple also offered four additional areas of focus:
The company also provided minor improvements to iPadOS 27, following the significant overhaul and improvements introduced in iPadOS 26, which were generally well received. See what’s new for iPad.
Apple also discussed in the lead-up to the release of the new operating system how much faster everything would be, but a list of those promises doesn’t help you get more familiar with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27! Because this book doesn’t benchmark these sorts of changes, I can only say: you should be pleased.
I don’t want to say everything else is miscellaneous, as there are hundreds—maybe thousands—of other changes. (You can find extensive rundowns.) Instead, let me say that Apple’s extensive work means many apps and system features have been modified, matured, or enhanced, as you will see in the rest of the book.
Apple began their current numbering system in 2025, with the releases of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS all with a base number of 26 for 2026. This continued in 2026 with the release of all operating systems numbered 27.
Before this, Apple incremented their operating systems differently depending on whether they were initial or subsequent releases. A change described as coming from an older version will therefore show an 8- or 9-number leap—say, from iOS 18 to 26 or 27—even though “26” is the very next version after “18.”
Apple Intelligence reaches into a dozen apps. Where to find it in each one is set out separately. For the upgrade itself, start with which iPhones and iPads can install iOS 27, then how to install it.
The reason for the above change appears to stem from some extraordinary articles in the Wall Street Journal. In February 2023, the Journal published a story with an alarming headline: “A Basic iPhone Feature Helps Criminals Steal Your Entire Digital Life” by Joanna Stern and Nicole Nguyen. The article noted that individuals were reporting and police departments confirming that an increasing number of thieves were stealing people’s iPhones and coercing or extracting the corresponding passcodes through in-person methods. With the iPhone and its passcode, the thief could unlock an Apple Account using a loophole.
If you don’t enable Stolen Device Protection, you remain susceptible to this real-world exploit, and should read on.
The Journal article details multiple kinds of attacks, the most prevalent of which is shoulder-surfing criminal teams, which involve one thief interacting with you and another surreptitiously watching you or recording you.
For instance, one ne’er-do-well might offer to take a couple’s photo. They take the picture, but then sneakily press and hold the volume up/standby button on the phone and tap Cancel (see how to set a stronger iPhone passcode) This requires a passcode to unlock, which someone might naturally enter. However, Stern explained on a podcast that tests with 4K iPhone video indicate someone could easily record your passcode entry from nearly across a room. Then it’s just a snatch-and-grab operation.
Even more disturbingly, the reporters interviewed a number of people who said they were physically assaulted and coerced into revealing their passcode and giving up their phones, or waking up believing they were drugged with their phone missing and later account issues. (The prevalence of druggings at bars has become something awful.)
The reporters explained a criminal can reset an Apple Account password with nothing more than an iPhone passcode and possession of the iPhone. At that point, if someone uses iCloud email with their financial and other accounts, the thief can send password resets and receive second factor SMS and device-based tokens to validate changes and logins. One victim, an economist, lost access to her Apple Account and everything attached to it, and told the reporters that about $10,000 vanished from her bank account within a day.
While Face ID and Touch ID can’t be used to extract your passcode and then reset your Apple Account, they can be used against you if you’re drugged, threatened, or in custody of a government that compels their use. See how to set a stronger iPhone passcode for how to disable Face ID or Touch ID quickly.
We don’t know the scale of these attacks, as there’s no comprehensive accounting and Apple hasn’t made a statement. Does it happen to hundreds of people a year in the United States—the article’s geographical focus—or tens of thousands? Because of that two-thief passcode approach, I’d put my money on hundreds to thousands where the passcode is obtained when an iPhone is stolen.
The Journal raised important questions about how tightly Apple has linked a passcode to the ability to log in to an Apple Account. That led Apple to create Stolen Device Protection.
None of this is the fault of crime victims entering their passcode in public or…being drugged or mugged. Rather, the person who stole from you—I mean, it shouldn’t even have to be said that it’s that person who did wrong.
Before venturing forth into the world:
ATMs are also a prime spot for “skimmers” to be attached where thieves have a camera and sensor to grab your card number and PIN. Never use an ATM if anything around the keypad looks suspect, such as a raised external surface around any part.
This might deter most instances. But for best results, if you consider yourself possibly at risk, read on to enable Stolen Device Protection.
Stolen Device Protection doesn’t prevent robberies. If your device is brazenly or violently stolen, here’s what else you can do:
Next, consider doing one or all of the following:
— Put the device in Lost Mode: If you have Stolen Device Protection enabled, putting your iPhone in Lost Mode could make it more recoverable as the thieves won’t be able to do anything useful with it. If the thieves haven’t powered down the iPhone or put it into Airplane Mode, it might immediately enter Lost Mode, or enter it the next time it has even the briefest internet connection. Because Find My is on, and the thieves can’t disable it, your iPhone retains Activation Lock, making it difficult or impossible to resell or reuse the phone.
— Erase the device remotely if it’s online: You can opt instead to try to erase your phone. If it’s online at any point, erasure is immediate, and Activation Lock remains on. In fact, it’s still trackable even after being erased with iOS 15 or later.
— Remove the device from your account if it’s offline: I recommend that if you don’t have Stolen Device Protection enabled and your iPhone is showing as offline, consider whether to remove the iPhone from your Apple Account on another device or via iCloud.com. This prevents Find My tracking, but it also halts iCloud syncing, so there’s a tradeoff.
This experience can be scary. Theft and assault always is. If you can summon the strength to act quickly, you can minimize harm.
In late 2024, law-enforcement departments began to exchange stories of iPhones that had been unlocked and were kept carefully in that state in locked, shielded storage areas had spontaneously rebooted. While Apple didn’t make an announcement, iOS 18.1 apparently included a “reboot after inactivity” timer, according to reporting by 404 Media.
iPhones have two general states: Before First Unlock (BFU), which happens after a restart, and After First Unlock (AFU). An iPhone is easier to rummage through for investigative or illicit purposes in the AFU state, when its internal storage has been unlocked and other kinds of access remain available, even if some data remains protected by a passcode or biometrics.
Apple now apparently starts a three-day timer (as of 2026) when an iPhone is in the AFU state. If it’s inactive for that period of time, it restarts, putting it back into the harder-to-crack BFU state. Security researcher Matthew Green told 404 Media it wasn’t about blocking police access—but criminal use. He told them, “This feature means that if your phone gets stolen, the thieves can’t nurse it along for months until they develop the tech to crack it.”
You can turn on and set up your new iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max with an internet connection. You can also set up iPhone 18 Pro by connecting it to your computer. If you have another iPhone, an iPad, or an Android device, you can transfer your data to your new iPhone 18 Pro.
To make setup as smooth as possible, have the following items available:
Tip: If you don’t have sufficient storage space to back up your device, iCloud will provide enough storage to complete a temporary backup, free of charge, for up to three weeks from the purchase of your iPhone. On your previous device, go to the Settings app 
, tap General, then tapTransfer or Reset [device]. Tap Get Started, then follow the onscreen instructions.
If iPhone 18 Pro doesn’t turn on, you might need to charge the battery.
Tip: If you’re blind or have low vision, you can triple-click the side button to turn on VoiceOver, the screen reader. You can also double-tap the screen with three fingers to turn on Zoom.
Or, if your other device has iOS 12.4, iPadOS 13, or later, you can transfer all your data wirelessly from your previous device to your new iPhone 18 Pro. Keep your iPhone 18 Pro near the other device and plugged into power until the migration process is complete.
- _Set Up Manually:_ If you don't have another device, tap Set Up Without Another Device, then follow the onscreen setup instructions.If you have an Android device, you can transfer your data with the Move to iOS app when you first set up your new iPhone 18 Pro.
Note: If you already completed setup and want to use Move to iOS, you must erase your iPhone and start over, or move your data manually.
See also: How to Use iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max: A Beginner’s Guide
Learn how to use iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max with high quality screenshots! Our comprehensive guide is a useful resource for users who want to get the most out of their brand-new iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max! Images are perfect for visual learners, so this guide uses high quality screenshots to show you how to get started with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. We walk you step-by-step through how to use basic features such as locking and unlocking your iPhone, all the way to advanced features such as using Siri AI. Whether you are new to the iPhone or have just upgraded to the 18 Pro or 18 Pro Max, this guide helps you unlock your phone’s full functionality and maximize your use and enjoyment of it.
There are multiple ways to turn your iPhone 18 Pro on and off–you can use the buttons on the side of your iPhone, or you can use the controls in Settings and Control Center.
Press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.
Simultaneously press and hold the side button and either volume button until the sliders appear, then drag the Power Off slider.
in the top-right corner of your screen.
on your iPhone.
iPhone turns off the display to save power, locks for security, and goes to sleep when you’re not using it. You can quickly wake and unlock iPhone 18 Pro when you want to use it again.
To wake iPhone 18 Pro, do one of the following:
Note: To turn off Raise to Wake, go to the Settings app , then tap Display & Brightness.
If you didn’t set up Face ID when you first set up your iPhone 18 Pro, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Set up Face ID, then follow the onscreen instructions. Then follow these steps:
The lock icon animates from closed to open to indicate that iPhone is unlocked.
Note: To lock iPhone again, press the side button. iPhone locks automatically if you don’t touch the screen for a minute or so. However, if Attention Aware Features is turned on, iPhone won’t dim or lock as long as it detects attention. To turn it on or off, go to the Settings app , then tap Face ID & Passcode.
If you didn’t create a passcode when you set up iPhone 18 Pro, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, tap Turn Passcode On, then follow the onscreen instructions. Then follow these steps:
You can lock iPhone 18 Pro using the following methods:
When iPhone locks, the display turns off unless you’ve turned on the Always On Display.
Here’s a handy reference to the gestures you use for interacting with an iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max:
| Gesture | Description |
|---|---|
| Go to the Home Screen | Swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen to return to the Home Screen at any time. |
| Quickly access controls | Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center; touch and hold a control to reveal more options. To add or remove controls, go to the Settings app, then tap Control Center. |
| Open the App Switcher | Swipe up from the bottom edge, pause in the center of the screen, then lift your finger. To browse the open apps, swipe right, then tap the app you want to use. |
| Switch between open apps | Swipe up from the bottom edge, then swipe right or left. |
| Use Siri | Just say “Siri” or “Hey Siri.” Or press and hold the side button while you ask a question or make a request. |
| Use Apple Pay | Double-click the side button to display your default card for Apple Pay, then glance at iPhone to authenticate with Face ID. |
| Use Accessibility Shortcut | Triple-click the side button. |
| Take a screenshot | Simultaneously press and quickly release the side button and volume up button. |
| Use Emergency SOS (all countries or regions except India) | Simultaneously press and hold the side button and either volume button until the sliders appear and the countdown on Emergency SOS ends, then release the buttons. |
| Use Emergency SOS (in India) | Quickly press the side button 3 times until the sliders appear and the countdown on Emergency SOS ends.
If you’ve turned on Accessibility Shortcut, simultaneously press and hold the side button and either volume button until the sliders appear and the countdown on Emergency SOS ends, then release the buttons. |
| Turn off | Simultaneously press and hold the side button and either volume button until the sliders appear, then drag the top slider to power off. Or go to the Settings app, tap General, then tap Shut Down. |
| Force restart | Press and release the volume up button, press and release the volume down button, then press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears. |
Learn about the buttons and other controls on your iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max:
The Lock Screen appears when you turn on or wake iPhone 18 Pro. From the Lock Screen, you can see notifications, open Camera and Control Center, get information from your favorite apps at a glance, control media playback, and more.
You can quickly access useful features and information from the Lock Screen, even while iPhone 18 Pro is locked.
Go to the Lock Screen, then do any of the following:
, then lift your finger.On iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, you can check alerts and Live Activities–such as a Voice Memo recording in progress, an AirDrop connection, and directions from Maps–in the Dynamic Island on the Home Screen or in an active app whenever your iPhone is unlocked. On iPhone 18 Pro models, the Dynamic Island can show up to three Live Activities at the same time.
You can do any of the following in the iPhone 18 Pro Dynamic Island:
You can change how app icons look on your iPhone 18 Pro Home Screen–adjust their size, apply a color tint, or switch between light and dark appearances.
, then choose Customize.
. In large size, the names of the apps disappear.
On iPhone 18 Pro, you can change the wallpaper on the Lock Screen and the Home Screen. You can set your wallpaper in Settings or through the wallpaper gallery from your Lock Screen.
on your iPhone.
Note: If you don’t see wallpaper options you want to use (for example, Weather or Astronomy), scroll down to see more options, then tap Get below the one you like.
to use a custom photo, or select Blur to blur the wallpaper so the apps stand out.
Widgets give you an easy way to view current information from an app at a glance–today’s headlines, weather, reminders, battery levels, and more. You can add widgets to your iPhone 18 Pro Home Screen or Lock Screen to keep this information at your fingertips.
, then tap Add Widget.
.
You can change the sounds iPhone plays when you get a call, message, and alert.
Haptic feedback is the vibration you feel on your iPhone when you perform some actions, such as when you touch and hold any icon on the Home Screen.
To change ringtone and vibration settings on iPhone 18 Pro:
on your iPhone 18 Pro.
You can also change the sounds iPhone plays for certain people. Go to the Contacts app 
, tap a person’s name, tap Edit, then choose a ringtone and text tone.
On iPhone, you can make your screen dimmer or brighter (dimming the screen extends battery life). You can also adjust the screen brightness and color manually or automatically with Dark Mode.
To make your iPhone 18 Pro screen dimmer or brighter, do one of the following:
up or down., tap Display & Brightness, then drag the slider.Dark Mode gives the entire iPhone 18 Pro experience a dark color scheme that’s perfect for low-light environments. With Dark Mode on, you can use your iPhone 18 Pro while, for example, reading in bed, without disturbing the person next to you.
Do any of the following:
, then tap 
to turn Dark Mode on or off., tap Display & Brightness, then select Dark to turn on Dark Mode, or select Light to turn it off.You can quickly open apps from one of your Home Screen pages (like the one shown below) or your App Library.
If an app isn’t responding, you can quit it and then reopen it to try and resolve the issue.
Note: iPhone automatically manages how apps run in the background, so quitting apps you’re not using doesn’t prolong battery life.
You can quickly switch from one open app to another on your iPhone 18 Pro. When you switch back, you can pick up right where you left off.
To quickly switch between open apps on an iPhone 18 Pro, swipe right along the bottom edge of the screen.
Making a phone call on iPhone 18 Pro is easy.
Siri: Ask Siri to call or dial a number. Speak each digit separately–for example, “four one five, five five five….” For the 800 area code in the U.S., you can say “eight hundred.”
Or without using Siri:
on your iPhone.
, then do any of the following:
.
to see the last number you dialed, then tap to call that number.
to start the call.
To end the call, tap 
.
With an internet connection, you can make and receive calls in the FaceTime app.
on your iPhone.
to open Contacts and add people from there, or tap a suggested contact.
to make an audio call.
You can send text messages, images, and much more. You can reply within a conversation or to specific comments in a thread. You can even use Siri to listen and respond to your messages.
Siri: Ask Siri something like, “Read my last message from Antonio.”
You can send a text message to one or more people to start a new conversation.
on your iPhone.
at the bottom of the screen.
To choose recipients from your contacts, tap 
in the To field.
or 
to add emoji.
to dictate text in the language of your keyboard.
(to the left of the text field) to send photos, videos, stickers, location, and more.
to send.
To return to the conversation list from a conversation, tap 
.
Messages are grouped by conversation in the conversation list. A dot indicates you haven’t yet read one or more messages in that conversation.
on your iPhone.
to send your message.
on your iPhone 18 Pro.
You can also click the Camera Control button to open Camera, then click it again to take a photo.
Use the front-facing camera on your iPhone 18 Pro to take a selfie. You can take selfies in Photo mode or Portrait mode.
on your iPhone.
to switch to the front-facing camera.
to increase the field of view; tap 
to return to the original view.
to rotate the frame from portrait to landscape on supported models; tap 
to return to portrait.
Siri AI (Beta) is your conversational AI assistant with entirely new capabilities, including personal context understanding, onscreen awareness, and broad world knowledge. With Siri AI, you also have Siri mode in Camera, which allows you to search, ask questions, and take action based on what’s around you, and a dedicated Siri app that brings all your conversations in one place. These new capabilities make Siri a more capable assistant by allowing you to find what you need and get more done.
on your iPhone 18 Pro.
Siri AI can search your photos, mail, messages, calendar, and more to find exactly what you’re looking for. Ask Siri to find a photo from years ago, a recommendation from a family member, and details about your friend’s flight itinerary from your email or calendar.
Siri AI: Activate Siri, then say something like, “Find photos from my trip to Lisbon” or “What time should I leave to pick up Antonio?”
With onscreen awareness and an understanding of your personal context, Siri AI helps you get more done. Ask Siri to plan a menu for an event or add ingredients from a recipe to your shopping list. Siri can also take action in more apps and even make suggestions for what you might want to do next.
Siri AI: Activate Siri, then say something like, “Plan a menu for my watch party on Saturday.” Swipe down on the Siri response to see the full menu and make follow-up requests, like “Send this to the fantasy league group chat.”
Siri AI has broad world knowledge, which is combined with your personal context to give you detailed, up-to-date, and relevant insights to your questions. Ask about virtually any topic–from finding the perfect weekend activity to do with family to details about the world around you.
Siri AI: Activate Siri, then say something like, “Give me some tips on how to improve my tennis backhand” or “When will cherry blossoms reach peak bloom this year?”
Ask Siri about content on your iPhone screen–like an image or PDF–to get answers, search, or take action.
Siri AI: Activate Siri, then say something like, “What is this and how do I make it?” Swipe down on the Siri response to see the recipe and make follow-up requests, like “Add the ingredients to my shopping list.”
Siri mode in Camera uses Visual Intelligence to let you quickly identify something, ask questions, search based on what’s in your camera frame, or take quick actions–like splitting a bill with friends when you get the check or quickly importing a card to Apple Wallet.
Siri AI: On your iPhone with Camera open, tap Siri to switch to Siri mode, or click and hold the Camera Control when your iPhone is locked. Point your iPhone camera at something around you, then tap 
to ask a question. You can also tap a suggestion–for example, while pointing the camera at a check, tap “Split Bill with Apple Cash” when it appears, then follow the onscreen instructions.
Siri AI can generate a draft from scratch, summarize information, and provide feedback on what you’ve written–just describe what you want. For example, ask Siri to proofread a note or to write an itinerary for an upcoming trip.
Siri AI: Activate Siri, then say something like, “How’s this sound?” or “Write a day-by-day itinerary for a 3-day trip to New York.” Swipe down on the Siri response to continue to revise or ask follow-up questions.
The Siri app brings all your conversations in one place, allowing you to pick up where you left off or start new conversations.
Siri AI: Go to the Siri app 
on your iPhone, then select a conversation or tap 
to start a new one.
Notifications help you keep track of what’s new–they let you know if you missed a call, if the date of an event moved, and more.
To see your notifications in Notification Center, do any of the following:
To close Notification Center, swipe up from the bottom with one finger.
When you have multiple notifications in Notification Center or on the Lock Screen, they’re grouped by app, which makes them easier to view and manage. Notifications from some apps may also be grouped by organizing features within the app, such as by topic or thread. Grouped notifications appear as stacks, with the most recent notification on top.
Do any of the following:
The battery icon shows the battery level or charging status. When you’re syncing or using iPhone, it may take longer to charge the battery.
To charge iPhone 18 Pro, do any of the following:
You can view how much charge remains in your iPhone 18 Pro battery in the status bar.
on your iPhone.
On an iPhone 18 Pro, the battery percentage appears inside the battery symbol on the status bar.
Tip: On iPhone 18 Pro, you can also swipe down from the top-right corner to quickly view the battery percentage in Control Center.
Apple released Siri AI in 2026: a digital assistant that works with voice recognition and typing, and represents a major expansion of the previous Apple Intelligence system woven throughout their operating systems. Siri AI marks the biggest step forward in this area the company has ever taken.
This comprehensive guide rounds up all of our Siri AI and Apple Intelligence coverage, making it a useful resource for casual users who haven’t had a chance to test out the new Siri and those who might not remember all of the new Siri features. It’s also a great resource to send to friends and family members who have questions about Siri AI features.
Apple started deploying what’s loosely called “artificial intelligence” over a decade ago, when they silently switched the original Siri voice-assistant system to use a neural network—a software model that mimics neurons in the brain—in 2014. Unfortunately, even then, Siri was always somewhat frustrating to use unless you learned exactly the set of words you should use for particular kinds of instructions, and were patient when it got it wrong—repeatedly. Other voice assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, offered more natural interactions.
Siri AI is the latest evolution of Apple’s original voice-only assistant. On supported devices, you can trigger Siri AI by voice, through a button press, or by swiping and typing, among other methods. Then you can ask it questions, or just search stuff that’s on your device.
For the first time in Siri history, you can ask Siri questions or ask it to do something and almost always get a satisfactory outcome. Revolutionary! Even better, Siri retains context: you can have an ongoing conversation in the Siri app, and the vastly upgraded chatbot feature now doesn’t lose the thread.
Apple devices have long offered a wide range of features intended to make them easier to use for people who have difficulties with some aspect of the default interface—which doesn’t necessarily imply a disability, but also encompasses personal preference and a limited tolerance for Apple’s Liquid Glass shenanigans, for example.
Visual Intelligence’s remit has grown substantially since it originally let your iPhone describe what it saw via the Camera in iOS 18.2. Generally, Visual Intelligence lets you query what it “sees” in a screenshot or through the camera, or take action on what appears. Swipe your finger around something to prompt a visual search that can explain what you’ve highlighted.
Apple Intelligence has its own role in Apple’s operating systems, starting iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15. The company expanded Apple Intelligence offerings in the version 26 operating systems, and then added many more features across apps in version 27. These are the Apple Intelligence features built into Apple’s own apps.
As writers and technologists with combined experience in the tech industry of well over six decades—much of it focused on Apple—we have fairly well-developed opinions about which features are genuinely useful to a wide range of people and which ones lack practical utility and are more effective as marketing tools. That’s especially true for people in our age range (Gen X) and older, who constitute the vast majority of our readers.
Even though we want to be thorough and describe all the Apple Intelligence capabilities, there are a few that we think most people are better off avoiding because they may waste your time or may negatively impact your life. Those are the Image Playground app, Genmoji, and Write with Siri (formerly known as Writing Tools); you can make up your own mind as to whether they’re worth your time.
The Siri pane of Settings/System Settings lets you configure numerous aspects of Siri AI. You can use this pane to understand whether Siri AI is currently engaged, which is not always the case.