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Ask HN: Got my first iPhone. What should I know?
25 points by dysoco 4 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 44 comments
I just got an iPhone 15 as a gift, was using a cheap Motorola before. I know iPhones are very common in the US and Europe but I've never used one before and I'm pretty new to the Apple ecosystem (I have a Macbook Air but I use mostly dev tools).

My phone usage was heavy but fairly basic: social media, reading sites like HN, taking pictures, music, etc. what are some cool apps I might not be aware of as an Android user? What are some gotchas or tips you have that I might not have any idea about?

Feel free to point me to blog posts or youtube videos as well; I've been watching a few but they are mostly very generic going over the basic iOS features.

Thanks!




If you enable Continuity, you have some good features like clipboard sharing. This is arguably the most useful computing features of the apple ecosystem, especially if you use your devices in different context.

Explore the Accessibility section in the Settings. That's where the useful customization options are.

If you have the storage space, let the Photos app on the Macbook store the photos locally. Way easier to deal with them as a bulk there than on the Phone.

You can store web apps on the homescreen by using the share button. If it's a pwa, it will appears like a real web app (Was great for Navidrome, Logitech Media Server, and Outlook).

Some apps have both iOS and Mac versions, like Bear, Things, Anybox,... Be sure to check the iOS counterpart.

Explore Shortcuts. While I prefer scripts on the Mac, they're good on the iPhone.


Take the time to go through all the options in the Settings app. There are lots of options, and doing so is cumbersome and time-consuming, but it's worthwhile for configuring the phone options to match your preferences. I've found the sections Notifications, General, Control Center, Accessibility, and Privacy & Security most influential for my preferences.

When typing, double tap the Space Bar to insert a period followed by a space.

Long pressing on app icons from the Home Screen will often give access to a few handy shortcuts. For example, with the Messages app one option allows you to go directly to the New Message screen.

The Firefox Focus app is a good set-it-and-forget-it ad blocker for iOS Safari.

Be mindful of how Apple benefits users who have multiple devices and take advantage as you see fit. Others have mentioned Continuity, the Notes app is good and syncs between iOS and macOS, the Reminders app will also sync across platforms, etc.

Don't count on Siri for much. Rudimentary tasks are typically reliable, but not much else: setting timers; basic math, saying, "Call Judy," tell Bob I'm leaving now (for a text/iMessage), basic language translations.

Selecting text provides a pop-up menu that can be scrolled right to left and has some helpful options (like getting a word defined and a few other things).

When the next major iOS release comes out in a couple months, Apple sites like MacRumors and 9to5Mac can be helpful resources for tips on the new OS.


You don't need to purchase a "scanning" app. a) On your macbook, you can right click in files and "scan from iphone" and it wirelessly opens the camera on your phone. b) You can make new scans from within the Notes app, but it's a little hasstle.


You can also scan documents from the Files app (tap on the circle with three dots)


Long/force-press the space bar to move the cursor around in text boxes like a touchpad.


Wow, thank you. I cannot count how many times I have tried to get in the correct spot of a long message by using my fat fingers and never ending up in the right spot and just deleting a few words to correct one letter lol.


I'm on Android and my keyboard does that too


On my iPhone, long pressing the spacebar means that moving my finger around moves the cursor around as if I was operating a touchpad.

On my Android phone (running gboard), long pressing the spacebar means that moving my finger left and right scrolls the cursor left and right, but it doesn't operate like a touchpad (the cursor doesn't move smoothly, nor does it move up or down).

Is that not the same for you?


I have the same touchpad-like behavior. Not using Gboard though.


SwiftKey is very helpful with replacing the terrible, terrible iOS keyboard.

The iOS keyboard was without question the hardest part of the transition from Android to the iPhone for me. (GBoard for iOS is a pale imitation of GBoard for Android.) I still think it's weird that I have so much trouble with the iOS keyboard, because I've used an iPad for years, and the iPadOS "Flick Keyboard" has always been just fine since it was introduced 5 or so years ago.


I find the swift keyboard is better than the regular one, but good lord is the autocomplete terrible. It adds 's to words so often even when my finger never went close to the S key, it suggests "ang" as often as "and", and I'll often have something entered correctly, but then adding a word will cause the word three positions back to change. I could go on. I really don't get why it's so bad when my android from a decade ago basically always entered what I was thinking.


To be fair, SwiftKey is also very helpful in replacing the terrible stock Android keyboard.


> terrible iOS keyboard

iOS user since 2014. What's wrong with the keyboard exactly?


In GBoard for Android, there can be numbers on the top of the keyboard. (This is also available in iPadOS but not iOS.)

Most symbols (%@*'"!? etc.) are available on the keyboard itself with a long-press. (This is also true of the iPadOS "Flick Keyboard", but not iOS.)

There's a comma on the keyboard (why is it so hard to get a comma on literally every iOS keyboard?! This also is available on iPadOS. Yes, I use commas.)

Swype word detection is more accurate, even with the strictest privacy settings.

At the end of the day, with GBoard for Android, I never, ever needed to change modes on the keyboard or do a long swipe to type numbers, punctuation or symbols. Don't need to do it on iPadOS either. iOS, it's a total nightmare.

Maybe Tim Cook never types on an iPhone. I'm baffled as to why this is an issue. They made the iPadOS keyboard modern in 2018, the iOS keyboard remains mired in 2008.

The iPhone 15 Pro hardware is remarkable. The keyboard, though, oof, ow.


> I'm baffled as to why this is an issue.

I am baffled by 1-2 extra keypresses to use numbers or symbols & get back to the letters is such a big issue. The majority of the US & Japan (predominantly iPhone users) function just fine.

Either way it's too late for iOS to change it now because "loyal" iPhone users are used to it now.


I'm an iPhone user since last year and I wasn't able to use it for more than a day. Hard to explain, but it really is terrible to someone who is used to have a big choice of very good keyboards. It's just too basic and doesn't ever type what I want to type.

The most important missing feature is multi language support - I frequently combine multiple languages in one sentence. Switching languages every time I need to say a word or two in the other one is tiring.


I never have to switch languages just to type a word or two in another language into the keyboard. Switching keyboards is very fast from the button on the keyboard, but switching isn't even really necessary to type in multiple Latin alphabet languages. For me it even autocorrects and spellchecks correctly with mixed English-non English text regardless of the enabled keyboard. What do better solutions look like?


I don’t know if the mixed autocorrect is a new feature but if I switch to Hungárián thai is WhatsApp autó correct Ford tó my Message. French is similarité screwed up although after a few words it does seem to offer English autocorrect options. Maybe it depends on language?


For me (writing in mixed English and Spanish) it's never necessary to actually change the keyboard unless I just want the ñ key available. I wrote half of this with the English keyboard and half with the Spanish keyboard and it didn't make any difference with respect to autocorrect. If I want to use Spanish text in the middle of my sentence por ejemplo así, it just works. It autocorrects "asi" to "así" without switching to the Spanish keyboard.

It could be a function of time spent writing bilingual text. If I add a new keyboard (I tried Hungarian as well) and it didn't work for that. Or it may only work with exactly two languages? It's not a documented feature as far as I know, so it's hard to say what the conditions and parameters are.

For good measure I also tried reseting my keyboard dictionary just in case what I'm describing is just the effect of intermingling my autocorrect dictionary with so much Spanish over the years that it can code switch now, but nothing changed.


Better - and necessary for my use case - is the first word. I just type whatever I want and it suggests/tries both languages at the same time. Few words is too late since I want to use 1-3 words in the other language only.


That's generally exactly how it works for me. I don't think I've done anything special with my configuration apart from enabling two different language keyboards.


As someone who has to communicate in multiple languages, sometimes in a single conversation, apple's keyboard is useless.

Swift allows me to configure multiple languages to be active at once allowing to type without bothering which of the languages is currently active


Your MacBook Air have a shared clipboard - you may need to set some permissions for it to work but once it does it’s amazing.

Also, shared messages app.


It would probably be worth your time to watch some tips & tricks videos on iOS. Apps are cool, but other than some iOS exclusive 3rd party apps, the apps themselves will likely be pretty similar.

What you’ll really want to spend time on is learning the system and first party apps from Apple.

For example, in the camera app there is a little carrot in the top center that reveals a bunch of more advanced features. Simply swiping up (or away from the shutter button) on the viewfinder will also quickly bring these options up. Also, instead of tapping the shutter button, sliding it one way will start a video, while sliding it the other way will take a burst of photos.

I find tips like this really help me use my phone much better and easier, and they are things most users never stumble across on their own.

Apple likes to make apps that appear simple on the surface, so it’s easy for the 80% to use, but certain apps have a good amount of depth when you know where to look.


You can use the Messages app on your MacBook Air to send and receive texts and calls too.

When texting Android users, don't use reactions. It spams them with an additional text saying "Soandso liked your post blah blah." They don't share a compatible messaging protocol.

"Find My" with precision finding can be useful for locating your devices or wallet (with an Airtag).

If your iPhone has a lidar, you can have some fun with photogrammetry apps. It's like a Kinect in your phone.

-------

Those are just the random things I'm jealous of as an Android user. Had an iPhone for a while but couldn't get used to it.


Google has updated the Android default Messages app to catch and handle reactions from iPhones for almost two(?) years now, and you can message from any browser you are logged into. There is also an equivalent for find my in your Google account: https://www.google.com/android/find. The lidar thing sounds cool though.


You can also access your messages from the browser: https://messages.google.com/web/welcome


The Messages web app is pretty slow and flaky in my experience (I use it every day). The iMessage protocol seems more reliable across devices, but that's just anecdotal.

The Reactions thing depends on your phone's default app. On Pixels and a few Samsungs the Google app comes default, but that's not the case across Android (especially older and cheaper devices). In a mixed group, you can't reliably predict who can and cannot see them. There's usually 3 or 4 separate protocols (SMS/MMS/RCS/iMessage). Safer to not use them unless you're talking 1 on 1 with someone you know can receive them.

Precision Finding is different from the base location system. The iphones have a separate ultrawide band radio that can triangulate and point to things nearby with a compass. Some Android phones have dormant UWB radios in their chips but as far as I know there is not yet ecosystem support for it yet except maybe in limited Samsung devices. That's supposed to coming to Pixels later this year. We'll see.

Yeah the lidar is neat. Mostly just a toy though since most of the photogrammetry is done by the visual camera instead (you can disable the lidar and still get similar results).


On YouTube, I love "Proper Honest Tech".

https://www.youtube.com/@ProperHonestTech

He is excellent at explaining how to use the iPhone (and other Apple stuff) in a fun, clear and concise way. His explanations are simple, but he goes deep on features that I haven't seen covered elsewhere.


- Disable background refresh for all apps (for battery life)

- Enable lockdown mode and any other privacy features

- Limit all app permissions to the minimum, including notifications (for privacy and battery)

- For password manager, use bitwarden (or 1password), not apple's own (to prevent lockdown)

- Under location settings, avoid using precise location unless explicitly required, like maps (for privacy)


If you like the sound of white noise or rain, there is a nice built-in feature that makes it available as additional background music even when listening to podcasts:

Settings -> Accessibility -> Audio & Visual -> Background Noise

I can activate it by pressing the home button three times (but I think that needs an additional setting).


Shortcuts is a cool app that seems underused. I have a few automations that I use regularly:

- open a specific web page every day at 5:00

- an icon on the Home Screen that enables low power mode (otherwise you have to dig into the settings for it)

- custom icon images for various apps, just to make it more visually appealing


Pay for a developer account, since without it you can't feasibly sideload the good apps.


What are the good apps that need to be side loaded?


UTM for real computer functionality, Retroarch for games that aren't disguised casinos, whatever the private keyboard app of the week is and other secure stuff like offline OTP apps.


There are good emulators available now, including Delta that covers most of the early-mid eras of gaming.


I installed retroarch from the App Store recently. Is it a different version?


Install AdGuard as soon as possible.

The stock iOS apps (calendar, mail, etc.) are all pretty good and clean, I recommend trying to use them unless you find a good reason not to.


Set up proper icloud security, findme, backup and sync options.

Explore builtin features for notes, tasks, mail app etc.

That is when you get awesome synergy with your macbook.


Shake your phone to undo typing or editing.


You can select text in images, such as screenshots and photos. I think this still isn’t possible on Android.


Google Lens in Photos app can do that.


Yes it is.


Everything you need to know can be found here: https://www.stallman.org/apple.html




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