2023 Author: Gordon Kinson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-06-01 01:17
A modern smartphone has so many functions that users do not even know about many of them. Some of the default features are rarely, if ever, used. Certain iOS features may run in the background, making your iPhone run slower or drain your battery faster. In this article, we'll walk you through some of the iOS features that you might not use and how to turn them off.
Video:
What features on iPhone can be disabled for most users?
Spotlight search suggestions
Swiping down on the home screen will bring up the Spotlight search screen. Under the usual search line, there are numerous offers that some people do not use at all.
To turn them off, just go to Settings → Siri and Search and turn off three items of Siri Suggestions: In Search, In Find, On Lock Screen and In Share (disables recommended contacts in the Share menu).
Siri
How often do you communicate with Siri virtual assistant? If your answer is: “a couple of times a year” or “very rarely”, then feel free to turn it off (you can turn it on if necessary at any time). To turn off Apple's voice assistant, go to Settings → Siri and Search and turn off all three options: Listen to Hey Siri, Side-click Siri, and Siri with screen lock.
Widgets
To go to the widgets screen in iOS, slide the first page of the home screen to the right. If you rarely look here, then we recommend getting rid of this clutter altogether. This is quite simple: open the widget screen and click the Edit button at the very bottom. On the page that opens, click the "-" icon opposite each item, confirming the deletion with the Delete button.
When finished, click Finish.
Raising to activate
A feature that turns the iPhone screen on whenever you pick it up. This will work even if you just took your smartphone off the table to put it in your pocket. Disabled along the way: Settings → Screen and brightness → Raise to activate.
Automatically play videos in the App Store without your permission
iPhone is set by default to automatically play videos on the App Store's app and game pages. But this behavior of the system can be annoying. It is quite frustrating when a video suddenly starts playing with a loud sound that hits your ears. Yes, and automatic video playback trite CPU load and consumes traffic. For the mobile Internet, this can be very unpleasant.
You can disable this behavior in the Settings → iTunes Store and App Store → Autoplay video. Here you can set the option to automatically play videos only when connected to a Wi-Fi network, or completely refuse to show videos.
Keyboard Clicks & Lock Sound
If you often have to type on iPhone in front of people, you can probably annoy them with keyboard clicks. In order not to draw attention to yourself, disable them along the path: Settings → Sound, tactile signals → Keyboard clicks. You can also turn off the Lock Sound here.
Systemic tactile signals
In our subjective opinion, system tactile signals in iOS are also an unnecessary source of drain on the iPhone's battery. In case the absence of light vibration when working with iOS elements is not critical for you, disable this function along the path: Settings → Sound, tactile signals → System tactile.
Handoff
As a reminder, this feature allows you to start using the app on one Apple device and continue on another. For example, you can open a YouTube video on your iPhone and go back to what you started on your iPad or Mac, and vice versa.
This feature can only be very useful if you have multiple Apple devices. If you only have an iPhone from apples, then feel free to disable Handoff along the path: Settings → General → AirPlay and Handoff.
Improving Apple Services
Although Apple claims to collect little or no data about its users, this process is still happening. For example, a company collects information from a smartphone to improve its map service.
But in Russia, Apple cards are significantly inferior to similar services from Google and Yandex. However, most iPhones have options enabled by default that allow you to enhance Apple maps in the background.
If you do not use Apple's mapping service, then you should not improve it yourself. Go along the path: Settings → Privacy → Location services → System services and turn off the options: "iPhone Analytics", "Routing and Traffic", "Popular Nearby", "Map Enhancement".
Notifications from some apps
One of the most important points that affects the user's productivity during the working day, as well as the battery consumption of the smartphone. When installing a new application, do not rush to give permission to send notifications, otherwise the iPhone screen may turn on very often, for example, when receiving messages from instant messengers.
If there are already too many incoming notifications, open Settings → Notifications, go to the settings of a noisy app, and switch the Allow notifications switch to Off.
Backing up to iCloud
This option has several negative aspects, the main one being clogging up the cloud storage with unnecessary backups. This is most relevant if you have multiple Apple devices and a free iCloud plan that runs out of space.
When you turn off iCloud backup, you don't need to worry about your contacts, notes, reminders, calendars, etc., as well as the files stored in iCloud Drive, they will not be lost and it is very easy to restore all this to a new iPhone or iPad. The backup has nothing to do with it.
Disabling the creation of a backup in iCloud is made along the path: Settings → Apple ID (your name) → iCloud → Backup to iCloud.
We've covered the difference between iCloud backup and iCloud sync (iCloud Drive) in this article in more detail.
Fitness Tracking
If you are not keeping track of steps taken or calories burned, and you are not using your iPhone as a device for monitoring physical activity at all, turn off the Fitness tracking option located along the path: Settings → Privacy → Movement and fitness.
Screen time
Starting with iOS 12, the iPhone has a function that monitors the activity of applications and how often they are used. It's called Screen Time. The purpose of this feature is clear - it allows users to know which applications they use most often or abuse them.
This option seems useful at first glance, but this is only in theory. Surveys of iOS users consistently show that they very rarely use this feature. But it stays on on many iPhones, putting a heavy load on the battery. In many cases, Screen Time is the one to blame for the fast discharge of the smartphone. To disable this feature, go to Settings → Screen Time.
Auto correction
Tired of the curves of automatic word corrections when typing on the iOS keyboard, turn off the Auto-Correction option along the path: Settings → General → Keyboard.
Transparency (background blur effect in iOS)
This is the same background blur effect that gives a special shine to the "apple" software shell. Thanks to transparency, iOS elements stand out in volume against the “retouched” background, which really “refreshes” the interface design. The effect is present everywhere from the Control Center to the status bar with the clock.
Turning off transparency in iOS has a positive effect on device performance as well as battery life.
If you're willing to sacrifice beauty for the performance and longevity of your iPhone, turn on the Reduce transparency option along the path: Settings → Accessibility → Display and text size.
Reducing movement (parallax effect)
You've probably noticed the presence of a three-dimensional effect on the iOS home screen, in which application icons seem to hover against the background of the wallpaper. This is called the parallax effect.
If the lack of proprietary iOS visual effects is not critical for you, turn on the Reduce movement option along the path Settings → Accessibility → Motion.
By doing this, you will reduce the load on the processor and therefore extend the battery life of the iPhone.
Automatically send analytics data from iPhone to Apple
Every Apple smartphone collects some data by default, which is sent to the manufacturer for analysis. But don't worry - Apple does not collect personal data from its users. And this information is transmitted in encrypted form.
However, the very collection of data and their subsequent encryption, taking place on your iPhone, requires certain resources. It's good that this feature can be disabled. To do this, go to Settings → Privacy → Analytics and Improvements and turn off the functions: "Share iPhone Analytics", "Improve Siri and Dictation", "Share iCloud Analytics".
Track the places you visited
Every iPhone has a standard feature that tracks the places most frequently visited by the owner every day. The determination of these points is quite accurate. You can then see on the map those places where you visit most often.
This feature is designed to improve various features of the iPhone, such as Maps or the voice assistant Siri. But such an improvement has practically no direct effect on the operation of a smartphone. But the battery, this function of tracking the most frequently visited places eats up decently. To disable this feature, go to: Settings → Privacy → Geolocation services → System services → Important locations.
Shaking to undo
Shake to Undo, which lets you shake your iPhone to undo your last typing action in apps, has been around for a long time. But the fact is that active users, who often quickly move the gadget in space, could be pretty annoyed with the offer "Do not use" Input ".
To turn off the annoying feature, go to Settings → Accessibility → Touch → Shake to undo and move the slider to Off.
See also:
- How to pass a Wi-Fi password to guests without telling it (QR code).
- How to quickly call the last dialed number from iPhone.
- 10 cool iPhone + Mac connectivity options when used together.
