I’ve been selling iPhones for years now. Refurbished ones mostly — which means I’ve set up hundreds of them, transferred data from hundreds more, and watched a lot of people use their phones in ways that made me want to reach through the screen and change their settings for them.
The gap between how most people use their iPhone and what their iPhone can actually do is genuinely massive.
This guide covers the tips we use ourselves at OLA TECH, plus the ones we tell customers about when they pick up a refurbished phone from us. Sorted by what’ll save you the most time first.
Start Here: Three Settings to Change Right Now
Before anything else — if you’ve never touched these three settings, do it now. Takes under two minutes and you’ll notice the difference today.
1. Set up Text Replacement. Stop typing your email address. Go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement → + and assign @@ to your email. One tap, done. Full guide: [How to Set Up iPhone Text Shortcuts →]
2. Turn on Focus Mode properly. The default Do Not Disturb is too blunt. Focus lets you allow calls from specific people, silence specific apps, and set a schedule. Settings → Focus. Full guide: [iPhone Focus Mode Setup →]
3. Check your battery health. Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging. If it’s under 80%, your phone is running noticeably slower and holding less charge. Good to know, whether you’re planning to replace it or keep it. Full guide: [iPhone Battery Health: What % Is Too Low? →]
Hidden Features Worth Knowing
These exist in iOS right now. Most people don’t know about them because Apple doesn’t really surface them.
Back Tap shortcuts. Double or triple tap the back of your iPhone to trigger any shortcut, app, or action. Settings → Accessibility → Touch → Back Tap. I have triple-tap set to take a screenshot. Sounds gimmicky, turns out I use it constantly.
Track any flight. Type a flight number — just the letters and digits, like CX833 — into Messages, Notes, or Safari’s address bar. iOS 16 and later shows you live flight status without an app. Works better than most flight tracker apps, honestly.
Share a link to a specific paragraph. On Safari, highlight any text on a webpage, tap Share → Copy Link to Highlighted Text. The person you send it to jumps directly to that line. Useful more often than you’d expect. Full guide: [How to Share a Web Link That Jumps to a Specific Line →]
Text replacement for autocorrect fixes. If autocorrect keeps changing a word you actually want — your name, a brand, a technical term — go to Text Replacement, type the word in Phrase, leave Shortcut blank, save. iPhone stops “correcting” it forever.
Have you ever found a feature by accident and wondered why Apple doesn’t just show you these things? That’s kind of the whole premise of this section of the site.
Battery Tips That Actually Work
Battery anxiety is real. These help.
Optimised Battery Charging should already be on (Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging) but check it. It slows charging past 80% overnight to reduce wear. Doesn’t affect your battery during the day.
Check what’s draining it. Settings → Battery → scroll down to see which apps used the most battery in the last 24 hours or 7 days. Background App Refresh is usually the culprit for apps you barely open. Go to Settings → General → Background App Refresh and turn it off for anything you don’t need updating in the background.
Screen brightness is the biggest drain. Auto-Brightness (Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Auto-Brightness) does a decent job. Manually lowering it when indoors makes a real difference on older phones.
Buying a refurbished iPhone? Read our battery health guide first — it tells you what percentage to accept and what to walk away from. [What Battery Health Should a Refurbished iPhone Have? →]
Keyboard Shortcuts Worth Setting Up
We covered Text Replacement above. The Shortcuts app goes deeper — you can automate things that Text Replacement can’t touch.
But even without touching the Shortcuts app, the keyboard has some underused features:
Swipe typing — slide your finger across letters instead of tapping each one. It’s already on by default. A lot of people never realise they can do this. Faster for one-hand typing.
Hold any letter for accented characters. Hold “e” for é, è, ê and so on. Useful if you write in French, Spanish, or other European languages.
Quick period — double-tap the space bar to insert a period and a space. Tiny thing, saves thousands of taps over a year.
What’s New in iOS 26
iOS 26 added several features worth knowing about. Full breakdown here: [iOS 26 Hidden Features: 12 Things Apple Didn’t Announce →]
The short version: the visual redesign is the obvious change, but the more useful additions are in the background — improved Focus filters, changes to how Mail categorises messages, and updates to the Passwords app that make it more practical as a standalone password manager.
How to Block Spam Calls
If you’re getting multiple spam or scam calls a day — which, if you’re in Hong Kong, you probably are — there’s a setting that makes a real dent. Full guide with exact steps: How to Block Spam Calls Automatically on iPhone →
The short version: Settings → Phone → Silence Unknown Callers. Unknown numbers go straight to voicemail. Legitimate callers leave a message; spam callers don’t bother. Some legitimate calls will get silenced too (delivery drivers, new contacts), so it depends on your situation.
More Guides in This Section
Browse all iPhone tips below, or jump straight to:
→ iPhone Text Shortcuts: Stop Typing the Same Things Over and Over
→ How to Block Spam Calls Automatically on iPhone
→ [How to Move Safari’s Address Bar Back to the Top]
→ [iPhone Focus Mode: The Setup That Actually Works]
→ [iPhone Battery Health: What Percentage Is Too Low?]
→ [iOS 26 Hidden Features: 12 Things Apple Didn’t Announce]
→ [How to Track Any Flight on iPhone Without an App]
We add new guides regularly. If there’s an iPhone feature you want covered, the comments are open.