20 iOS 9 Features Every iPhone Owner Needs To Know!

If you own an iPhone then you know there’s much more than meets the eye when it comes to your iDevice.   Now with iOS 9 there are so many cool features and exciting ways to make your iPhone more efficient.  Let’s dive into 20 iOS 9 features every iPhone owner needs to know.

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1. Manage storage on your iPhone
   

   To do this:  Go to Settings, click on General, then Storage and iCloud Usage. Once you’re there, you’re going to see the storage from your iPhone and also the storage in iCloud, but what we’re concerned about is the iPhone.  To manage your iPhone’s storage:  Click on Manage and you will see which apps are actually using up the most space on your iPhone (this will display a list of apps and the amount of space each app is taking on your phone).

   

2. Search Bar In The iPhone Settings App

   One cool thing that they’ve introduced with iOS 9 and I frankly don’t know what took so long, but you’ve got a search bar in the Settings app. So, instead of having to scroll all the way through your settings to look for something, you easily use the search bar instead.

3. iOS 9 Battery Features

   There are some really cool Battery Features available as well, so let’s check these out.
   Go to Settings, scroll down to Battery and we’ll look at a few things you can do do get more from your iPhone battery.

   

• Low Power Mode:
  You’ve got the option to put your phone in low power mode which will temporarily reduce power consumption until you can fully charge your iPhone.  While you’re in low power mode, some effects will be either turned off or reduced so that they conserve battery life.  Using low power mode will extend your battery life up to 3 hours and once your device is charged at least 80% it will automatically turn off.
• Battery Percentage:
  You can also turn on the battery percentage feature so you can see exactly how much battery life you have remaining just by looking at the status bar. I love that setting!
• Battery Usage:
  See which apps are draining the most energy from your iPhone’s battery in the last 24 hours and in the last 7 days.
• iPhone Battery Notification Feature:
  Another iPhone battery feature comes from the notification center drop down menu. To access this feature swipe down from the top of your iPhone to reveal the notification center. Click on Today and from here you can also keep an eye on how much battery life you have left on your iPhone, Apple Watch or any connected Bluetooth device.

4. Select Multiple Photos At One Time
   

   With iOS 9, it’s really easy to select multiple photos now.  Before what used to happen,  you’d have to select one photo at a time, and that would get a little cumbersome.  Now in order you can select multiple by swiping each photo in one swift motion.  You can deselect photos by swiping as well.

   

    

   CHECK OUT: Easy iPhone Camera Tricks You Should Try Right Now

    

5. New Folders In Photos App
   

   You now have separate folders for Selfies, Screenshots and Bursts.

6. iPhone Back To Feature

   I’m loving this new ‘Back To’ feature.  Say for instance, you’re in the email app and you click on a link. Instead of having to close down that app and re-open the mail app, you can just click on ‘Back To’ in the upper left corner of your iPhone’s screen and it will take you right back to the email app. That’s something we’ve needed for a long time, in my opinion.

7. Keyboard Features
   

   The keyboard displays lower case letters now by default.  To change that to upper case, just hit the shift key.  If you want to display capital letters all of the time instead, go to Settings, hit General, Accessibility, scroll down to Keyboard, and click ‘Show Lower Case Keys Off’.  

8. Request the Desktop Version In Safari
   

   Sometimes you want to see the desktop version of a website even from your mobile device.  To display the desktop version, hold down the refresh icon at the top of your screen and you’ll see ‘Request Desktop Site’.  When you click that, it’s going to actually run the desktop version of the website in Safari on your iPhone.

9. iPhone Apple Pay Shortcut
   

   There’s a new shortcut to bringing up Apple Pay when you need it.  Just double tap from your iPhone’s lock screen and you’re set to use it.  To enable this feature go to Settings, Wallet & Apple Pay then make sure the ‘Double-Click Home Button’ is enabled.   Also make sure you’ve verified your Credit Card with your bank first or this won’t work for you.

   

10. Easily Draw or Markup Attached Photos In iPhone Email
    

    You can easily Draw or Markup attached photos in your email and you can attach photos to your email. To attach a photo to your email, double tap in the body of the email where you’d like to insert a photo or video, this will reveal a menu: ‘Select – Select All – Paste’.  Click the arrow on the right side and hit ‘Insert Photo or Video’.
    To draw or markup a photo in an email, double tap the photo to reveal the same menu that I mentioned above.
    Next click on markup and that will open the markup tool. Now, you’ll be able to change the color and width of the marker, highlight or zoom in on a specific part of the photo and insert text.
    Once you’re finished, hit done and you’re all set!

11. Use Flash while recording a video on your iPhone
    

    Before you hit the ‘Record’ button next time you’re recording a video in low light, click on the flash icon in the top left hand corner of the screen.
    Next click ‘On’ and hit the ‘Record’ button, now you’ve got a flash while you’re recording a video!
    You can also click ‘Auto’ so that the flash will automatically come on when needed.

12. Disable “Shake to Undo” feature
    

    With iOS 9 you can now disable the ‘Shake to Undo’ feature. If you hate that feature, thanks to iOS 9, you don’t have to live with it.
    To disable the feature go to Settings, click on General, next Accessibility then scroll down to ‘Shake To Undo’ and toggle off.

13. Turn Off All iPhone Vibrations
    

    Have you ever gotten a vibration alert even though you thought you had ‘Do Not Disturb’ on or you had your iPhone set to vibrate?
    Now, you can turn off ALL of your vibrations. Go to Settings, click on General, click Accessibility then scroll down to Vibration.
    When you toggle this feature off, ALL vibrations on your phone will be disabled, including those for earthquake, tsunami and other emergency alerts.

14. Change the Video Recording Settings
    

    With iOS 9 we’ve got 4k video!  The only problem is that 4k video takes up a ton of space on your iPhone so Apple gives you the ability to choose what type of video recording setting you want.  To change the video recording settings:

    

    Go to Settings, scroll down and choose ‘Photos and Camera’. Under camera, you will be able to change the ‘Video Recording’ and the ‘Slow-Mo’ recording resolution.You’ve got the options of 720p HD at 30fps, 1080p at 30fps, 1080 at 60fps and 4k at 30fps
    How much space is 1 minute of video is going to use? Glad you asked (lol) see below:
    60 MB with 720 HD at 3 fps
    130 MB with 1080 HD at 30 fps
    200 MB with 1080 at 60 fps
    375 MB with 4K 
    You can also change the setting on ‘Slow-Mo’ as well. You’ve got the choice between 1080p and 720p.

15. iOS 9 Notes App Features
    

    The notes app now has a + button.  What’s cool about that, is that you can add a checklist to a note, insert videos (take a photo or video, or choose photos from your photo library) and you have the markup feature. Just experiment with that little + button, there’s a lot of different things you can do in the notes app!

16. Change Your Notification Settings
    

    You can customize the way your notifications are displayed on your iPhone by order of app, from most recent to least recent,  or you can even group by apps.
    To set this up, go to Settings, scroll down to Notifications and select ‘Sort Order’ or ‘Group by App’.

    YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:  Top 10 Things I Do To Improve My iPhone Battery Life

17. Change The Way Notifications Display On Your iPhone
    

    This feature has been on iOS for a while, however a lot of people still don’t know that it even exists, so for that reason I included it in this list.
    Click on Notifications from the Settings app, now under ‘Notification Style’,  choose an app.  You have the option whether or not to allow notifications, show in notification center and etc.
    At the bottom of your screen, you can see three types of alert displays.
    You can have it display in the middle of the screen, at the top of the screen or not at all.

    

18. Restrict The Use Of Apps On Your iPhone.

    Say for instance, you give your iPhone to someone and you don’t want them just rambling around and opening anything, you’ve got the ability restrict their access to your apps before you hand it off.
    To do that:  Go to Settings, click on General, scroll down to Restrictions and enable Restrictions.
    Once you’ve done that you’ll be asked to create a passcode in order to enable and disable this feature.

19. Disable Control Center When Using Apps

    Say for instance, you’re playing a game and the games make you swipe your iPhone’s screen.  What will typically happen is that you will activate the ‘Control Center’.  To disable this feature go to Settings, scroll down to Control Center,  click on Access Within Apps and turn it off.
    You can still access the control center from the home screen but while you’re in an app, it won’t work.

20. Zoom In On A Video When It’s Playing

    Now while you’ve got a video playing on your iPhone you can zoom in on the video by pinching your fingers and you can also double tap the screen to zoom as well.

There you have it, 20 iOS 9 features every iPhone owner needs to know!  I hope this helps you get even more from that little pocket computer you can’t live without!  What are your favorite iPhone features?  Let me know in the comments below.