iOS 12 Hidden Features: 4 Features Apple’s Tips Won’t Tell You About

By now, iPhone users may have noticed the little yellow light bulb that appears in your Notification Center to showcase some of the new capabilities and customizable settings that shipped with Apple’s latest software update, iOS 12. But amidst the host of flashier, well-publicized changes include a number subtler features and gestures that make getting things done on your iPhone or iPad easier than ever.

A simple tap can now prompt all of an app’s major features, for example, and sharing an iPhone X will be far less of a hassle thanks to some tweaks to Apple’s facial recognition technology. These smaller additions are meant to enhance this year’s marquee upgrades with an eye toward making more of the time you spend on your phones be time well-spent (of course, in your rush to take advantage of the latest, don’t forget to backup.

After you’ve saved your current version of iOS and installed the most recent release, you’ll be able to start poking around. There are a ton of hidden menus and shortcuts that are only a tap away.

iOS 12 Hidden Features: How to Share Your iPhone X

We might have seen the last of Touch ID with the release of the XS, XS Max, and Xr, but Face ID is getting better with each release. This latest update, for example, has included a multi-face feature that lets users set up more than just one face capable of unlocking these newer iPhones. This will particularly benefit parents that let their kids use their handsets on a daily basis. Now, every time they accidentally lock they don’t have to poke you let them in again.

To activate the feature, tap the Settings app, scroll down to the Face ID & Passcode menu, and inside that you’ll find the ‘Set Up an Alternate Appearance’ option. Now scan your friend’s, parent’s, kid’s, or loved one’s face to add them as a trusted user of the device.

iOS 12 Hidden Features: Quickly Summon Menus with 3D Touch

iOS 12 also shipped with a nifty shortcut between the home screen and a given app’s best features, thanks to Apple’s 3D Touch feature. 3D Touch was introduced in 2014 but it has since seen some vast improvements.

If you holding down on the Camera app in iOS 12, it will now prompt a few options that will take you to a specific setting to take a selfie, record a video, or scan a QR code. Pressing on Photos will provide you with quick access to your most recent pictures organized by their location. This works with the Music, Podcast, and Calendar apps as well as certain third-party apps like Slack, YouTube, and Seamless.

This feature, however, may be short-lived for one of Apple’s new iPhones: the company is ditching its 3D Touch capabilities in its newly Xr, so you may not have access to these same quickdraw menus if you choose to pick one up.

iOS 12 Hidden Features: Keyboard? More Like a Trackpad

This feature was already available but it’s seen a minor tweak. Instead of having to precisely select a certain part of a text or paragraph, users could use 3D Touch on their keyboard to place their cursor where they needed it. But now it’s as easy as just holding down the space bar.

Just tap the bar and hold your finger there, it’ll turn your keyboard into a trackpad.

iOS 12 Hidden Features: More Customization for Podcast Fans

Podcast power listeners rejoice, you can now set the amount of time you can rewind or skip forward, as opposed to being limited to 30 second intervals. This is especially useful for people who have a tendency to zone out during their commute — need to rewind a minute or two — or for those that want to skip the ads without missing a beat.

Tap settings, scroll all the way down to Podcasts, and near the bottom you’ll see Skip Buttons. Select how much you want each one to be and get back to listening.

Correction 9/19/2018: This article was updated to reflect the fact that both the iPhone XS and XS Max will have 3D Touch capabilities.