5 iPhone Features I Must Try

Main points

• Multi-touch is better on iPhone than on Android, so it’s difficult to switch.
• The iPhone’s keyboard text replacement works great for entering email addresses.
• Apple Maps on iPhone offers a better interface and functionality than Google Maps.

As of 2024, it seems that more than 60% of Americans use iPhones. As part of this 60%, it’s not hard to see some of the reasons why iPhone users are loyal to Apple’s phones. In a smartphone market dominated by the two main operating system options, iOS and Android, certain features will absolutely make or break the user experience in one way or another.

There are some features of iPhone that are unmatched by similar Android products. These features either don’t exist at all or don’t exist like they do on iPhone and Android. For me, these features make it hard to consider ditching the iPhone for Android.

1 Keyboard text replacement saves time

Seriously, set it up now

Everyone wants your email address. Log into something? email address. Register something? email address? Trying to read an article? You need to insert your email address. Depending on your email address, typing manually on a touchscreen keyboard can be difficult. But with iPhone text replacement, entering your full email address is no longer a worry.

Simply setting “@@” or “@@@” to represent different email addresses can save a lot of time when filling out forms or logging into various applications. The best part about this feature is that it goes beyond this simple purpose. Anything you want to quickly type or filter out in your local language, this feature lets you do it easily and seamlessly.

To set up your own text replacement on iPhone (it syncs to all your Apple devices, by the way), open the Settings app and go to General > Keyboard > Text Replacement.

2 Apple Maps great interface and functionality

I’ll never get lost again

In the raging Google Maps vs. Apple Maps debate, I think it’s time we acknowledged that Apple Maps is probably better. While both apps get the job done getting from point A to point B, it’s the little details that make Apple Maps the better service.

Apple Maps’ excellent user interface fits perfectly with the rest of the iPhone, and its feature set beyond navigation makes it more popular than Google Maps. Key to the strength of Apple Maps is the business functionality the app offers. Small details like integrated Yelp reviews, the ability to select a business via iMessage, and automatic recording of calls to business names solidify Apple Maps as the better navigation app. The idea of ​​being forced back to Google Maps or Waze full-time is simply unappealing.

3 shortcut app

That’s good

Shortcuts app is one of the most powerful apps on iPhone. No matter how simple or complex your idea is, almost it can be done with the Shortcuts app. Whether you want your phone to perform a location-based action or a shortcut to a series of actions on your home screen, the Shortcuts app makes it possible.

Even better, the app is even more powerful with the release of the iPhone 15 Pro and its accompanying action button. Instead of the typical iPhone mute switch, the 15 Pro models have an action button that cycles through multiple functions. One of these features is triggering shortcuts. However, even without the iPhone 15 Pro’s action button, the Shortcuts app is still one of the most must-have features of the iPhone.

4 Apple Ecosystem

cozy walled garden

This will almost certainly be an indispensable feature of the iPhone. If you own multiple Apple products, they work better together. Using iPhone, iPad, Mac and other devices to plug into Apple’s walled garden makes leaving iPhone unattractive.

The seamless interaction between any given Apple product is one of the best parts of having multiple parts of an ecosystem. In the words of Steve Jobs’ slogan, “It just works.” To this day, that feeling remains when using any number of Apple products at the same time, and they will work together exactly the way you expect them to. For better or worse, the center of Apple’s product network is the iPhone. The idea of ​​excluding it from the ecosystem is less than ideal at best, and seems unachievable at worst.Multi-touch changes the game

5 Multi-touch changes the game

It’s easy to take it for granted

Multi-touch is one of those things that once you experience it, you just can’t let it go. When I first got an iPhone, the idea of ​​being able to use all of my fingers was foreign. Based on past experience, touching the screen with multiple fingers often results in click errors, but this is far from the case with the iPhone.

Whether you want to drag and drop images from social media into a text chain or just tap a folder while moving apps around the home screen, multi-touch makes it possible. The uses for multi-touch are profound, and you almost stop thinking about it after using it enough. But when I touch an Android device (whether it’s a phone or a tablet), those little touches of using multiple fingers to complete simple tasks disappear, and I immediately miss multi-touch.