Apple unveils new iPhones every year, but with them comes something much more exciting: a new version of Cupertino's mobile operating system that powers its new devices and adds features to older iOS devices; iOS 13 works on all iPhones back to the 6s and SE.
There are lots of cool new things in iOS 13, many announced by Apple at its Worldwide Developer Conference. That includes dark mode (finally), the ability to sign in with Apple using anonymized email addresses, enhanced video editing, audio sharing on AirPods, and revamped apps and abilities for Reminders, Apple Maps, Mail, Memoji, and Siri Shortcuts.
But what about the new stuff in iOS 13 that Apple has barely talked? We've uncovered several tricks all iOS power-users will want to know.
Multitask With Apple CarPlay
If you're using Apple CarPlay, iOS 13 adds a new look to the dashboard interface, including dark mode, so your in-car display mimics the settings you selected in Settings > Display & Brightness > Appearance.
The dash can also now show info from more than one app. It'll default to showing your location on Apple Maps (even if you prefer Waze or Google Maps for navigation), with a button to instantly turn on GPS directions to get home, buttons for appropriate devices like a smart home garage door opener, and a smaller tile for stopping/starting audio.
That means no more switching apps to stop music while you navigate. Plus, you can see album art thumbnails with music from supported music-streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, even Audible.
The interfaces for phone and messages are also updated. And you can view your day's appointments (and only that day's appointments) in the Calendar app. Best of all: if someone else uses your phone while it's connected to CarPlay, the app they launch no longer takes over the dashboard. So kids fighting for music control on your phone doesn't have to interrupt navigation anymore.
Don't Charge to 100 Percent Until Dawn
You're not going to overload your iPhone battery by charging it all night as you sleep, but it doesn't take long for it to get to 100 percent. And there's no reason for the phone to trickle-charge all night after that. Apple's solution: go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and turn on Optimized Battery Charging. It learns how you charge and will set up a routine of charging your phone only to 80 percent until the time right before it knows you'll wake, at which point it'll up it to 100.
Use 3 Fingers to Undo
I like to think no one uses the "shake to undo" option on an iPhone, because it could theoretically undo so much. (You can and should turn it off in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Shake to Undo.) Now iOS 13 has a better way: Double tap three fingers to undo. You may also triple finger swipe left for the same effect, then triple finger to the right to redo it.
Drag the Cursor All Around
There have always been ways to move the cursor around in iOS to start typing in a new spot. The best used to be holding down the space bar on the virtual keyboard until it became a sort of virtual trackpad. iOS 13 still supports that, but does it one better: simply touch the cursor and drag it wherever you like.
You can also tap in a word on screen to drop the cursor right in the middle of the letters, something that was impossible in previous versions of iOS.
Swipe-Type on Apple's Keyboard
Not that you need this, as it's available on almost every other third-party iPhone keyboard, but if you only use Apple's built-in keyboard, it now supports what's called QuickPath, which is a fancy name for swipe-based typing. Never lift a finger again to scrawl out a message. It's especially nice on an iPad (with the new iPadOS) where you can shrink the keyboard down to iPhone size and swipe around.
More Emoji Goodies
With iOS 13, you can add to your own custom Memoji face (like braces!), and there are three new Animoji you can manipulate with your face, including a cow, mouse, and octopus.
More interesting are the Memoji sticker packs. Much like the third-party Bitmoji, the stickers take your personalized face and give it an assortment of poses that show things like mind blown, thumbs up, sleeping, peace sign, swearing, hearts in the eyes, etc.—you know, all the things you do with regular emoji, but now with more you. You can also use them with the Animoji, so that octopus can give a thumbs up. Well, sort of, since it has no thumbs.
Send Unknown Callers Directly to Voicemail
If you never, ever want to take a call from anyone who isn't in your contacts list—especially the army of robocallers that won't leave any of us alone—this is a brute-force option you'll adore.
Go to Settings > Phone and turn on Silence Unknown Callers. You'll see the warning below it that "Calls from unknown numbers will be silenced, sent to voicemail, and displayed on the Recents list." You'll only hear a ring now if the caller is in your contacts, or was a recent outgoing call, or pops up in your Siri Suggestions (like if Siri saw the number in your email).
It's a shame that robocallers even get to go to your voicemail, to be honest, but this is a good way to ignore a lot of incoming nonsense. If you've got to keep your line open to unknown callers, you should really be using a secondary number via a second SIM card or VoIP burner account.
Let Special People Through the DND Wall
Do Not Disturb is a great way to temporarily silence distracting notifications, but iOS makes it easy to allow certain groups of people to contact you no matter what. For example, in Settings > Do Not Disturb > Phone, you can Allow Calls from your Favorites or a group preset from your contacts.
But if there's an individual who isn't in a group and you want to give them complete access to you, do it: Find their listing in Contacts and click Edit at the top right. On the edit page for that person, click either their Ringtone or Text Tone entry. Up top, you'll find Emergency Bypass, which "allows sounds and vibrations from the person even when Do Not Disturb is on." Pick a nice quiet ringtone if you do this—you're giving that contact a lot of leeway to call you even in the dead of night.
Change Settings Per Webpage
It used to be that with Safari, you changed features like font size and it applied to every site you visited in that browser. Now, settings are per-website, so you can have big type on one site, and smaller type on another.
You can also set Safari to always show the desktop version of a particular site, rather than the optimized-for-mobile page. Or set some pages to override your installed ad-blocker (like PCMag, perhaps) or automatically get fed through the Safari's Reader function (pictured), which strips out the extraneous stuff on supported sites.
Quick Connect to Wireless
If you're tired of having to go into Settings to get on a new Wi-Fi network or connect to a Bluetooth device, here's a slightly faster way. Open the Control Center and do a long hold on the connection box displaying the icons for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Cellular and Airplane Mode.
The pop-up you now get offers even more things to long-press—long-press the Wi-Fi icon and you'll get an instant list of visible wireless networks. Long-press the Bluetooth icon, and it brings up your existing list of connectable devices, so you can quickly jump on. It even works to quick-change AirDrop settings, so you could turn off receiving entirely, or switch between using it with everyone or contacts only.
