If you're a lifelong iOS or Android user looking in, you will like this one. Apple has recently been putting a lot of effort into what their core customer fan base has been asking for…more customisation & more exclusive iOS features…some of which I think Android users would love…. If you've just picked up a new iPhone, here are 10 tips & tricks you can show off to your Android friends

Don’t stop the music

 Have you ever been connected your iPhone to a Bluetooth speaker & you’r jamming? And then suddenly an opportunity presents itself and you want to take a photo or a video to capture the moment.

But as soon as you open the camera app, the music stops & completely kills the moment.

 Well, on iPhone now, that won't happen. To check this is enabled, go to

 Settings / record sound / Allow audio playback

More Control

 Something else that you'll like is Apple's new approach to the control centre. You could always modify what appeared here, but now you can resize controls so more important tools can be bigger. But the additional pages that exist here really take these quick controls up a notch.

 So now you have a page for music & audio and one specifically for connectivity. And Apple does give you a blank canvas to play with, this is a great page to add your iOS secret weapons to… And I'll show you what those are if you stick around.

 And the Music page is a great place to add more audio-based tools. Such as the 'recognise music' Shazam tool and headphones level so you're not blasting your eardrums into oblivion. And something that is so useful & highly recommended you set up straight away.

 The background sounds. I say this because next time you're on a plane, you're trying to relax or sleep. Noise-cancelling headphones help, but they're not quite good enough to block out everything. These backgrounds are perfect when combined with ANC to block out the sound of crying babies or the annoyingly chatty people in the seats next to you…I do wish Android would add this. These ambient sounds are native to iOS & that, in my opinion, is nice!

 Extra Style

 So now, there is something new to iOS, which has been on Android for a while.  Of course,  Apple has added its flavour, making this customisation tweak unique.

 To access these controls. Hold your finger on your Home Screen, hit edit, and customise. Here, you can change the size of the App icons to large. This removes the app names beneath them. Which gives your home screens a more Tidy look with less text.

If you hit the sun icon, you can darken your wallpaper if you want more contrast between the app icons and the background. And now, you can choose whether you want your app icons to appear in light or dark mode. Or, you can set it auto so that it switches in time with your scheduled dark mode.

 And then there is now tint, which allows you to add a uniform colour to all your apps and widgets. And the lower slider here allows you to adjust the saturation. If you really want, you can use the eyedropper tool to grab a colour from your wallpaper. So that it matches your colour scheme perfectly.

Less distractions

 Ok, you know what could be better? Most websites are full of ads that follow you from website to website. Often trying to sell you things that really aren't your bag.

 Yes, you could get 3rd party ad blockers on iOS & Android, but within Apple's Safari, there's now a brilliant new tool that allows you to read what you intended to read without getting sidetracked and accidentally ordering 10 items for a tenner on Temu or some Nick Cage bed sheets for example.

 To use it, navigate to the website you'd like to read and on the left of the search bar. You'll see this little screen icon with two lines underneath it. The tool will change depending on the type of page you're on.

 You may see the option to hide annoying parts of the page. And you can simply tap to make them disappear. You may also see the reader icon, which looks like this. This removes all the distractions in one go, and you can adjust text sizes and background colours to make things even more readable. This sort of thing is my bag.

Haptic keyboard on / haptic Face ID

 Ok, so this next one isn't going to blow your mind. But it's a nice effect and switched off by default. Check this out go to :

 sounds & haptics / keyboard feedback / You can disable the sound here if you find it annoying, but one thing you'll like is the haptic feedback on the keys.

 Something else you might like is the / accessibility /Face ID / Attention. Here, you can turn on haptic on successful authentication. It's a nice bit of feedback that feels like a padlock unlocking.

 Unlock more RAW power

 Ok, something that's quite unique to the iPhone is its Pro-RAW format. Before you say this, it is the same as the RAW format on any phone. It's actually not. It's a combination of RAW and Apple image signal processing. Which is optimised in a way that allows the iPhone's camera app to edit them properly without 3rd party apps.

By default, the iPhone uses what's known as Pixel binning to combine the light gathered across its 48MP sensor into either a 12 or 24MP photo. This helps a lot when it comes to post-image signal processing. Put simply, the phone will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you in lower light settings and more challenging lighting conditions.

 However, if your surrounding lighting is perfect or you have some professional lighting setup. You can get a lot more from the iPhone's camera if... you do this. Go to

 Settings/camera/formats / enable pro raw & resolution controls

 You can still take photos using the more user-friendly Pixel binning mode, but now you can access the full 48MP resolution by tapping the pro raw button as and when needed.

But...a little disclaimer, although they will appear to have more detail if lit right, Images shot in Pro Raw will often appear to have a much more neutral colour profile. All the extra data is there, but it'll be up to you to colour-grade it and really pull the details out. Think of these RAW photos like an unpolished diamond… Now, I know what you might be thinking.

Well, yes, it can be. So you have to be smart about how to use it. Also, you should be mindful of the file sizes. They will be significantly bigger when shot in Pro Raw.

RAW storage tip

 So, if you didn't spend your life's savings on the 1TB iPhone. I'd recommend you use this next trick. Go back to the same menu: settings/camera/formats / Pro default

 Here, you can change the Pro default to the High Efficiency Image Format. A 48MP HEIF photo will be significantly smaller. At around a 9th of the size of the JPEG lossless that the iPhone defaults to.

You'll still get tons of detail, but these files can be trickier to work with in 3rd party apps.

 On the other hand…if you want the best of the best and storage is not a concern, then you could switch the format to JPEG XL lossless, which can be perfect if you want to blow your images up for a canvas print or something.

A little more action

 Now, the iPhone's Action button is something incredibly useful if utilised in a way that works for you. By default, it's a mute button. But if you jump into the settings/action button / swipe across to the shortcut page.

 Here, you can set the Action button to open an App you use all the time. For example, while we are waiting for Apple Intelligence to launch, you could set this to open ChatGPT for example. But you take this one step further, why have just one shortcut when you can have 8?

Here's how to set this up. Open the official Shortcuts app. You'll see the folder icon with a plus in the top right corner. Tap that and call this folder 'Action Button'. Give it an appropriate icon. Now tap on the folder you just created and add 8 useful shortcuts.

 I won't go into how to create custom shortcuts in this one. But let me know if you want to see a video from me about how to do that. If I get enough requests, I will 'Make it so.' Anyway, go to all shortcuts and hold your finger down on the ones you want to add to the action button. Go to move, and move them into your newly created Action button folder. Once you've added up to 8 different ones.

 Now all you need to do is go to Settings / Action button / shortcuts / and select show folder / and choose the Action button folder. Now, when you push the button, you can quickly access your quick actions.

Send a message

 So, if you are in that iMessage bubble. Then you're going to like this one & there is also a little trick here that can help you save money if some of your friends are outside of the Apple ecosystem. Let's start with this new iMessage trick.

 Next time, you're writing a message and want to emphasise a very important part of the message. Hold your finger down and highlight the important words; then, you'll see the option to add a text effect. This can give your words a little more meaning and impact…

But you know, sometimes I don't know why I bother because whenever I ask people to subscribe, they are like.

 Anyway, that money-saving tip. Go to settings/apps / messages /

And in the text messaging menu, enable RCS messages. This will use mobile data instead of SMS to send messages to Android users. That way, your mobile operator can't charge you for them. Also, you can send higher-quality images and videos via the iOS message app.

  Eye Tracking

 Did you know that some Apps can actually detect what you are looking at on the screen with surprisingly good accuracy? It's true. This is likely primarily used for research & marketing purposes. You can actually use this to your own advantage.

 Remember the secret weapons page I mentioned earlier in the video? Here is one of them. If you swipe in from the top right corner. Hit the plus and swipe all the way down to the blank page. Tap add control, now type eye tracking. Now, add this tool to the page. And make it bigger because why not.

 Once you enable this, you have to run through a little calibration process to set it up. Once you've done that, you can control your phone without using your hands. I mean, this is kind of next-level stuff… and this could be the beginning of the future when it comes to user interfaces. Who knows, one day, kids looking at our old school phones might be like ( meme )

 Voice control

 Here's another helpful tool that can help if your hands are full and you can use your newfound eye-tracking skills. Just like before, swipe in from the top right, and side note, if you keep your finger held down, you can very quickly jump between the control centre pages that you can. So jump to the end one. Hit the plus / add control / this time type voice control. Once again, might as well make this bigger…

 Now, when you enable this, you can control your iPhone with your voice and at even greater distances than with Eye tracking. Once you master this, It can be incredibly useful when you're cooking or at the gym or for the time when you're feeling so lazy that you don't even want to lift a finger… which is pretty much every Sunday for me.

 Before you go ahead and start using this, I highly recommend you run through the tutorial so you know what it recognises as commands…because if you don't, you'll have an argument with your phone. You can find it by going to settings / accessibility / voice controls

Here, you'll see the tutorial.

 So you made it to the end! And thank you so much for sticking around. And as a reward for making it this far. Here are a few more bonus tips and tricks that you might like.

  back tap

 Go to accessibility / touch / back tap

Here, you can set up a unique shortcut when you tap the back of your phone. There are a lot of options here to choose from. Something like the Apple watch mirroring.

  Mac Mirror

 On that topic, a new feature is still in beta. Which you'll love if you use an Apple Mac. It needs to run the latest version of MacOS Sequoia. You'll need the beta update to enable this, which you can get by going to settings / general / software update. By doing this, you will be opting to share diagnostic data, so you should be aware of that.

 Once you've got the Mac and iPhone updates, you'll see the iPhone Mirroring app on your Mac. Simply tap that button, and you can control your phone in a small window on your computer.

Dynamic light

 Now, I'm a fan of the Dynamic Island interface. It's great for quick access to media controls and things like timers and stuff. But this new bright idea from Apple is really cool. It is the upgraded flashlight interface.

 When you want to shine a light on things. You can slide your finger up or down to adjust the brightness. And now you can slide left or right to narrow or widen the beam.

End Game Voice

 You remember the End scene of the Avenger end game. Where Tony Stark uploads his likeness to Ai…well, if you didn't bear with me here. Because you might like this in the event of an untimely death, not that death at any time is timely.

 You can create an Ai voice clone of yourself on an iPhone. It's easy to train…takes a little while, but it's quite impressive. Go to settings / Accessibility / personal voice.

Tap creates a personal voice. Repeat the phrases, and you can now be 'forever living' in a digital sense.

 And a question for Android viewers: which of these would you most like to see on your Android device & for you Apple fans? I've got plenty more tips and tricks like these up my sleeve. But for the sake of keeping this video as concise as possible. I cut a lot of them out. So let me know if you want a follow-up video of me on the iPhone 16.