nothing to see here!
Description
Your iPhone has Quick Actions hiding behind your app icons, and most people have no idea they’re there. Just long-press an icon to reveal handy shortcuts that skip several taps and take you exactly where you want to go. I’ll show you my five favourites, from jumping straight to selfie mode in the Camera to scanning a document right from the Notes icon.
Transcript
One of my favourite things to do is to long-press app icons to quickly jump to different features of the app. For example, if I long-press on the Camera, I can go straight into selfie mode and take a picture as quickly as that. But there are loads of different ways this can be used, and I’m going to share five of my favourite ways now with you to help you save time on your iPhone.
So, number one is long-pressing that Camera icon. As I showed you, you can jump straight to selfie mode. You can go to portrait mode. In fact, you can go to any of the camera modes, like video as well, straight from there. Simply press and hold, tap on the option you want, and the app will launch straight to that place.
Another time I use this all the time, for number two, is finding updates in the App Store. Now, at the moment, you have to go to the App Store, press the profile picture, choose Updates, and then the list appears. But actually, you can just long-press the App Store icon, go straight onto Updates, and you’ll see all of your newest features for your apps straight away.
Of course, Photos also has some really good time-saving tips here. And if you long-press the Photos icon, I often jump straight to Favourites. This saves opening Photos, going onto Collections, and then scrolling to find Favourites. It’s literally just a tap and a drag and you’re there.
More productively though, quite often I’ll send email from my phone rather than my computer if I’m out and about, and I can simply long-press the email icon and then go straight onto New Message. That saves a couple of taps, but it means I can just start typing straight away before I forget what I wanted to send.
And then for number five, my most favourite use of this feature is when I want to scan a receipt or a document into Notes. Because rather than opening Notes and making a new document and then choosing scan, I can simply long-press the Notes icon and go straight to Scan Document. And as quickly as that, my receipt is scanned.
So they’re my five favourite shortcuts. Let me know in the comments which ones you like, and then check out this QuickTip next.
About Home Screen
The iOS Home Screen is the primary interface on Apple devices where users can access apps, widgets, and information at a glance. It offers customisation options such as arranging apps, adding widgets, and creating app folders, providing a personalised and efficient user experience.
Video Details
This QuickTip video was recorded on an iPhone 17 Pro Max
running iOS 27.
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Additional Information
The content used in this video is intended for educational and informational purposes only. All rights to the images, music, clips, and other media used belong to their respective owners. I do not claim ownership over any third-party content used. This video has not been authorised, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc.
iPhone, iPad and iPadOS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. iOS is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems Inc. Whilst I have done my best to list all applicable trademarks for this video, in the (hopefully unlikely) event that I have missed any you can find a full list of trademarks registered to Apple Inc. here.
Finally, please note that whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information contained within this video was correct at time of publication, please be aware that as future updates and software changes occur some or all elements of this video may become outdated. I will endeavour to remove videos which are completely obsolete so as not to cause confusion!
iPhone, iPad and iPadOS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. iOS is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems Inc. Whilst I have done my best to list all applicable trademarks for this video, in the (hopefully unlikely) event that I have missed any you can find a full list of trademarks registered to Apple Inc. here.
Finally, please note that whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information contained within this video was correct at time of publication, please be aware that as future updates and software changes occur some or all elements of this video may become outdated. I will endeavour to remove videos which are completely obsolete so as not to cause confusion!
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