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Do you know your iPhone can do a lot more than you can think of? Let me make it more clear, there are some iPhone gestures or iPhone shortcuts in your phone that you might don’t know of.

Some of these iPhone gestures can be used simply by clicking the home button of your iPhone and some require multiple steps to use. With these gestures, you can get the most out of your iPhones.

Well, if you’re an iPhone user and still missing these cool gestures, we have created this iPhone gestures guide for you to help you get benefitted from these awesome iPhone gestures and shortcuts.

Read More: iPhone Guides

So, let’s dive into the details of the iPhone gestures list which can reveal some hidden menus for you to make your iPhone using experience easier and more enjoyable than ever.

1. Quick Spotlight Search

After the iOS 7 release, most iPhone users think that the spotlight search has been removed or disappeared from the screen. But that’s not the case. In fact, it’s been integrated into an iPhone gesture which requires a few simple steps;

Touch any part of your iPhone home screen.
Swipe down gently from where you press on your home screen.
The screen will drop with your swiping revealing the spotlight field and you simply turn it on or off.

2. Pull To Refresh

This is a well-known shortcut, yet it isn’t always evident. iPhone users can simply refresh any page thy are using just by pulling it down.

If you wish to refresh the contents of a webpage, an inbox, or another program, simply pull the screen down.
You should notice an arrow or indicator along the top that indicates the app is being refreshed once you’ve taken down the screen far enough.

3. Swipe To Reveal Timestamps & Other Options

The best thing all iPhone lovers love about iPhone is its clean interface and no clutter. But sometimes this clean interface makes us sacrifice a piece of additional information. For example, when a message was sent or when a mail was received. Well, there is a hidden iPhone gesture for it.

Simply, swipe to reveal the timestamps of all messages and mail and just check when you sent or receive any message.
By swiping on the screen, you can also get other options as well, like the “Delete” option right in the inbox of the mail.

4. Use More Emojis

Who doesn’t want to use a lot of emojis during chatting? But the process of clicking the emoji’s option and then going back to the keyboard to continue typing holds us from doing so. Well, iPhone has settings for this as well. Follow the below-mentioned steps to easily access emojis during texting on iPhone;

Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone.
Select the option of “general.”
From there, select “Keyboard.”
Next, simply add an emoji keyboard and that’s it you are free to use as many emojis as you want in your messages.

5. Tap the Menu Bar to Scroll to the Top

On iPhone, you can simply go back to the top of the screen by tapping in one single place. this iPhone gesture comes handing in case you are studying a document, or browsing through a list or page. All you have to do is;

Simple, tap on the menu bar on your iPhone screen. The menu bar is where you can see the time or your battery sign on the screen. By tapping, you will go back to the top of the screen.

6. Swipe To Go Back To The Previous Screen

To go back to the previous screen from your current screen requires just a little swiping in iPhone. You don’t have to press the exit button, again and again, to exit some apps on your iPhone. These apps include Notes, Messages, Mail, Safari, and others. Simply;

Swipe from the left edge of the screen to the right corner. This iPhone gesture can either let you peak at the previous screen or simply go back to that screen.
In the mail app, swiping in opposite direction can lead you to the forward page as well.

7. Open Siri With Your Ears

This is the coolest iPhone shortcut in our iPhone shortcut list here. Now you don’t have to press and hold down the home screen button to activate the Siri. All you need to do is touch your mobile phone to your ear and Siri will open up. To activate this iPhone gesture, perform the following steps;

Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone.
Tap on the “General” option there and select “Siri.”
An option of “Raise To Speak” will be available there. Activate this option and the light sensor of your iPhone will be turned on.
Now, simply put your iPhone to your ear and Siri will open up.

8. Reopen Closed Tabs In Safari

This is one of the very helpful iPhone shortcuts. You can simply reopen the closed tabs just by;

Tapping the bottom right button on your Safari app.
Then, long-press and hold the ‘new tab’ button.

You will see the list of your closed tabs.

9. Check Your Drafts Quickly

You can easily view your drafts from the Mail main menu, thanks to Apple.

Press and hold the ‘Compose’ button in the lower right-hand corner to quickly access your drafts.
This will bring up the drafts folder right away, allowing you to finish those messages you left in a rush.

10. Close & Switch Apps Quickly

This iPhone shortcut is for all those who do not like people snooping their noses in our iPhones. Now all you have to do is a little swipe on your iPhone screen to switch the apps quickly.

Drag the bottom of the screen to the top and hold it there until you feel a mild vibration.
Swipe right to navigate between apps.
Swipe up to close an app or tap it to switch to it.

Here’s a bonus tip: did you know that you can also switch between apps by swiping right or left across the bottom of the screen? Give it a go! Swipe right across the bottom of an app once it’s open. It’ll open the last app you were using. Swipe left to return to the previous screen, or swipe right to switch between apps.

11. Quickly Change or Move an Event in the Calendar

Nobody enjoys entering a new event time into a calendar event simply to move it. You can move events around in the Calendar app like you would widgets on your iPhone home screen.

In day mode, tap and hold the event to see two dots emerge around the box.
After that, you can drag the event’s edges up or down to adjust its duration or tap and drag the entire event to shift it.

12. Type Numbers, Symbols, and Capital Letters Faster

If you don’t like hitting Shift to acquire a capital letter or the number button to type a number, Apple has a shortcut for it too:

Simply press Shift and drag your finger to the letter you want.
Alternatively, hold down the number key and drag it to the desired number. It’s a lot more convenient to type those special characters this way.

And while we’re on the subject of special characters, don’t forget that you can get special characters for a letter by holding down a keyboard button.

13. Double Tap the Home Button for “Reachability”

You can access “Reachability” mode on bigger iPhones— including iPhone Plus, but not really the iPhone SE or older, shorter iPhones. Simply by;

Tapping (not pressing) the Home button twice. While using your iPhone with one hand, all of the material on the screen will be reduced, making it much easier to push buttons on the top of the screen.
To exit Reachability mode, double-tap the Home button once again.

This is distinct from the app switcher that is accessed by double-pressing the iPhone’s Home button.

14. Access Control Center Easily

Control Center had to be moved from the bottom to the top because a swipe up now displays the multitasking rapid app switcher. Notification Center had to share the space after Control Center was moved to the top. That’s why now, dragging down the screen from the top left “horn” or the TrueDepth camera module in the center is the only way to access Notification Center. Control Center is relocated to the right horn as its new home.

Place your finger on the “horn” on the right (where the battery and signal icons are).
From there swipe down the screen.

You may also reach Control Center by swiping down from the top right of Reachability.

15. Change Your Scrubbing Speed for Music and Podcasts

You might like to “scrub” through the song at varying speeds when listening to music or listening to a podcast. To do so;

Place your finger on the progress bar and raise it up and down on the screen away from it.
Drag your finger to the left or right to navigate back and forth through the file without lifting your finger.
You’ll scrub through the song/podcast at either quicker or slower speeds relying on how far your touch is from the progress bar than if you were just tapping the bar regularly.

You’ll have to experiment to get the hang of it, but it gives you far more exact control.

16. Set Custom Vibrations On Your iPhone

We all know how to set custom ringtones. But do you know you can set the customer vibrations as well using a rare iPhone gesture? Here is how you can do this;

Open “Settings.”
Select “General.”
Tap on the “Accessibility” option. You will find an option of “Hearing.” Tap on it.
You will find the option of “Custom Vibrations” there. Turn it on.
Now go back to the settings general and open “Sound.”
An option of “Vibrations pattern” will be visible there.
Select this option and you can customize the vibrations given at the bottom of the screen of your iPhone.
Select the pattern you want by tapping on it.

That’s it, you will have vibrations set to certain contacts or certain messages you want.

17. Get Alerts By Camera Flash

One thing that many iPhone users are unaware of is that the camera flash on their phones can be utilized for warnings as well. This is how you do it.

Accessibility can be found under Settings > General > Accessibility.
Flash for Alerts can be found there. Slide on, and your iPhone’s LED will begin to serve as an alerting beacon.

18. Force Reset By Simply Pressing Side Button

No need to go to settings and perform multiple steps to reset your iPhone. You can simply reset your iPhone by doing this;

Press and hold the side button, then quickly press and hold the volume up and down buttons until the Apple logo displays (usually 10 to 20 seconds).

This is the first thing you should attempt if your iPhone is completely unresponsive.

19. Shake to Undo

If you physically shake your phone, you will be asked to undo what you’ve recently entered in numerous applications. This works in all of Apple’s apps, including Messages and Mail, as well as Notes, Calendar, and Safari. If you find yourself moving your phone unintentionally, you can turn off this feature by going to settings.

20. Sync Your Downloads on iPhone

Whether you have iPhone X, SE iPhone, or any other iPhone, you can easily sync your downloads. Wouldn’t it be great if all of your downloaded files were automatically synced across all of your iOS devices? Rejoice! It is now possible. Automatic Downloads in iOS 7 allow users to connect their downloaded files for music, apps, and books. To do so;

Go to Settings and select Store from the drop-down menu.
You can enable Automatic Downloads for any of the three, i.e. music, apps, and books, from this menu.
Following that, all of your files will be in sync across all of your devices. Neat!

21. Search Everything On Your iPhone at Once

Using the iPhone’s universal search option, you can search apps, the web, maps, dictionaries, files, and more all at once.

Swiping down from the center of your home screen will bring this up.
You’ll also see Siri’s recommendations for your most often performed actions.

(As a reminder, swiping down from the middle-top brings down notifications, while swiping down from the top-right brings down Control Center.)

22. Always Keep Your Storage At Check

You may find a free app, but you will never find one that does not consume storage and memory on your iOS device. If you’re running out of space;

Go to Settings > General > Usage right away to view a list of all your apps and how much memory they’re consuming.

When you’re attempting to locate any unneeded programs to get rid of, this storage dissection is really helpful.

23. Save Photos Right From Browser

If you find a gorgeous image that you wish to use as your wallpaper;

Press and hold your finger on it for a second or two.
From the bottom of the screen, a menu slides up with the Save Image option.

That is all there is to it. Simply save it and it will be ready to decorate the screen of your iPhone or iPad. You also have the option of copying the image to the clipboard in addition to saving it.

24. Undo & Redo Just By Swiping

You can easily undo or redo your last action or text entry if you don’t want to use the Edit Bar. Undo is done with a three-finger swipe to the left, and Redo is done with a three-finger slide to the right.

25. Find the Meaning of Any Word Simply

If you have a friend who continues messaging you with difficult wordings, or you’re stuck with an unknown term while reading an eBook, here’s how you can learn word meanings as soon as possible.

Simply hold down on any such term when you come across it.
Select the Define option to learn more about the meaning!

Bottom Line

That’s it for now. These are 25 iPhone shortcuts you can use right now to make your iPhone user experience all fun and easy. We hope you find this guide helpful. Do let us know which iPhone shortcut you liked the most.

iPhone Gestures Guide: 25 Awesome iPhone Gestures & Shortcuts