How to Use iPhone

This is an article that shows you how to perform basic operations when using iPhone, from turning on or off the device to using pre-installed applications.

Table of Contents

Get familiar with the buttons

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Power on when iPhone is turned off. To do this, you need to hold the screen lock button until the Apple logo appears on the iPhone screen.

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Charge iPhone when needed. The charging cable is a long white wire with a small flat rectangular plug, and a large rectangular block at the other end. If iPhone won’t start, try connecting it to a power source for a few minutes before trying to power it on again.

You’ll find the port on the bottom of the body, just below the round button on the screen – this is where the small plug of the charging cable is attached.
If you are using an iPhone 4S or earlier charging cable, one end of the charging cable will have a gray rectangle; This rectangle should be placed in the same orientation as the iPhone screen.
Your iPhone is usually equipped with a charger (white cube) with one end with two power pins and a rectangular slot at the other end. You can attach the charger to a power outlet and attach the other end of the charging cable (not yet attached to the iPhone) into the slot on the charger.
The iPhone that is powered off will restart when it is connected to a power source. You should see a white Apple logo appear on the screen.

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Learn the buttons on the iPhone. If you place iPhone on a flat surface with the screen facing up, all of the iPhone’s buttons are arranged as follows:

Screen lock button – Right side of body (for iPhone 6 and later) or top of body (for iPhone 5s, SE or earlier). Pressing this button once while the iPhone is active turns off the screen, while pressing this button again turns on the screen. You can also press and hold this button to power on a powered off iPhone, or power off an active iPhone.
Volume buttons +/- – These are the bottom two buttons on the left side of the iPhone body. The button below lowers the sound volume of your iPhone’s music, video, or ring, while the top button increases the volume.
Mute button – This is the slider button above the row of buttons on the left side of the iPhone body. Pushing the slider up turns the phone into sound mode, while pushing the slide down turns off the ringer and puts iPhone into vibrate mode. When iPhone is muted, you’ll see an orange dash above the mute button.
Home Button – This is the round button at the bottom of the iPhone screen. You will click this button once to open the locked iPhone. Also, doing this while using an app will minimize the app, and double-clicking shows you the entire app in action.

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Press the screen lock button. This is the operation to “wake up” the iPhone screen and show the lock screen.

Actions on the main screen

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See the iPhone home screen. You will see many squares here; these are iPhone apps or else “app”. All pre-installed apps on iPhone are displayed here.

When you add apps to your phone, the home screen will add a new page. You can browse these pages by swiping the screen from right to left.

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Get familiar with the pre-installed apps. Some of the important apps that come pre-installed on regular iPhones are:

Settings – This is the app with a gray gear icon. When you want to change any setting from the amount of time the screen is displayed before turning off to the wireless network settings, you will find suitable options in this application.
Phone – This is an app with a white phone icon on a green background. You can dial the number to make a call, or tap the contact’s name and tap the phone icon below their name at the top of the screen.
Contact – This is an app with a gray humanoid silhouette. When you tap the app, you’ll see a list of contacts – maybe the staff at the phone store helped you sync your old phone’s contacts with your iPhone, but if they haven’t done this already, you need to Transfer old contacts to iPhone.
FaceTime – This is an app with a white camcorder icon on a green background. You can make video calls with your contacts using FaceTime.
Messages – This is an app with a white chat bubble icon on a green background. You can send and receive messages here.
Mail – This is an app with a white cover letter icon on a blue background. You can check your Apple ID email (aka iCloud account) here, or you can add an email account to this app.
Calendar – This application displays the latest calendar. You can also add events for specific dates and times by tapping on the appropriate date and filling in the fields.
Camera – This is an app with a camera icon on a gray background. You can take photos, record movies, and record other types of images (such as slow motion movies) using the Camera application.
Photos – This is an application with a multicolored pinwheel icon that stores all of your iPhone’s photos. Every time you take a photo, it will show up here.
Safari – This is an app with a compass icon on a blue background. You will use Safari to browse the web.
Clock – This is an app with a clock icon. You can change or manage the time zone saved on your iPhone, set an alarm, set a timer, or stop the timer using this app.
Notes – This is an app with a yellow and white notepad icon on the home screen. This app is useful for writing quick notes or making lists, and the Reminders app is also a good choice for making lists.
Maps – The Maps application allows you to plan your trip and provides specific directions like GPS as you enter your start and destination points.
Wallet – You can add credit or payment cards and gift cards to your iPhone’s Wallet app. This allows you to use your iPhone to pay for purchases online and at a supported retailer.
App Store – This is an app with a white “A” icon on a blue background used to download new apps.
Music – This is an app with a musical note icon on a white background. Here you will find your iPhone’s music library.
Tips – This is an app with a light bulb icon on a yellow background that provides detailed information to help you use your iPhone effectively.

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Swipe the screen from left to right. This opens a page showing the weather forecast, alarms you’ve set, and news.

Do a swipe up at this screen to see the information below the page.
If you want to find something on your phone, you can tap the “Search” bar at the top of the page and enter what you’re looking for.

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Swipe left to return to the home screen. You can also press the Home button to return to the home screen from any page on the home screen.

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Swipe the screen down from the top. With this, you’ll see your iPhone’s Notifications page with all the latest notifications (such as missed calls, new messages, etc.).

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Press the Home button. This will take you back to your iPhone’s home screen.

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Swipe down from the center of the screen. An instant search bar displays at the top of the screen along with a list of frequently used apps. You can tap Cancel in the upper-right corner of the screen or just press the Home button to return to the main screen.

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Swipe up from the bottom of the screen. This shows you the Contrp Center with the following choices:

Airplane Mode – The airplane icon is displayed at the top of the Contrp Center window. When you tap this icon, airplane mode will turn on, and disconnect your iPhone’s cellular data or wireless network connection. Tap the icon (or another option on this list) again to disable.
Wi-Fi (Wireless Network) – This is the wavy icon. Tapping this icon turns on the wireless network (if the icon is blue, Wi-Fi is enabled) and connects the device to the nearest available network.
Bluetooth – This is the icon in the upper middle of the Contrp Center window. When you tap this icon, your iPhone’s Bluetooth will be turned on so you can connect your iPhone to a speaker or other Bluetooth device.
Do Not Disturb – It’s the moon symbol. Tap this icon to prevent the device from ringing or vibrating for calls, messages, and other notifications.
Rotation Lock – This option has a padlock icon with a circle outside. Tapping the red selection disables the screen lock, which means you can rotate your iPhone 90 degrees to view photos and other content horizontally.
The selection line below from left to right includes the flashlight, timer, calculator, and shortcut to the iPhone’s Camera app.

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Press the Home button. You will be taken to the main screen. Now that you’re familiar with the choices on the home screen, it’s time to start using iPhone apps.

Using apps

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Tap an app. This is the operation to open the application. How each app works varies depending on the app, but you can usually tap options to use (such as tapping a text input field to turn on the iPhone’s keyboard).

You can get new apps from the App Store.

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Press the Home button twice. This will quickly minimize the open application and display all active applications in another window.

Swipe up on an app window to close it.
You can also swipe the menu left or right to browse open apps.

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Press the Home button. You will be returned to the main screen.

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Touch and hold the app. The app will jiggle after about a second, along with other apps on the iPhone home screen. Here, you can do a few more things:

Touch and drag the app to move. If you drag an application to the right of the home screen, a new screen will appear for you to drop the application on. You can find this page by swiping the home screen to the left.
Touch and drag an app onto another app to create a folder containing the two apps. You can also drag other apps to the folder.
Tap the X in the upper left corner of the app icon to delete the app. You need to tap Delete when this option is displayed to actually delete the app.

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Customize your iPhone’s home screen to your liking. After transferring, deleting, and organizing iPhone apps according to your needs, you can make calls.

Make a call

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Tap the Phone app. It’s an app with a white phone icon on a green background, usually displayed on the home screen.

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Tap the “Keypad” tab. You’ll see this option at the bottom of the screen and to the right of the “Contacts” tab.

Or, you can tap the “Contacts” tab, tap the contact’s name, and tap the “call” icon (white phone on a blue background) below their name at the top of the screen.

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Enter your phone number. You will do this by lightly tapping the numbers on this screen.

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Tap the green and white “Call” button. This option is below the last row of numbers on the screen. This is the action to make the call. When the contact picks up the phone, you can have a normal conversation by holding the phone close to your ear, or you can use one of the following buttons to change the feature of the call:

speakerphone – Change the phone’s audio output from the headset at the top of the screen to the iPhone’s speakerphone. That way, you can chat without holding the phone close to your ear.
FaceTime – Turn calls into FaceTime so you can see the face of the person receiving the call and vice versa. This only works when the contact also has an iPhone.

Advice

Don’t be discouraged by the complexity of using an iPhone – you’ll master it before you know it!
You should also take advantage of advanced iPhone features such as Siri or how to replace the iPhone’s SIM card.

Steps

Get familiar with the buttons

Actions on the main screen

Using apps

Make a call

Advice

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