Top 10 iPhone X Tips and Tricks: Reachability, Face ID, Screenshots and More

[C DM]

The people using the virtual home button are the same people still using a headphone jack adapter.

How does one relate to the other?

Does anyone care anymore? I mean I have had all iphones, with 7+ as latest but the X seems like crap! Apple just doing its thing without considering what we want. Leaving out 128gb is such a ****** move.

So the new model is crap and people don't care because there isn't a 128 GB option?

I remember when iPhones worked equally well for left or right-handed people, now you need to be a basketball player to get to the control centre as a left-hander...

What about getting to the Notification Center as a right-hander? Seems equivalent essentially. And that's essentially why reachabilty is available.

 

[mark34]

I sense many of the complaints are from people who have not spent any time with the phone. You can't judge it from videos. I was skeptical, but, to me, there is no question this phone and its UI are a major step forward in interface design. FaceID is a huge improvement over TouchID and the UI without a home button just flows much more smoothly.

 

[Iconoclysm]

There is nothing accessible about iPhone X. Apple did away with a lot of user friendliness just to remove a home button. What a gimmick.

One day, people might learn the definition of the word gimmick.

 

[Jimrod]

What about getting to the Notification Center as a right-hander? Seems equivalent essentially. And that's essentially why reachabilty is available.

Not sure because I haven't tried it - I felt the iPhone 6 was a little awkward one-handed, sometimes requiring a "shuffle" to reach corners and for that reason I'm not interested in the all-round larger X. I like the SE still, it'll be a shame if Apple never put the newer features in a smaller phone again, we don't all want phablets.

 

[C DM]

I agree but I was talking specifically about the iPhone X. Not sure of the relevance of your iOS 7 example (It's design changed but not the functionality), but we're talking about the X?

And to prove the original point, which you've somehow missed, iPhone X is the first iPhone in a long time to include an instruction pamphlet in the packaging and also, Apple released a 4 minute how to video on its YouTube channel.

My example was an analogous one about change and what people have said and what it meant and/or how it ended up working out.

That said, seems like a lot of posts are making good points about it all with various other examples and observations. For example:

sorry, my 62 year old grandmother called. She isn't sure how to get siri to work on her 5c. Whats that? long press a button you say?


Most of these are identical if you think about how 'obvious' they are to first time users. They all take some getting used to.

 

[DeanL]

The magic of the iPhone was not needing instructions. I remember giving my 62 yr old, totally tech illiterate mother an iPhone 5C for the first time, she couldn’t believe how intuitive it was, everything you did ended up doing what you’d expect it too. Now it’s just a mush-mash of inconveniences. Sad.

But the X is not for tech illiterate people.
The original iPhone was introduced to the broader public, who were not the top tech literate people, and that's why Apple needed to design something self-explanatory.
Now, the millennials and Gen Z are more technologically literate than the previous generations, thus Apple do not need to keep that simplicity, which limits what you can do.

 

[Kramerjn]

How is the battery?

Krysha Nair

So far, pretty good. Right now I'm at 6 hours of standby and almost 2 hours of usage and I have 88% left.
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I agree. I am surprised, but it feels so much more natural so quickly.

Me too. The only hangup I've had so far is when I am in the camera, I keep trying to press the home button after recording or taking a picture. Don't ask me why, but it's the only time I've tried to do that so far, and it happens almost every time.

 

[sziehr]

So if I turn off face attention what sort of level of security lowering am I doing. Will the true depth camera still map my face but not care so much about my eyes ? If that is the case then I am ok with that. I do not need to be focused to unlock my phone. If this however turns off true depth and it makes it more hackable with say a picture or video of my face then I am just stuck with it on. Also if I turn it off for unlocking will I still get the awareness feature for say reading on safari where it keeps the screen on.

 

[jonnysods]

I really haven’t had this much fun with a phone in a long long time. Maybe it’s the fact I held onto my 6 plus for 3 years lol I dunno.

But the iPhone X is a blast!
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It’s sooo much fun. And I never say that about a smart phone. Best iPhone I ever owed and I’m on number 5 lol

Gosh you aren't helping me with this at all!

I've got a fever... and the only cure for that fever is an iPhone X!

 

[jaedre3]

i have absolutely no complaints about my phone... i am loving it.... everything feels natural. Now when i use my work phone (a 6) it feels weird i even caught myself swiping up trying to unlock it lol

 

[ZebraDude]

I took out my iPhone X out to take some pictures on a cold autumn day and I LOVED FACE ID! I did not have to remove my gloves (brrrr!) or sun glasses to use the handset. I use a long pass code and gloves do not allow access to touch ID!

 

[SSandy]

So if I turn off face attention what sort of level of security lowering am I doing.

I believe the main security issue is that someone could hold your phone in front of your face (while sleeping, for instance, or after stealing it from your hands) and open your phone by pointing the screen at you.

Sandy

 

[Hardy1989]

There is nothing accessible about iPhone X. Apple did away with a lot of user friendliness just to remove a home button. What a gimmick.

Lol okay sure. It takes about 5 mins to realise how much you don’t need the home button.

 

[rittchard]

Lol okay sure. It takes about 5 mins to realise how much you don’t need the home button.

Exactly! I was worried about it taking a while to get used to, but I adapted almost immediately. I spent way more time fiddling around with the stupid color filter trying to make my screen look whiter than I did anything else lol.

The FaceID has so far been working great, and even though I'd love to remove the swipe up requirement (come on Apple at least make it an option! Or how about an option to unlock via a wink or a smile?), I can tell in the long run it's a more efficient system. Not so much because of the unlock, but because of how it's integrated into other apps that used to require Touch ID. Many of them allow you to just look at the screen (which you are doing already anyway) to enter a password or whatever. In many ways it's beyond "intuitive" because it's almost as if it's sensing your intent. The more the software advances and the more apps take advantage of the possibilities, the better this feature will become.

 

[skillwill]

But the X is not for tech illiterate people.
The original iPhone was introduced to the broader public, who were not the top tech literate people, and that's why Apple needed to design something self-explanatory.
Now, the millennials and Gen Z are more technologically literate than the previous generations, thus Apple do not need to keep that simplicity, which limits what you can do.

I completely agree and that's my problem. My point is best highlighted by this story from Steve Jobs' biography, which I do not believe would ever happen with an iPhone X:

“Jobs was stired by a story by Michael Noer on Forbes.com. Noer was reading a science fiction novel on his iPad while staying in a rural area north of Bogota, Colombia , when a poor 6-year-old boy came up to him. Curious, Noer handed him the device. With no instruction, and never having seen a computer before, the boy started using it intuitively. He began swiping the screen, launching apps, playing a pinball game. Noel wrote: “Steve Jobs has designed a powerful computer than an illiterate 6-year-old can use without instruction, if that isn’t magical I don’t know what is.”"

My example was an analogous one about change and what people have said and what it meant and/or how it ended up working out.

That said, seems like a lot of posts are making good points about it all with various other examples and observations. For example:

Not talking about more advanced features like Siri, I mean the basics of using the phone. Swipe to unlock, launching apps, going home from wherever you are etc. And iOS 7 didn't change the functionality in that way, it was a UI redesign, I'm talking about UX.

 

[Hardy1989]

Exactly! I was worried about it taking a while to get used to, but I adapted almost immediately. I spent way more time fiddling around with the stupid color filter trying to make my screen look whiter than I did anything else lol.

The FaceID has so far been working great, and even though I'd love to remove the swipe up requirement (come on Apple at least make it an option! Or how about an option to unlock via a wink or a smile?), I can tell in the long run it's a more efficient system. Not so much because of the unlock, but because of how it's integrated into other apps that used to require Touch ID. Many of them allow you to just look at the screen (which you are doing already anyway) to enter a password or whatever. In many ways it's beyond "intuitive" because it's almost as if it's sensing your intent. The more the software advances and the more apps take advantage of the possibilities, the better this feature will become.

They need to give us the option of changing swipe options. I keep swiping up instead of swiping down from the top right!

 

[C DM]

I completely agree and that's my problem. My point is best highlighted by this story from Steve Jobs' biography, which I do not believe would ever happen with an iPhone X:

“Jobs was stired by a story by Michael Noer on Forbes.com. Noer was reading a science fiction novel on his iPad while staying in a rural area north of Bogota, Colombia , when a poor 6-year-old boy came up to him. Curious, Noer handed him the device. With no instruction, and never having seen a computer before, the boy started using it intuitively. He began swiping the screen, launching apps, playing a pinball game. Noel wrote: “Steve Jobs has designed a powerful computer than an illiterate 6-year-old can use without instruction, if that isn’t magical I don’t know what is.”"



Not talking about more advanced features like Siri, I mean the basics of using the phone. Swipe to unlock, launching apps, going home from wherever you are etc. And iOS 7 didn't change the functionality in that way, it was a UI redesign, I'm talking about UX.

Well, to be fair, UI redesign affected UX as well as many at the time were talking about a lot of visual cues about what's tappable/clickable being gone and various elements being too thin or part of too many other things on the screen to be able to figure out if they do anything and what they can do. It might not be the same exact thing, but it's certainly analogous.

I understand what you are saying in general. But there have always been some people for whom things were more intuitive even in the early days and some that they haven't been also even in the early days. There's certainly a change with some things now with the iPhone X, but it doesn't necessarily mean that things are just less understandable and more complex mostly because they are different and/or new. For some it will be seen as less intuitive, and for others it won't be, and can be even more intuitive, just like it was before essentially. Seems like a lot of posts in this thread demonstrate that type of spectrum.

 

[dilbert99]

Sorry, I was under the impression you thought the original home buttons actions are intuitive straight out of the box.
All actions on the iPhone, both old and new need to be learnt, if something feels intuitive its probably only because we've learnt it from another device previously.

Correct, if it is not obvious and you have to learn something, then it is not intuitive.
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Well, to be honest, Control Centre and Notification Centre on all other iPhones are also not intuitive as there is no indication that something is there. The only intuitive thing on older iPhones is the home button, that's it. So by that logic nothing apart from physical buttons are intuitive. And even those, someone still needs to tell you to press that button to make it do what you want. If I wouldn't tell a tech illiterate anything about the home button they would probably just press the power button to try to close an app.

Which was the whole point of this chain of posts, someone said the iPhone X gestures were intuitive and I said intuitive didn't mean what they thought it meant, because they are not intuitive, they are learned behaviours.

 

[ErikGrim]

I want apps to have smart zoom. Zoom to the extent of the black bars (if any). Also let me override and fill the screen if I want.

That’s how all video works now.
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I believe the main security issue is that someone could hold your phone in front of your face (while sleeping, for instance, or after stealing it from your hands) and open your phone by pointing the screen at you.

Sandy

Not sure how many times this has to be pointed out, but no, absolutely not. By default the phone needs your attention, i.e. you need to look straight at it. Sleeping no dice. Someone taking your phone, don’t look directly at it.

 

[Hotknees]

I have yet to see one in the flesh, but looking forward to getting my hands on one.

2 questions; is anyone else annoyed by the translucent bar at the bottom to indicate swipe to home screen? I think aesthetically it's awful (I get it don't get me wrong), however, is there an option to hide that? Once you understand the operating system you surely don't need a perpetual visual reminder????

 

[miniyou64]

Nothing accessible sounds like a bit of a stretch.

What exactly isn't accessible?

This is a nightmare for blind/visually impaired people. Even the orientation of the phone is unusual in hand. I know because I design products for them. But Apple stopped caring about Accessibility ever since Forstall was ousted.

 

[johngordon]

This is a nightmare for blind/visually impaired people. Even the orientation of the phone is unusual in hand. I know because I design products for them. But Apple stopped caring about Accessibility ever since Forstall was ousted.

You're being a bit vague to be honest, and still a stretch to say that nothing is accessible. If you are now talking specifically about accessibility for blind / visually impaired people (which wasn't obvious originally) I've read several articles over the years generally in praise of the accessibility features on the iPhone.

I'd also be interested in knowing how much experience you have had with the phone to reach the conclusions you have?

Can you talk a bit more about examples more specific than 'the orientation of the phone is unusual in the hand'? Because I don't even know what that means, seeing as its pretty much the same orientation of all phones, ever.

 

[foxhunter101]

Since my iPhone x is 3-4 weeks away, I hope you guys (Mac Rumors), repost this and other articles related to iPhone x operations. The bulk of the iPhone x sales aren't even in customers hands yet!

 

[thebeans]

i guess you don't have one. it actually feels more natural to use after just a few hours.

No it doesn't. You are just telling yourself that because you just paid $$ for a new phone.
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its just coz of video recording frame rate. its too quick to be detected by human eye directly.

I don't think that's it. I think it is because it is infrared and your eye can't detect it. The camera taking the video can.

 

[johngordon]

No it doesn't. You are just telling yourself that because you just paid $$ for a new phone.

Its hard to tell if you're being ironic or not.

But assuming not, that's quite some arrogance to project your views onto someone else like that, because you can't quite get around your head that someone with experience of the phone might have a different view to you, who hasn't.

Mine hasn't arrived yet, but from a brief play with one, it seems fine, and genuinely does seem like it will be more natural to use - because in a few instances where previously you had to touch the home button, now you don't even need to do that.

What sorts of things do you think you would struggle with?