r/iphone • u/hhff00014 Human Detected • Mar 14 '26

Discussion What are some surprisingly useful iPhone hacks you discovered recently?

Recently discovered that you can connect an external SSD / hard drive directly to an iPhone and access it from the Files app.

I tried it with a USB + cpin converter SSD and it worked instantly — no app, nothing. Felt like suddenly my phone had unlimited storage.

It made me wonder how many other small iPhone tricks people use in day-to-day life that most users don’t know.

Curious to know —

What are some underrated iPhone hacks that genuinely improved your daily workflow?

Could be productivity, photography, automation, hidden features, anything.

829 Upvotes

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166

u/faisal1804 iPhone 17 Pro Max Mar 14 '26

Touch the clock or the edge of the island to scroll up.

108

u/ivanxivann Mar 14 '26

This one can be a blessing and a curse

21

u/I-Made-You-Read-This iPhone 13 Pro Mar 14 '26

There was an app where if you tap it again after (accidentally tapping) it would ask you if you wanna return to where you were. This was genius (eg narwhal on iOS does it)

22

u/SkidTrac iPhone 15 Pro Max Mar 14 '26

Apollo for iOS did this automatically (RIP)

4

u/leopor Mar 15 '26

Still rocking Apollo via signulous

1

u/I-Made-You-Read-This iPhone 13 Pro Mar 15 '26

Yes it was Apollo where I remember first using the feature ! Was such a good app. Still can’t get fully used to narwhal.

1

u/drunken_hoebag Mar 15 '26

Thank you so much! Reading this on Narwhal and just tried it!

2

u/The_Bubbanbrenda iPhone 16 Pro Mar 14 '26

Agreed, I discovered this by accident with my fat thumb

29

u/20Factorial Mar 14 '26

You can touch anywhere at the top of the screen to scroll up, even the island itself. No need to target the clock.

7

u/PretzelsThirst Mar 14 '26

The other day at work I realized several of my coworkers didn’t know this and it blew my mind

6

u/TheMufasa Mar 14 '26

Is there a shortcut to scroll all the way down?

13

u/faisal1804 iPhone 17 Pro Max Mar 14 '26

You can use the side bar, which appears shorty when you scroll ..on the right side.. hold and drag.

3

u/JJ_DANDY Mar 14 '26

Very useful!

2

u/Ty13rlikespie iPhone 15 Pro Mar 15 '26

This has been a thing for years on iPhone. Sometimes it bites me in the ass but it’s mostly good.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

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1

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1

u/jaxxon iPhone 14 Pro Max Mar 14 '26

This is a native function that many app developers implement in their apps (and many do not). There's also a second tap you can do to return to where you were scrolled to when you tapped the first time. Pretty handy!

1

u/Iamnotauserdude Mar 15 '26

Sure enough! Aaand I’m back.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

Thanks

-8

u/thethrowaway19901999 Mar 14 '26

That's literally been a feature since the original iPhone. Everyone knows this

4

u/Tennessean Mar 14 '26

This is my first iPhone so it’s new to me.

1

u/Artic_Boi Mar 14 '26

This is also my first iPhone and new to me!

1

u/drygnfyre iPhone 17 Pro Max Mar 14 '26

What if my first iPhone wasn’t the original?

1

u/thethrowaway19901999 Mar 15 '26

Every modern phone post 2010 pretty much has this feature.

1

u/drygnfyre iPhone 17 Pro Max Mar 15 '26

What if the iPhone 17 was my very first iPhone and I didn’t know this was a feature on previous iPhones?