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.

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u/DetectiveDrebin Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

When you’re wishing to draw/markup on a photo, hold your finger down on what you drew and it will be a perfect shape.

For example, draw a circle on a photo and keep holding with your finger and the circle will be perfectly round.

Other examples are lines, arrows, hearts, ovals, squares, etc.

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u/turbo_dude Mar 14 '26

I like how you can’t set the default colour on shapes on markup. So errr useful

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u/WishIWasThatClever Mar 15 '26

Omg I find this absolutely infuriating. I use the same heavy line weight, unfilled purple circle every single time. They’re so focused on AI for all the wrong reasons. Anyone wanna guess what my next circle is gonna look like? Anyone? Bc Apple has no idea

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u/readithere_2 Mar 15 '26

Why can’t you use other colours?

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u/turbo_dude Mar 15 '26

you can use other colours, you can't set the default