The Magic of Long Press

Nugget # N68

Long Press is the action on your iPhone where you press and hold on an icon or screen item on your device.  With some iPhone that have 3D touch, you will actually need to press more firmly for the magical functions to appear.  

Doing a Long Press will often present new features that are largely hidden and not always obvious.

In this Nugget, we will provide a list of ideas that you can try.  Use a few or all as they match to the use of your iPhone.

Try Long Press on your iPhone.  It’s Magical!

Let’s do a simple list of the many ways that you can use Long Press to accomplish more and accomplish more faster on your iPhone.

1 Use Long Press on your Home Screen to put your iPhone into Jiggle/Design mode so that you can design your Home Screens to work best for you for easy access to apps and needed information placed directly on the Home Screen. 

Jiggle/Design Mode

Use Long Press and Jiggle mode to:

    • Move apps by dragging frequently used apps to the most accessible location on your Home screen.  Get your most commonly used icons onto the first screen or Dock on your Home screen.
    • Organize your Home screen by grouping app icons into Folders.  Use Long Press on one app icon in order to move it on top of another icon which will create an icon group or folder.
    • Place a widget onto your Home screen.   Widgets provide key information like weather, time, news or new emails. Tap the + in the upper left after your device is in Jiggle mode.
    • Uninstall an unwanted app.  After your device is in Jiggle mode, tap the – (minus) icon in the upper left of an app icon.  You can choose to Delete the App or Remove from the Home Screen.  

2 Use Long Press on the Camera icon as a shortcut to take a selfie or go immediately to video mode.

3 Long Press on most app icons for a quick shortcut action specific to that app.

4 Use Long Press on any icon in the Control Center.   For example, Long Press on Do Not Disturb to customize your Do Not Disturb settings.  Use Long Press to change the brightness of the flashlight, set a quick timer and access various Focus options and more.  

5 Long Press on an item in your Recents phone log in order to add the phone number to a new contact or create a new Contact record.

6 Long Press on any key on the keyboard as you type in order to access additional characters like foreign characters, alternate symbols or fractions.

7 Long Press on a specific email in your Mail Inbox to provide a shortcut path to Reply, Replay All, Forward and more.

8 Long Press on any message in the messages app in order to access copy, forward and delete commands.

These are a portion of the magic supplied by the Long Press.  Put the Long Press into your toolbox for quick shortcut actions that you use frequently. 

 

 

Summary

Use a Long Press and almost any icon in order to access shortcuts and useful functions.  We hope you find it magical!