As you get older, using your iPhone may become a little more difficult. The font is too small or the sounds are too soft. Fortunately, there is something that can be done about it. And that’s what this week’s iPhone tips are all about. Secretly useful for everyone.
iPhone tips for the over 60s
In these iPhone tips, we not only show you how to make the text bigger and turn up the volume, but also how various iPhone functions can help you further. Think of a flashing light for when you can no longer hear the ringing signal properly. Or call someone via voice dialing if you can no longer see your contact list properly. Get started right away!
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1. Enlarge text
The first of these iPhone tips logically involves enlarging the text. If you don’t see well, the text on the screen will have to be larger to ensure that you can adjust things in the settings. A convenient way to do this is with the Playback Zoom feature. That works as follows:
Magnify text with Display Zoom on iPhone.
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap on ‘Screen and brightness’;
- Scroll down and tap “Display Zoom”;
- Select Larger Text and tap Done.
Display zoom makes everything on the screen a bit bigger. Would you also like the text to be a bit larger? No problem, you can do that in the following way:
- Open the Settings app;
- Scroll down a bit and tap ‘Accessibility’;
- Tap on ‘Display and text size’;
- Tap on ‘Larger text’ and activate ‘Larger text sizes’;
- Adjust the slider at the bottom until you’re happy.
In the menu ‘Display and text size’ you will also find the option ‘Increase contrast’. Turn that on as well to increase readability even further.
2. Have text read aloud
If reading is still difficult despite the previous tip, you can also choose to have your iPhone read text aloud. In addition, you have the choice between speaking text that you select yourself, or speaking everything that is on the screen. You set it up like this:
- Open the Settings app;
- Scroll down a bit and tap ‘Accessibility’;
- Tap “Spoken Content”;
- Activate the options ‘Speak selection’ and/or ‘Speak screen’.
You can also use the VoiceOver feature to have items on the screen read aloud. You can activate VoiceOver from anywhere on the screen with a single tap, making it useful for the blind and visually impaired. You can set it up as follows:
- Open the Settings app;
- Scroll down a bit and tap ‘Accessibility’;
- Tap VoiceOver and enable the feature.
Now when you tap on something, it will be selected and spoken. If you want to activate something, double tap it from now on. That takes some getting used to, so it’s a good idea to use the “Practice with VoiceOver” option (see image above).
3. LED flashes when you receive a notification
Number three of these iPhone tips will help you if you regularly do not notice that you are being called or receive a notification. If you hadn’t already done so, first adjust the volume for ringtones and notifications to maximum. That goes like this:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap on ‘Hear and feel’;
- Under Ringtones and notifications volume, drag the slider all the way to the right.
Leave the “Change with Buttons” option unchecked. Then it is not possible to accidentally change the volume later with the volume buttons. It is also a good idea to choose a ringtone that you can hear well.
You can then set the LED light to flash when you receive a call or a notification. If you don’t hear the sound, you may see the LED light. This is how you set it up:
- Open the Settings app;
- Scroll down a bit and tap ‘Accessibility’;
- Tap “Audio & Visual”;
- Scroll down and tap ‘LED flash on notification’;
- Enable the ‘LED flash on notification’ option.
4. Have Siri call friends and family
Number 4 of this week’s iPhone tips is for anyone struggling to find someone in their contacts list to call. Let Siri do this for you from now on! All you have to do is enable the Voice dialing function once. We’ll show you how:
- Open the Settings app;
- Scroll down a bit and tap on ‘Face ID and passcode’;
- Enter your access code;
- Scroll almost all the way down and turn on Voice Dialing.
The only thing you have to pay attention to is that all your contacts are stored with the correct name in the list, so that Siri understands who you mean when you say a name. From now on you can instruct Siri to call someone from the lock screen. Couldn’t be easier!
Looking for more iPhone tips?
Did you like these iPhone tips and want more? On iPhoned read useful tips and tricks for your iPhone every week. Check out the latest tips below!
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