What’s that? It’s the new iPhone XS Max. You could be getting one of these babies if you did what I told you to in the iPhone XS Max giveaway video. Nothing like the first day of owning a new iPhone.

The XS Max is an amazing phone. But there are heaps of tips and tricks hidden under the surface. Especially, if you coming from an older model or even an Android phone. You really can make your life much easier.

And btw, all these tips and tricks do work on both iPhone XS and XS Max. Or even the iPhoneX, if you’ve got one of those. So, without any further ado, let’s get to it.

The first thing you probably learn in iPhone X series is the new gesture controls. You might know the basic gestures and a couple of extra features by now, like sliding the bottom edge of the screen to switch between recent apps (hope you knew that!).

1. Getting the Home Button

Most of you probably got used to the new gesture controls that replaced the Home button with the iPhone X series. But some people can’t shake their habit and want the Home button back. Not recommended but for those of you who miss the Home button, the trick here is that there’s AssistiveTouch which could be activated from Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch. AssistiveTouch can be set to float at any position over the app dock.

You can set custom actions for Single-Tap, Double-Tap, Long Press and 3D Touch and If you don't like to see the ugly floating icon on your home screen, you can adjust the Idle Opacity to 15%.

And that’s not it, the AssistiveTouch even got smarter. It adjusts its position while you have the keyboard on the screen and resets to the position you set before when you’re finished typing. Which is actually pretty cool.

2. Register Two-Face IDs

On the previous gen iPhones, you could only register one Face ID at a time. But ladies, now you can keep an eye on your men quite literally with your eyes. Well your face to be precise

To do that, you go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, you’ll find a link ‘Set up an Alternative Appearance’ which is there to enhance the existing registered Face ID in case you grow a beard or buy new glasses. But alternatively, it does allow you to register a different Face ID altogether. Just follow the two-step facial scan process and you are good to go. Just don't confuse the two-step process with setting up two separate Face IDs or else you get a 'Not the Same Face' error.

3. Face ID awareness features

With the default Face ID settings, you can unlock your iPhone even if you squint or when you are not really facing the screen as well. As a precaution where you accidentally unlock your phone or someone else does it with you while you are asleep or not paying attention to your phone, Apple has introduced this new thing called Face ID awareness

To do that, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode toggle the ‘Require Attention for Face ID’ switch ON. It adds another level of security to the Face ID using the TrueDepth camera and now the iPhone won't unlock until you look at the screen.

It is also recommended to turn on the alternative Attention-Aware Features which also uses the TrueDepth camera to check for your attention before dimming the display or lowering the volume of alerts while you hold your phone in your hand.

4. Reachability

For most people, iPhone X models are pretty big for single hand use and reaching every corner could be taxing. For ease of access to the top of the screen in iPhone 6 and the models after, Apple introduced a feature called ‘Reachability’ which would let you bring down the screen with a double-tap on the Home button. Well, the home button now being gone and the screen being much bigger, what would you do now?

Reachability obviously! Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reachability.

Just slide down your screen at the bottom where the app dock is positioned, and tap anywhere else on the screen to kill the effect. This gesture is a little tricky as you have a limited real estate to perform this gesture. If you perform this gesture even a little above the defined area you will trigger the spotlight search.

Just slide down your screen at the bottom where the app dock is positioned, and tap anywhere else on the screen to kill the effect.

5. Split screen view in iPhone XS Max

iPhone XS Max has one of the biggest screens we’ve seen in a smartphone. Coming at a whopping 6.4-inch display, the landscape mode in some applications may not give the ideal usability given the font size of your device.

As a solution, the iPhone XS Max has a split-screen view in apps like Settings, iMessage, Mail, Notes, Files, Reminders, etc. The split view is not to be confused with multi-window. The function just splits the same app into two thus giving you the heads on one side and the content on the other side like an iPad.

The split view should be enabled by default on the iPhone XS Max devices. But if not, there’s a little trick to it. There is no direct setting to toggle ON/OFF. Under Settings > Display & Brightness > Display Zoom > View select the Standard option. Selecting ‘Zoomed’ disables the split view feature.

6. Use 3D Touch for quick actions on Home screen

3D Touch was previously used to quick access links or photos as a pop-up or in a separate window altogether. You must be also using it to toggle Control Center shortcuts like Torch intensity etc.

You can now access quick options right form your Home Screen without even opening an application. For example, if you use Uber, just 3D Touch the app icon and you’ll see most used locations in a pop-up. Tap on one of them for a quick action. Similarly, use the feature if you quickly want to upload a new post on your Instagram or initiate a quick chat on iMessage or WhatsApp.

If not already enabled, you can turn ON the 3D Touch from Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch. And let me clarify that turning of 3D Touch will not affect the 3D Touch gestures on locked screen. It is used to toggle the Torch and Camera Button. You can, however, adjust 3D Touch sensitivity if you face the problem of accidentally turning on Camera or Torch. Alternatively, you can turn off the Raise to Wake.

7. Enable the manual HDR option in the Camera app

iPhone XS and XS Max have Smart HDR enabled on the device because of which the HDR controls from the Camera app will no longer be visible. All your photos you take will be in smart HDR.

If you wish to have the HDR controls back in the Camera app, all you have to do is turn off the Smart HDR from Settings > Camera > Smart HDR and you’ll see the HDR switch in the Camera app. You can also choose to take RAW photos from the same menu by turning on Keep Normal Photo.

8. Save a Memoji

iPhone X series have Animojis and Memojis integrated into the iMessage app. If you have been using the devices, you probably are very well aware of the fact that these Animojis and Memojis can be used only for iMessages. But ever wonder if you could save them and share them over WhatsApp with everyone?

One way to save the Animoji and Memoji on your device is, of course, to send it to yourself and save it. Which is not so cool as it takes up unnecessary space in apps data.

OR

While on the chat window in the iMessage app, click on the Camera icon and select Effects (flower looking icon) in the bottom left corner. Choose your animation and Memoji and click a picture. Now you’ll see a Markup option. Click on that and click Save on the top right corner. That’s it, your image is now saved in the Photo gallery.

So, there you go, these were some of the tips and tricks to get more about of your iPhone XS Max and XS. Be sure to check out our video on how to join the Smart DNS Proxy iPhone XS Max giveaway. Check out Smart DNS Proxy if you’re keen on unblocking geo-restricted content like Netflix, which you can watch on your XS Max for just 16 cents a day. Subscribe to our channel and thank you for reading and watching.