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Apple has announced so many new features with their iOS 18 update that it’s easy to forget about some of the functions we already have.
The iPhone is getting a major upgrade this fall after it was unveiled during the WWDC24 that Siri will become the ultimate virtual assistant with the ability to edit photos, move files and even open a news site on Apple News all from a simple voice command.
The home screen will become fully customized where users can move widgets and apps freely around.
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For the first time, the tech giant is also introducing call recording and there are exciting changes for the Apple Watch.
There’s one feature though that has been around for years which you’re probably unaware of.
It was in 2017 when iPhone users mourned the loss of the home button - at the time, it seemed impossible to imagine the smartphone without it.
How quickly things change as Apple fans got used to swiping upwards on the screen when closing an app.
Touch ID was replaced with Face ID and the transition has been seamless.
Now, people are only just realizing that the line at the bottom of your screen is there for you to switch between apps in place of the home button.
If you swipe left, or right, directly on the line, you can move between apps.
Whereas normally, we would swipe upwards to see what apps are open and go from there.
It's honestly a bit of a life saver if you have a lot of apps open.
"How did I not know this?" one iPhone user said on Instagram.
"Never knew that," another commented.
"I'm new to iPhone thanks for this," a third added.
Jony Ive, who was Apple’s chief design officer at the time, said: “For more than a decade, our intention has been to create an iPhone that is all display. The iPhone X is the realisation of that vision.
“With the introduction of iPhone ten years ago, we revolutionised the mobile phone with Multi-Touch. iPhone X marks a new era for iPhone - one in which the device disappears into the experience.”
Philip Schiller, Apple’s former senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, added: “iPhone X enables fluid new user experiences - from unlocking your iPhone with Face ID, to playing immersive AR games, to sharing Animoji in Messages - it is the beginning of the next ten years for iPhone.”
So there you go, it turns out that line at the bottom of the screen has a lot of functions we didn’t even know about.
