iPhone Hot Tips #5

Customize Lock Screen with Classic Wallpaper

When you upgraded to iOS 16, the first thing you might have noticed was the changed clock typeface on the lock screen. And then you might have been frustrated that you couldn’t customize it without creating a new lock screen. Finally, you couldn’t find the same wallpaper to use with that new lock screen, so you gave up.

All these challenges can be in the past now that iOS 16.3 is out. The new version enables customizing the original lock screen with “classic wallpaper.” Just go to the lock screen or Notification Center, long-press on the background image, and go to town!

You can choose what appears with the date at the top, change the typeface and color of the clock, add up to two widgets in the space below, and more.

Use Haptic Keyboard Clicks

Are you or your partner annoyed by the loud clicks of your iPhone keyboard while you type? Would you rather not mute your whole phone just to silence them? iOS 16 comes to the rescue with keyboard haptics.

Just go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback and enable Haptic instead of Sound. Now, you’ll feel a little tingle under each finger as you type and no one else will be the wiser.

Ringtone Quiets When You’re Looking

Ever notice that your ringtone gets quiet a couple seconds after your iPhone starts ringing. This may be more obvious if you have your iPhone set to announce callers, because the phone will ring loudly first, then announce the caller, and then get quiet.

The answer: Are you looking at it? As soon as your phone recognizes that it has your attention (your eyes are looking at it or you’re holding it up), the ringing gets quieter.

In fact, if you’re hard of hearing, you might not hear it at all. Good thing you can see on the screen that someone is calling, right?

Announce Calls

Did you catch the hidden tip above? I like to know who’s calling without having to look at my phone. In Settings > Phone, there’s an option to Announce Calls. I have it set to Always.

When the caller is in my contacts, my phone will identify them by name. Otherwise, I hear “Unknown Caller.”

Pronounce Names Correctly

But what if Siri mispronounces someone’s name? When Siri was launched with iPhone 4S in 2011, you could add phonetic name fields to a contact to indicate correct pronunciation for voice requests. Years later, you could tell Siri, “That’s not how you pronounce their name,” and then have an interaction about how to pronounce a given first and last name.

Apple has dropped the latter experience and in iOS 16 introduced Pronunciation Name fields in the contact record. Unlike phonetic name fields, these are hidden on the live record but matter when Siri pronounces the name.

To configure, go to a contact that Siri mispronounces, tap Edit, scroll down near the bottom and tap Add Field, and add Pronunciation First Name and/or Pronunciation Last Name, depending on Siri’s behavior.

In such a field, do your best to type characters that represent the actual pronunciation of a name. Phonetic alphabet not required. To test your ingenuity, tell Siri, “Pronounce [contact name]” and see what you get. Keep trying until you get an acceptable pronunciation back.