Simplifying Your iPhone for Seniors: 10 Essential Settings

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Here at Chapin Business Services, we help seniors throughout Litchfield, Fairfield, and New Haven counties make their iPhones easier to use. Whether you're in Heritage Village in Southbury or anywhere else in western Connecticut, these simple settings changes can make a big difference in your daily phone use.

Your iPhone comes with lots of features turned on by default, and many of them just get in the way. Let's turn off what you don't need and make the important stuff easier to see and use.

10 Settings to Make Your iPhone Easier to Use

1. Make the Text Bigger

Small text is the number one complaint we hear from our customers. Here's how to fix it:

1. Open the Settings app (the gray gear icon)
2. Tap on Display & Brightness
3. Tap Text Size
4. Move the slider to the right until the sample text looks comfortable
5. For even bigger text, go back and turn on Bold Text (your phone will restart)

2. Turn Up the Volume (All of It)

Your iPhone has different volume controls for different things, and they can all be adjusted separately:

1. Use the buttons on the side of your phone to adjust ringer volume
2. Go to Settings, then Sounds & Haptics
3. Move the Ringer and Alerts slider all the way up
4. Turn OFF the Change with Buttons option so you don't accidentally lower it
5. When you're on a call, use the side buttons to make the person's voice louder

3. Add Emergency Contacts

This is important. If something happens, your phone can show your medical information and emergency contacts even when it's locked:

1. Open the Health app (white icon with a red heart)
2. Tap your picture in the top right corner
3. Tap Medical ID
4. Tap Edit in the top right
5. Fill in your medical conditions, medications, and allergies
6. Add emergency contacts at the bottom
7. Make sure Show When Locked is turned ON

Now anyone can press the side button five times and see your emergency information without unlocking your phone.

4. Stop Apps from Tracking You

Apps love to track what you do and where you go. Let's put a stop to most of it:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap Privacy & Security
3. Tap Location Services
4. Look through the list and change most apps to Never (except Maps, Weather, and Camera if you want location stamps on photos)
5. Go back and tap Tracking
6. Turn OFF Allow Apps to Request to Track

5. Turn Off Annoying Notifications

Every app wants to send you notifications. You don't need most of them:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap Notifications
3. Go through each app one by one
4. Turn OFF notifications for apps you don't need to hear from immediately
5. Keep them on for Phone, Messages, and maybe Mail
6. Everything else can wait until you open the app yourself

6. Make the Flashlight Button Harder to Press

If your flashlight keeps turning on in your pocket or purse, you're not alone. We hear this complaint almost daily:

1. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't let you remove the flashlight button from the lock screen
2. But you can make it require a harder press
3. Go to Settings, then Accessibility
4. Tap Touch
5. Tap Haptic Touch
6. Change it from Fast to Slow

Now you need to hold the button longer for it to work, which helps prevent accidental presses.

7. Add a Magnifying Glass

Your iPhone has a built-in magnifying glass that works better than most cheap magnifiers:

1. Go to Settings, then Accessibility
2. Tap Magnifier
3. Turn ON Magnifier
4. Now press the side button three times quickly to open the magnifier
5. Use it to read pill bottles, restaurant menus, price tags, anything

8. Set Up Do Not Disturb for Bedtime

Stop getting woken up by calls and texts in the middle of the night:

1. Go to Settings, then Focus
2. Tap Sleep (or create a new Do Not Disturb schedule)
3. Tap Add Schedule
4. Set your bedtime hours
5. Under Allowed Notifications, tap People
6. Add family members who you'd want to hear from in an emergency
7. Turn ON Allow Repeat Calls (if someone calls twice within 3 minutes, it will ring through)

9. Remove Apps You Don't Use

A cluttered home screen makes everything harder to find. Let's clean it up:

1. Press and hold any app icon until they all start wiggling
2. Look for apps you never use
3. Tap the minus sign on each one
4. Choose Delete App (not Remove from Home Screen)
5. Tap Done when you're finished

Don't worry about deleting the wrong thing. You can always download any Apple app again for free from the App Store.

10. Turn On Find My iPhone

If you lose your phone, this feature helps you find it. We use this all the time to help customers locate their phones:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap your name at the top
3. Tap Find My
4. Tap Find My iPhone
5. Turn ON Find My iPhone
6. Also turn ON Find My network and Send Last Location

Now you can log into iCloud.com from any computer to see where your phone is on a map, or ask a family member to help you locate it.

One More Thing: Write Down Your Apple ID Password

This isn't really a setting, but it's important. Your Apple ID and password are the keys to everything on your phone. Write them down on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere safe at home. We can't tell you how many times we've helped someone who got locked out because they couldn't remember their Apple ID password. If you use Frontier, Optimum, or Xfinity for internet service, don't confuse those passwords with your Apple ID password. They're completely different.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will changing these settings delete any of my photos or contacts?

A: No, these are just preference settings. They change how your phone works, but they won't delete any of your personal information. Your photos, contacts, and messages are all safe.

Q: I changed something and now I want it back the way it was. What do I do?

A: Just go back through the same steps and change it back. Or give us a call at (203) 262-1869 and we'll walk you through it. We help folks in Heritage Village and throughout western Connecticut with this kind of thing all the time.

Q: My grandkids set up my phone for me. Will they be upset if I change these settings?

A: It's your phone! The whole point is to make it work better for you. These settings don't affect anything your grandkids did when they helped you set it up. They'll probably be happy you're making the phone easier for yourself to use.

Q: How much do you charge for a house call if I need help with this?

A: We charge a flat rate for the visit, and we can usually handle multiple issues while we're there. Give us a call at (203) 262-1869 and we'll explain our pricing. We serve all of Litchfield, Fairfield, and New Haven counties, and most customers find it's worth it to have someone show them in person rather than struggling with it alone.