If you haven’t already upgraded your iPhone to iOS 11, stop what you are doing and download/install it right now. Don’t worry, I’ll wait…
1 & 2: Smart Invert Colors, Compact Keyboard functionality.
Let’s start with my personal favorite, the Smart Invert Colors; and truthfully I’m not sure if it’s the feature I love most or the shortcut. After setting up the shortcut, all you have to do is triple click the home button and your phone inverts the colors automatically. Being able to turn my phone on dark mode is really helpful at night when I’m trying to put my daughter to sleep but also want to shop on Amazon or troll around on Facebook. After all, moms are known for their multi-tasking. Speaking of kids, and multi-tasking, the second feature I like best is the ability to make your keyboard compact while texting or emailing so that you can reach all the keys easier with one hand. For instance, when my daughter is laying on top of my arm cuddling because she’s homesick but I must send this work email out before lunch. Voila – life made easier.
3 & 4: Customizable Control Center, Screen Recording
The iOS 11 update comes with a completely customizable control center too! Before, everything in the control center was the default and the same on every iPhone. Not anymore, you can pick from a huge selection of your favorite tools and apps and have them all at your fingertips by just swiping up on the home screen. When I customized my control center I added the new Screen Record feature to it. The screen record function allows you to open the app and record all of the movements you make across your screen i.e. texting, gaming, emails, etc. The end product will end up in your photo gallery as a video that you can share with anyone in any manner. This would be great for showing someone how to navigate or give directions on how to use an app.
5 & 6: Emergency SOS & Do Not Disturb While Driving
Let me bring it back to the mom in me really quick because the next 2 features for iOS 11 are absolutely MADE for the mom in me. Emergency SOS is a feature that allows you to create a shortcut by pushing the lock button on the side of your iPhone 5 times to activate SOS mode. What this does is it gives your phone permission to contact 911 and it will send a text to any of your emergency contacts that you have listed. This is an amazing, and for me, an important new feature to have. You just never ever know when you might need it. Another awesome safety feature is the DND (Do not disturb) while driving. When activated, your phone is now smart enough to detect when you are in a car or driving one and will put your phone on DND automatically (if you so choose). That way, there are no distractions from notifications or the impulse to text while driving.
Those are just a few of the new features provided with the iOS 11 update. I’ll be sending out additional tips and tricks over the next few months, and I’d love to hear your tips and tricks as well.
Corinne Casey (Corinne@PalmBeachSoftware.com) is the Office Manager and Power BI specialist at Palm Beach Software Design, Inc. Palm Beach Software Design is a full-service software development and consulting firm, specializing in applications for business on the cloud, mobile, and desktop platform.
http://www.PalmBeachSoftware.com – please visit to learn more about us, and more importantly, tell us about your next project that we can help you with.
