Apple continues to make dramatic changes to iOSand the latest version offers a lot of AI Features and a new liquid glass look. However, some aspects of iOS are as frustrating now as ever, whether it’s annoying notification behaviors, general clutter, or anything else. Fortunately, you can fix many of these problems with a few simple adjustments. Try these seven tweaks to make your iPhone less annoying.
1. Stop update notifications – this is the hidden setting
Do you frequently see pop-up messages to update your operating system? To stop them, you must turn off automatic updates in settings. Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates > iOS Updates and choose Off.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)
For one, you will no longer see annoying notifications. On the other hand, you won’t necessarily know right away when an update is available. In a perfect world, you would see a badge notification appear on the Settings icon when a new system update is available to download and install. In reality, the badge usually appears days after launch. If you find out there’s a new update, you’ll see it when you open Settings > General > Software Update.
2. Your iPhone keeps turning off at the worst times: fix it in 10 seconds
You can often use your phone to check a recipe while cooking or to quickly take notes during a long activity. Prevent your phone from resting on its tired screen and get back to work by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto Lock.
Disable automatic screen lock on iPhone (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Here you can set the sleep timer between 30 seconds and five minutes. You can also choose Never if you always want to lock your phone yourself.
3. Are the red dots on your iPhone driving you crazy? turn them off
Notification bloat is a real problem. If you have a badge in an iPhone app, it should be there to alert you to something important. In theory, you check your urgent notifications, delete them, and go on your merry way. If there is nothing that important, why have the badge? Therefore, it makes sense to disable badges for many applications.
To do this, head to Settings > Notifications > and choose the app you want to adjust.
Notice that there are three options: Lock Screen, Notification Center, and Banners. Lock screen refers to the messages that appear on the lock screen (such as the text of incoming messages). Notification Center is the screen that appears when you drag your finger down from the top of the screen. Banners are the pop-up notifications that you see while using your phone.
Adjust app notifications on iPhone (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Below those options are three more: Banner Style, Sounds, and Badges. Banner Style determines whether your pop-up notifications disappear or remain on your screen until you dismiss them. The sounds are the audio tone alerts. Badges are red circles with numbers that appear on app icons; For example, the one in your email application indicates how many unread messages you have.
If an app has no legitimate reason to interrupt your day, you should at least disable banner notifications and badges. You can disable all of them by toggling Allow Notifications at the top.
How can you decide which notifications to leave active? Simple. Think about whether it’s something you need to know when it happens. For example, you may want to receive alerts for new emails if you have important matters. It certainly helps to receive flight update alerts from certain travel apps when you’re on the move. Your food delivery app and car service apps are also likely to provide you with relevant information in real time. However, anything else that is not important should not bother you with its presence.
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4. Why your photos are secretly videos (and how to stop them from being so)
Have you ever taken a photo that turned out to be a very short video? And you didn’t mean for it to be that way? You’ve probably accidentally used the Live Photos feature, which lets you capture a quick snippet of motion and audio. The problem is that touching a photo to see it in motion for a couple of seconds is not entirely useful.
Turn off Live Photos on iPhone (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Don’t you want to deal with that? Open the Camera app and turn off Live Photo (top right icon). Then go to Settings > Camera > Keep Settings > and enable the toggle next to Live Photo. These settings turn off the Live Photos option and make sure it stays that way.
5. Siri won’t stop eavesdropping? Here’s how to turn it off
If you handle sensitive information, turning off Siri on your iPhone is an easy option. But it’s about more than just security. Sure, Siri is essential in certain contexts. It can be an amazing assistant and is also very helpful for people not to look at their phones while driving. (Please don’t text and drive. You’re going to kill someone.)
But if you don’t need Siri regularly, you’ll want to disable it. That way, it won’t automatically turn on at odd times or accidentally hear something you’d rather no one else hear. (For what it’s worth, Apple has a very good policy of anonymizing requests sent through Siri to its servers, but any time you digitize and send information, there is a risk that someone could intercept it.)
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To turn off Siri, go to Settings > Siri > Talk to Siri > Off.
Disable the Siri virtual assistant on iPhone (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
You can also prevent Siri from working when you lock your phone and turn off the option to activate it using the side button in the same Settings section. That said, activating Siri with a button is much less intrusive than invoking it by mentioning its name when you really want to use it.
6. Apple hid your battery percentage – here’s how to get it back
A battery graph isn’t great at telling you exactly how much charge your phone has left, and Apple (for whatever reason) doesn’t show battery percentage by default. Since the percentage simply appears within the battery graph, it doesn’t take up extra space at the top of the screen, so there’s really no reason not to turn it on. To do this, head to Settings > Battery > Battery Percentage.
Activate the battery percentage on the iPhone (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
If you open the Battery Status & Charging section in the Battery menu, you can find out what the maximum battery capacity is relative to when your iPhone was new. Yes, even your iPhone battery degrades over time. You can’t increase the capacity of the battery, but you can make a mental note of when you want or need to replace it.
7. Change the layout of Control Center to access key settings faster
Control Center (that menu you open by swiping down at the top right of your screen) is home to a ton of useful features, but not all of them end up on the first page of Control Center by default. Also, some things you might want to see aren’t visible at all. Don’t settle for a Control Center that doesn’t work for you. Simply long-press any blank space in Control Center to add, reorder, and delete items at will.
Adjusting Control Center on iPhone (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
For example, the vpn toggle appears on the third page by default, so I moved it to the first page, for example, access. I recommend checking out all the different controls you can add because there is a surprising variety of options available.
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I’m an expert on software and workplace issues, and I’ve been contributing to PCMag since 2011. I launched the column Organize in 2012 and ran through 2024, offering tips on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technologies that can make you feel overwhelmed. That column became the book. Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life. I was also the first product reviewer at PCMag to test fitness devices, from the first Fitbits to smart bras.
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In addition to writing about work, I cover online education, focusing on learning for personal enrichment and skill development. I have a soft spot for really good language learning software. Although I grew up speaking only English, some turns in life led me to learn Spanish, Romanian, and a little American Sign Language. I have studied at the university level, as well as at the Foreign Service Institute, where American diplomats and ambassadors learn languages.
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Ruben Circelli
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I’ve been writing about consumer technology and gaming for over a decade for a variety of publications, including Destructoid, GamesRadar+, Lifewire, PCGamesN, Trusted Reviews, and What Hi-Fi?, among many others. At PCMag, I review productivity and AI software, from chatbots to to-do list apps. In my free time, I’m probably cooking something, playing games, or fiddling with my computer.
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