The iMom Project

Updated April 13th, 2020.

I set Mom up with an iPhone 3GS this week, and she’s getting the hang of it. I thought I’d speed up the learning process by teaching her a tiny bit about the iPhone every day. My plan is ten tips in ten days. Figuring that a lot of other people are new to the iPhone too I thought I’d put the tips here on the blog so everyone else can benefit. That means you, Debbie, and also you, Christi.

So here we go with Tip Number One.

Know How to Zoom In and Zoom Out
There’s a shortcut for zooming in (and out) and people usually “discover” it by mistake. The feature is not necessarily turned on, but if it is, a three-fingered double-tap on the iPhone screen will zoom you way in.

Here’s what a home screen looks like normally…

Here’s what it looks like after a three-finger double-tap:

That’s a 500% zoom, by the way.

I’ve received calls from people who have accidentally triggered a zoom with the three-finger double-tap. They think that something was wrong with their phones. It can be pretty mysterious the first time, that is for sure, but all you have to do to get out of it is do the three-finger double-tap again. Easy.

You can zoom any screen, any time. Works everywhere. If you want to scroll around when you’re zoomed in, use three fingers to drag the screen around.

If you find yourself accidentally zooming in and you want to turn the feature off, do it like this:

Tap the Settings app, then General, then Accessibility, then Zoom. Turn it off using the switch next to the word “Zoom.” Of course, if it’s off and you want it on, you can switch it ON, and try it right there. No need to “save” or logout or reboot or anything. You can always come back and change this setting later. I leave mine set to “On” because zooming in comes in handy every so often.

OK, that’s it for Tip Number One. Give it a whirl.

Welcome to the party, Mom.

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Want some some quick iPhone how-tos?
Visit me at iPhoneinaminute.com.

Looking for quick tips about Macs?
See my One-Minute Macman website!