5 Customizing Your iPhone with Apps
In this chapter, you learn how to make an iPhone into your iPhone by making it work the way you want it to. Topics include the following:
Your iPhone comes with a lot of very useful apps that can do all sorts of amazing things. But, that’s just for starters. An iPhone gets even more useful as you add apps that enable you to do all types of useful and fun things.
Getting Started
The iPhone is actually a powerful computing platform that software developers can use to deliver amazing apps for you to use. And, because of the App Store (which is an app in and of itself), installing and maintaining apps on your iPhone is very simple. Following are some key concepts you’ll use as you explore the wonderful world of iPhone apps:
App Store app—This app connects your iPhone to Apple’s App Store, which is where you find apps that you can explore and download to your phone. In addition to being very easy to use, the App Store also protects you from harmful apps. That’s because before an app can be posted in the App Store, it must pass a rigorous set of tests by Apple to ensure that it can’t do any damage to your iPhone or to your information.
Apple ID—To access the Apple App Store, you need to have an Apple ID. See Chapter 4, “Setting Up and Using an Apple ID, iCloud, and Other Online Accounts,” for the details of obtaining and configuring an Apple ID on your iPhone. As part of that process, you likely provided payment information to Apple, such as a credit or debit card. If you did, it’s very convenient to pay for purchases from the App Store. If you didn’t set up a payment method, you’ll need to provide that information if you download any apps that have a price. Even without payment information, you can still shop for, download, and use thousands of apps for free.
Face ID—As discussed in Chapter 2, “Getting Started with Your iPhone,” your iPhone’s Face ID feature enables you to sign into accounts or enter passwords by simply looking at your iPhone. You can configure the App Store to accept Face ID so that you don’t have to enter your Apple ID password every time you download an app.
Touch ID—Also covered in Chapter 2, Touch ID enables you to enter passwords or sign into accounts by touching a finger to the Touch ID/Home button. Using Touch ID makes downloading apps easier and faster because you only have to touch your phone rather than typing in a password each time.
Installing apps on your iPhone enables it to do so much more than it can “out of the box.” You’ll want to explore and download apps to completely customize how you use your iPhone; the possibilities of what your phone can do with apps are limitless!
Customizing How Your iPhone Works with Apps
Installing apps on your iPhone enables you to add more functionality than you can probably imagine. As the old Apple ad use to proclaim, “There’s an app for that.” And in all likelihood, there probably is an app for a lot of what you would like to use your iPhone for. The App Store app enables you to find, download, and install apps onto your iPhone.
Before you jump into the App Store, take a few moments to ensure your iPhone is configured for maximum ease and efficiency of dealing with new apps.
First Things First
The rest of this chapter assumes you have configured an Apple ID on your iPhone and that you have Face ID or Touch ID set up. If you don’t have an Apple ID yet, see Chapter 4. If you haven’t configured your iPhone for Face ID or Touch ID, go back to Chapter 2 and do so. Then come back here.
Configuring Your iPhone to Download and Maintain Apps
Use the following steps to configure your iPhone so that it’s extremely easy to download and install apps and to keep them current:
Open the Settings app.
Tap iTunes & App Store.
Ensure the Apple ID you want to use to download apps is shown at the top of the screen; if it isn’t, tap the Apple ID shown, tap Sign Out, and then sign in to your Apple ID.
Ensure the Apps switch is on (green); this causes any apps you download onto other devices using the same Apple ID (such as an iPad) to be installed on your iPhone automatically. This helps you have the same apps available on all your devices.
Ensure the App Updates switch is on (green); this causes any updates to apps you have installed on your iPhone to be downloaded and installed automatically. I recommend you use this option so you can be sure you are always running the most current versions of your apps.
If you don’t have an unlimited cellular data plan, you might want to set Automatic Downloads to off (white) so apps and other content are downloaded only when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. If this is enabled (green), apps and content are downloaded to your iPhone when you’re using a cellular network, which can consume significant amounts of your data plan.
If you have Automatic Downloads enabled, tap App Downloads. If not, skip to step 9.
Choose how you want apps and updates to be download when you’re using a cellular connection. The options are Always Allow, Ask If Over 200 MB, or Always Ask. If you choose one of the latter two options, you’re prompted to allow downloads in the corresponding situations.
Tap Back (<).
Tap Video Autoplay.
Some content in the App Store has a video preview; if you want this video to play automatically, leave Video Autoplay set to On. If you want it to play only when you’re using Wi-Fi, tap Wi-Fi Only. If you don’t want video previews to play at all, tap Off.
Tap Back (<).
If you want to be able to provide feedback about apps you use, set In-App Ratings & Reviews to on (green). If you set this to off (white) instead, you won’t be prompted to rate and review apps as you use them.
If you want apps that you don’t use to be removed from your iPhone, set the Offload Unused Apps to on (green). This is handy because you likely won’t end up using all the apps you download or you might use some for only a short time and then not need them again. When Offload Unused Apps is on, these unused apps are removed automatically so they aren’t cluttering up your phone. (Any data or documents are saved and reinstalled if you ever install the app again.)
Tap Settings.
Tap Face ID & Passcode.
You’ve Got the Touch
These steps show setting up an iPhone for the App Store on an iPhone that uses Face ID. If your iPhone uses Touch ID instead, the steps are nearly identical, but you will see references to Touch ID on your screens rather than to Face ID as shown in the figures.
Enter your passcode.
Ensure the iTunes & App Store switch is on (green). If it isn’t enabled, tap the switch, enter your Apple ID password, and tap OK to enable it.
Using the App Store App to Find and Install iPhone Apps
The App Store app enables you to quickly and easily browse and search for apps, view information about them, and then download and install them on your iPhone with just a few taps.
When you use the App Store app, you can find apps to download using any of the following options:
Today—This tab takes you to apps featured in the App Store on the day you visit the store. When you tap any of the items on the Today screen, you move into the group or app on which you tapped.
Games—Easily the most popular category of apps, Games enables you to find those critical games you need to prove your skills and pass the time. When you move into the Games area, the games are also grouped in various ways, such as Popular Games, Essential Game Picks, Top Free, and Top Categories.
Apps—This category leads you to apps that aren’t games. On this screen, in addition to the Popular Apps, Apps We Love Right Now, Top Paid Apps, or Top Free Apps lists, you can see apps organized by category, which is a useful way to find apps you want to use for specific purposes. Tap a category to explore the apps it contains. Or, tap See All in the Top Categories section to browse all categories.
Arcade—This option enables you to subscribe (requires a fee) to Apple’s Arcade service that provides many games you can play without ads or in-game charges. Apple regularly adds to the games in the Arcade so you can always find new games to try.
Search—This tool enables you to search for apps. You can search by name, developer, and other keywords.
Finding and downloading any kind of app follows this same pattern:
Find the app you’re interested in. You can use the options described in the previous list to find apps by browsing for them, or you can use the search option to find a specific app quickly and easily.
Evaluate the app. The information screen for apps provides lots of information that you can use to decide whether you want to download an app (or not). The information available includes a text description, screenshots, and ratings and reviews from users.
Download and install the app. This usually requires only a tap, two presses of the Side button, and a glance at your iPhone (Face ID) or a tap and then a touch on the Touch ID/Home button (Touch ID). If you don’t have Face ID or Touch ID configured, you have to enter your Apple ID password to download apps.
The following tasks provide detailed examples for each of these steps.
Searching for Apps
If you know something about an app, such as its name, its developer, or its purpose you can quickly search the App Store to find the app. Here’s how to search for an app:
Move to the Home screen and tap App Store.
Tap Search.
Tap in the Search box.
Follow the Trends?
Before you enter a search term on the Search screen, you see the Trending section, which shows the searches that are being performed most frequently. You can tap one of these to use it to search for apps.
Type a search term. This can be the type of app you’re looking for based on its purpose (such as Travel) or the name of someone associated with the app, its title, its developer, or even a topic. As you type, the app suggests searches that are related to what you’re typing.
Tap the search you want to perform or tap the Search key on the keyboard to search for the term you entered in step 4. The apps that meet your search term appear.
Swipe up and down on the screen to review the apps in the search results.
If none of the apps are what you are looking for, tap Clear (x) in the Search box and repeat steps 4–6.
When you find an app of interest to you, tap it. You move to the app’s information screen.
Use the app’s information on the information screen to evaluate the app and decide if you want to download it. You can read about the app, see screenshots (tap them to make them larger), play video previews, and read other people’s reviews to help you decide. If you want to download the app, see “Downloading Apps” later in this chapter for the details.
Browsing for Apps
If you don’t know of a specific app you want, you can browse the App Store. To browse, you can tap any graphics or links you see in the App Store app. One of the most useful ways to browse for apps is by using categories.
Open the App Store app.
Tap Apps (browsing for games or using the Today option works very similarly).
Swipe up the screen until you see the Top Categories section.
Tap See All to browse all available categories. (If you see a category on the Top Categories list that interests you, tap it and skip to step 6.)
Swipe up and down to browse the categories.
Tap a category in which you are interested.
Swipe up and down to browse the groupings of apps, such as Apps We Love or Top Paid.
Tap See All for a grouping to browse the apps it contains.
Swipe up and down to browse the apps in the group you selected in step 7.
Tap an app in which you are interested. You move to that app’s information screen.
Use the information on the information screen to decide whether you want to download the app. You can read about the app, see screenshots, play video previews, and read other people’s reviews to help you decide. If you want to download the app, see “Downloading Apps” later in this chapter for the details. Or, you can continue browsing by tapping Back (<) in the top-left corner of the screen to return to the previous list.
Downloading Apps
Downloading and installing apps is about as easy as things get, as you can see:
In the App Store, view the app you want to download.
Tap GET (for free apps) or the price (for apps that have a license fee). You’re prompted to download and install the app.
Why Apple ID? Why?
At times, you might be prompted to enter your Apple ID password to download an app even if you have Face ID or Touch ID set up to work with the App Store. This can happen for a variety of reasons so don’t be too surprised if it happens to you. After you’ve used Face ID or Touch ID for a while, you might find it annoying to have to actually type a password… at least I do.
More Interruptions?
Periodically, you might have to review and update payment information, license agreements, and the like. When this happens, follow the onscreen directions to complete whatever you need to do. When that process is complete, you go back to downloading the app. Fortunately, these interruptions don’t happen that often.
Press the Side button twice and look at the screen to confirm that you want to download and install the app (Face ID) or touch the Touch ID/Home button (Touch ID) (not shown in the figures).
When you see the Done message, the app starts to download.
Wait for It… Or Not
You can do something else while apps are downloading; for example, look for and download other apps or move into a different app. The download process completes on its own.
You see the progress of the process.
When the process is complete, the status information is replaced by the OPEN button. You can tap OPEN to start using the app.
