If you have been using an Android or another phone and have recently purchased an iPhone, you will probably find it to be very different from the other phones and difficult to initially get to grips with. You will obviously want to get the most out of your phone as quickly as possible so we have put together an introductory guide to answer most of your questions and help you get started with your iPhone.

Is your iPhone screen black but you still hear notifications coming in?

Knowing your iPhone model

Though iPhone 8 and iPhone X are the latest models, there are several older iPhone models that are still sold by retailers. Below is the list of iPhones that are still being used and supported by Apple.

• iPhone 5S
• iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus
• iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
• iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
• iPhone X

The above mentioned iPhone models are still supported and you will find these models running the latest iOS 11.

iPhone Overview

The iPhone display is not a simple touch-screen; it’s a multi-touch display that supports multiple touch point and can also take gestures as input. Some of the simple gestures you can use are – tap, swipe, drag, and stretch/pinch.

The iPhone has few physical buttons, these buttons are Home, Power and Volume buttons that are used to switch on the iPhone navigate through menus, and increase or decrease the volume.  Only the new iPhone X does not have a Home button.

Sleep/Wake button– this button is located on the top-right hand corner of the screen. It is primarily used for locking the phone or waking the screen. Pressing the Wake button will light up the screen and then you can access your iPhone features by entering the unlock code.

Volume Controls– as expected, the volume buttons are used to increase and decrease volume. The volume controls are located on the side of iPhone.

Home button– the home button is the most important button on the iPhone and is located just below the screen. It has multiple functions, such as it takes you to the home screen and also provides some convenient shortcuts. In the iPhone 5S, the fingerprint sensor is located under the Home button which is used to unlock the iPhone.

Ring/Silent Switch – this switch is located on the left-hand side of the iPhone, the Ring/Silent switch allows you to toggle between Silent and Ringer mode.

Setting up your iPhone

Apple ID- you will need an Apple ID to use every Apple service. For example, to store content in iCloud, buying movies, TV shows, and songs from the iTunes store, and even purchasing apps from the App Store. Below are the steps to create an Apple ID on your iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap iCloud
3. Tap Create a new Apple ID
4. Enter your date of birth
5. Tap Next
6. Enter your First and Last name
7. Tap Next
8. Select current email address
9. Enter your email address
10. Create a password
11. Type the password again to verify the password
12. Select a security question
13. Type in answer
14. Repeat two more times
15. Tap on Agree to the Terms and Conditions
16. Tap Merge or Don’t merge to sync data to iCloud
17. Tap OK to confirm Find my iPhone is turned on

Now that you have created an Apple ID, you can use the same to log in to the iTunes store or to iCloud.

Managing music and videos manually on iPhone

You have a dedicated Music app and Videos app which can be accessed from the Home screen. Here are the steps to listen to Music on your iPhone.

1. Tap on the Music app
2. Select the view type dropdown from the middle of the screen
3. At the bottom of the pop-up, switch Show Music Available Offline to ON

Here are the steps to view videos on your iPhone

1. Tap on the Videos app
2. A screen opens with a search box
3. Tap the search box
4. Enter the name of the video you want to watch
5. Tap Go
6. Tap the video you want to watch
7. Tap Done after you have finished watching the video

Syncing your content with iTunes

Unlike Android and other smartphones, you cannot add music and videos directly to the phone memory or SD card. In fact, iPhone does not support flash memory, so make sure you buy an iPhone with sufficiently large internal storage. If you have music and videos stored on your PC, you can transfer the music to your iPhone using iTunes. Below are the steps to follow in order to do this:

1. Open iTunes on your PC or Mac. Make sure you have the latest version
2. Connect your iPhone to PC with the USB cable
3. Your connected iPhone appears as an icon in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window
4. Click on the device icon
5. Under the Settings, look for the list of content type that you can sync
6. Click the content type you want to sync
7. In the main iTunes window, check the box near the Sync and check the box which mentions the content type you wish to sync
8. Repeat the above two steps for each content type- Music, videos, Photos, TV shows
9. Click the Apply button to start syncing and save the sync settings

 Using iCloud on the iPhone

When you sign up for iCloud, you immediately get 5GB of free storage space. If you need additional storage space you can upgrade to a larger storage plan such as 50GB, 200GB, or 2TB. Here are steps to backup your iPhone with iCloud.

1. Connect your iPhone to Wi-Fi network
2. Tap on Settings > your name– > iCloud
3. Tap iCloud Backup
4. Tap Backup Now
5. Wait until the process completes

Your iCloud backup includes App data, Photos, and videos on your iPhone, shared photos, device settings, call history, home screen, and app organization, purchase history of Apple services, ringtones, messages, and health data.

Since a lot of data is backed up on iCloud, you can quickly run out of space. Therefore it is important to check how much iCloud storage you have.  You can delete old backups on iCloud to free up space. Here are the steps to manage iCloud storage:

1. Connect your iPhone to Wi-Fi network
2. Tap on Settings > your name > iCloud
3. Tap iCloud storage or Manage Storage
4. Tap the name of your device
5. Tap Delete backup
6. Turn Off and Delete

You can also delete photos and videos on iCloud to free some space. Here’s how to do this:

1. Open the Photos App
2. Tap Photos at the bottom of the screen
3. Tap Select
4. Choose one or more photos that you want to delete
5. Tap the Recycle bin icon
6. Tap Delete Photo

You can also delete files from iCloud. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Open the Files App
2. Tap Browse
3. Under locations, tap iCloud Drive > Select
4. Select the files you want to delete
5. Tap the Recycle bin icon
6. Go to Locations > Recently Deleted > Select
7. Select the files that you want to delete
8. Tap Delete

If you have questions about using an iphone, please feel free to post below.