How to set up an iPhone for seniors

As we get older, it is com­mon for some sen­ses to be impai­red, which is why it is all the more important to com­pen­sate for these weaknesses.

Take a look at the hel­pful tips for the area where you per­so­nally expe­ri­ence the grea­test dif­fi­cul­ties. In addi­tion, the set­tings can also be used pre­ven­tively to engage the senses.

In gene­ral, we recom­mend taking the time to test dif­fe­rent set­tings with the senior.
set­ting opti­ons with the senior. Because only if the use feels good and is intui­tive will the cell phone be used in the end and the adjus­t­ments can con­tri­bute to bet­ter social participation.

You can also watch the indi­vi­dual videos in short form on our You­Tube channel.

If your hea­ring is impai­red, the fol­lo­wing adjus­t­ments can help you:

• Under Set­tings → Sounds and hap­tics, under Vibrate, the phone can vibrate in addi­tion to the usual rin­ging. The phone also vibra­tes when it is set to silent.
• Under Set­tings → Sounds and hap­tics, the ring­tone can be set to a lou­der volume under Ring and noti­fi­ca­tion tones. It is important that Change with but­tons is deac­ti­va­ted so that the volume of the ring­tone is not affec­ted when the gene­ral volume is changed.
• Under Set­tings → Acces­si­bi­lity → Hea­ring aids, hea­ring aids can be con­nec­ted via Bluetooth.
• Under Set­tings → Acces­si­bi­lity → Sub­tit­les, sub­tit­les can be acti­va­ted so that they are dis­played if available.
• You can then go to Set­tings → Acces­si­bi­lity → Audio/Visual and acti­vate LED flash for noti­fi­ca­ti­ons at the bottom.

If your eye­sight is impai­red, the fol­lo­wing set­tings may help you.

You can acti­vate these set­tings under Set­tings → Acces­si­bi­lity → Dis­play & text size:

Bold text ensu­res that the text is dis­played thicker.

• Lar­ger text allows you to change the font size.
• If you acti­vate Lar­ger dyna­mic text, apps with dyna­mic text are adapted to the rea­ding size spe­ci­fied below.
• On/Off labels create an “I” and an “O” next to the sliders.
• Reduce trans­pa­rency increa­ses the con­trast of some back­grounds to improve readability.
• Increase con­trast increa­ses the color con­trast bet­ween the app fore­ground and the background.
• Dif­fe­ren­tiate wit­hout colors uses alter­na­ti­ves of ele­ments that are other­wise only iden­ti­fied by colors.

Under Set­tings → Dis­play & bright­ness, the dis­play can be set to enlar­ged at the bottom.

Under Set­tings → Acces­si­bi­lity you will find the Phy­si­cal and Moto­ri­zed area. There are many adjus­t­ments for active operation.

Under Touch → Touch cus­to­miza­ti­ons you will find the fol­lo­wing sel­ec­tion options:

• The hol­ding time deter­mi­nes how long you have to leave your fin­ger on the screen for it to be reco­gni­zed as a touch. To do this, click on Hol­ding time to cus­to­mize the touch time using the plus and minus signs. For peo­ple with limi­ted motor skills, it makes sense to set a hol­ding time of more than 1 second.
• Among other things, you can have acci­den­tal taps inter­pre­ted as a tap. This can be con­trol­led under Ignore repe­ti­tion by also set­ting a desi­red time.
• The tap assistant helps you to inter­pret the first or last touch point of a swipe ges­ture as inten­ded. To do this, you must sel­ect Use first touch point or Use last touch point with a desi­red time.
• Switch con­trol can be an inte­res­t­ing option, espe­ci­ally if users are easily over­whel­med by the many sel­ec­tion options.

You can also easily cus­to­mize your key­board. This will make typ­ing mes­sa­ges much easier.

• With auto-capi­ta­liza­tion, the first word of a mes­sage auto­ma­ti­cally starts with a capi­tal letter.
• With auto-cor­rect, the words you write are auto­ma­ti­cally cor­rec­ted if you make a typo.
• By acti­vat­ing Sug­ges­ti­ons, you will receive word sug­ges­ti­ons that adapt to the sen­tence you have just written.
• With cha­rac­ter pre­view, the typed let­ter appears enlar­ged on the key­board for a brief moment.

Create cont­acts as favorites

You can create favo­ri­tes in the Phone app. Cont­acts with whom you make fre­quent calls can be found and cont­ac­ted more quickly.

• Open the Phone app.
• Tap on Favo­ri­tes in the bar at the bot­tom of the screen and then on the
  Plus ” + ” at the top left.
• Now sel­ect the cont­act you want to add as a favo­rite. You can search for the cont­act by tap­ping on the bar with the magni­fy­ing glass. Alter­na­tively, you can scroll down with your fin­ger and tap on the desi­red contact.
• Then tap on Call and on the phone number.
• Your cont­act can now be found under Favo­ri­tes.

Making the home screen clearer

• First go to the home screen of your iPhone and hold your fin­ger on a free area or an app until the app icons start to wiggle and a minus ” — ” appears in the left-hand cor­ner of the icon.
• Tap on the minus ” — “.
• Sel­ect your desi­red action. You have the fol­lo­wing options: 
  • Delete app
  • Remove app from the home screen
  • Can­cel the process
• Do this for all desi­red apps.
• When you have finis­hed, tap again on a free area of the screen or on the word Done at the top right.

Acti­vate “Siri” voice control

If you also need to use Apple’s voice con­trol to ask for the wea­ther or set an alarm, you need to acti­vate Siri.

• First click on Set­tings → Siri & Search.
• To acti­vate Siri, acti­vate the slider for Watch out for Hey Siri.
• Siri must then be con­fi­gu­red. Fol­low the ins­truc­tions on your iPhone.
• You can now make two addi­tio­nal set­tings. Decide for yours­elf to what ext­ent these set­tings are hel­pful for you. 
  • Acti­vate Siri when pres­sing the side button
  • Allow Siri when locked