The iPhone once changed the world, but times have caught up with the slowly evolving platform. Check these settings to preserve privacy and battery life.
You could argue that the iPhone is in its final form, since changes in recent years have been incremental instead of substantial. The features missing from the iPhone 16e versus the iPhone 16 were minor, and perhaps the biggest change to the iPhone 17 Pro is hiding the Face ID sensor — aside from copying the camera bar of the Google Pixel. It’s not necessarily bad news. Smartphones haven’t changed much recently because, well, we’ve perfected them. Apple products have always had a reputation for « just working », so if you were on the fence about buying an iPhone, now is a great time. Any future improvements can only be minor. « Just working » or not, though, there are some settings we recommend turning off.
We’ve talked before about 5 things you should do immediately after buying a new iPhone, and iPhone settings you can change to extend battery life. In this list, we provide a generalized set of recommendations for settings you ought to disable. These include settings for privacy, usability, or a better phone experience overall. Whether you’ve just bought an iPhone or have owned one for years, consider turning off these five settings.Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence looked like a revelation when it was first unveiled. On-device intelligence features that can do anything on your phone with a voice command, and know you personally like a butler? I’ll take two. Then Apple Intelligence face-planted. Hard. It was discovered that Apple had effectively made up the new Siri 2.0. The features it did ship were lackluster at best. You’ve got some okay writing tools, a decent emoji maker, notification summaries, and a Google Lens equivalent (Visual Intelligence) that isn’t terrible. iOS 26 adds a couple more cool ones, like Live Translation for calls and call screening. But that big Siri upgrade that wowed everyone at WWDC? That’s not coming until 2026, and it wouldn’t be unfair to say it’s probably not going to be as powerful as that original presentation, either. Despite how disappointing Apple Intelligence is, it’s installed by default on supported phones — and can take up to 7 GB of space.
If you’re not using it — or using it sparingly — then we recommend disabling it entirely. Let Apple get its crap together first, and in the meantime you’ll save on storage space and battery life. Head to the Settings app > Apple Intelligence & Siri and switch off the toggle for Apple Intelligence.
Keep in mind that if it’s a specific feature that’s bothering you, some can be individually disabled. Take those Mail summaries. In Settings > Apps > Mail. Under Message List, turn off the toggle for Summarize Message Preview. Keep in mind, this is only going to apply if your device supports Apple Intelligence in the first place. Only the iPhone 15 Pro onward does, but it does include budget devices like the new Apple iPhone 16e.
