How To Make Your Iphone 6s Camera Better

iOS 9 features to try

The standout feature on the iPhone 6S is 3D Touch. Similar to Force Touch on the Apple Watch and newer MacBooks, it allows the display to sense the pressure of your finger presses and unlocks new capabilities when you press down at different levels of pressure. Starting today, it will become widely available in a handful of third-party apps. But Apple has also baked enough functionality into its stock apps and inside iOS 9 for you to start getting used to living with what some are calling "right click for your smartphone" right now.

3D Touch trackpad text selection

On the new iPhones, you can use 3D touch to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, allowing for faster text selection. Press down anywhere on your keyboard to see the letter keys blur and your cursor come alive. You can then slide your finger around to quickly move the cursor where you want it, or press down a little bit harder to quickly highlight text. If you've ever found yourself peering through Apple's magnifying loupe, struggling to fix a typo, you'll be glad to start using this feature regularly.

Peek and pop on emails, texts, and webpages

3D Touch allows for different pressure levels to register as different input types on the new iPhone screens, which Apple has cutely named pop and peek. Peek lets you jump into a preview of something with a single press — an email or the webpage tied to a link, for instance — and then lift your finger to return to the app you're using. Try it out when a friend sends you a link via text message, or give it a try when cleaning out your email inbox to reduce the number of swipes. Pop, on the other hand, lets you jump into whatever you're previewing with an extra bit of pressure.

Shoot a Live Photo

An interesting new feature of the iPhone 6S camera is the ability to shoot a so-called Live Photo, a mix between a static image, animated GIF, and a full-on video. It works by capturing moments before and right after you snap a shot in Apple's native camera app. Press down on the photo inside the Camera Roll, and 3D Touch will bring it to life.

Set a live wallpaper as your background

Thanks to Live Photos, you can now turn your iPhone lock screen into a moving image. Anything shot with the new camera feature will come to life with one press on the display. Apple also includes a number of high-resolution images with custom 3D Touch animations you can set as your smartphone background as well.

Quick actions from the home screen

In addition to pop and peek, 3D Touch lets you press down on home screen icons to access a list of functions you can jump into without having to open the app first. For instance, press down firmly on Apple's camera app and you can select the option to take a selfie, which then quickly opens the front-facing camera. Expect app makers that haven't already updated their software today to go crazy with this home screen feature over the next few weeks, as it's easily the most useful 3D Touch use case.

Settings tips & tricks

iOS 9 may look like an incremental upgrade, but there are quite a few subtle improvements and a variety of under-the-hood changes that will go unnoticed unless you know where to look. There are also some features here that are available only to new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus users. Here are a few to get you started mastering Apple's OS. (Read our full iOS 9 review here.)

Customize Spotlight interface for increased productivity

Spotlight has been around forever, but it's a lot more useful now. In iOS 9, Spotlight shows you recent contacts and recently used apps, as well as links to nearby restaurants, coffee shop and gas stations. You can also see the latest headlines, which will open up either in Safari or in the new Apple News app, depending on which iPhone you're using. The Spotlight interface is also customizable, so you can choose which apps you want to see by opening up Settings —> General —> Spotlight Search.

Search for Settings

It sounds minor, but the search bar you'll see on top of the Settings app now is a huge time-saver. Want to change the text size on your phone? Just search for "text" in the search bar, which pulls up options like Bold Text, Larger Text, and Text Size. But note that searching through your settings only seems to work when you're searching within the Settings menu itself. Searching for "text" in the general search bar only pulled up an article we had saved to the Pocket app — nothing from Settings. This limitation persists even if you've set Spotlight Search to search through Settings.

Wi-Fi Assist

Wi-Fi Assist is a new feature that you can find under the Mobile Data section. (Can't find it? Use Spotlight Search!) If you have a weak Wi-Fi signal, Wi-Fi assist will let your phone use some of your cellular data to supplement it. The only problem is that Wi-Fi Assist switches to cellular data anytime your Wi-Fi signal is even the least bit weak, which isn't great if you're on a limited data plan. This option is on by default, but if you want to save on cellular data, you can turn it off by going to Settings —> Mobile Data, and scrolling all the way to the bottom.

Stream high-quality music over cellular data

For all the audiophiles out there, iOS 9 gives you the option to stream higher-quality tunes from Apple Music. Currently, Apple Music plays at 256 kbps, which is the same quality you get when you buy a song from the iTunes Store. But that's only while you're on Wi-Fi; if you're relying on cellular data, you'll get a poorer quality stream. With iOS 9, you can go to Settings —> Music —> Playback and Downloads, and toggle the switch to get the same high-quality 256 kbps sound, even when you're out and about.

Low Power Mode

Every new iPhone that comes out raises the question of whether it has improved battery life. With iOS 9's new Low Power Mode, you'll reportedly be able to extend a full charge by three extra hours. iOS 9 will ask you if you want to enable Low Power Mode once your battery drains down to 20 percent, but you can also proactively turn it on by going to Settings —> Battery —> Low Power Mode, or just asking Siri to turn it on for you. When it's on, you'll find that functions like fetching email, automatic downloads, and background app refresh will be reduced or disabled, and you'll also find that your screen goes dark more quickly than before. Apple's also made it easier to tell when Low Power Mode is on or off — when it's on, the battery indicator will turn yellow and automatically show you the percentage of battery you have left.

Tap and drag to select multiple photos / hide photos

One of the most persistent annoyances in iOS has been the lack of a way to select multiple photos with ease. In recent years, Apple added a "select all" button, but it appears only when you're searching through your deleted photos and want to either delete everything or recover the entire folder. Now, you can simply select one photo and drag your finger to continue selecting. The feature isn't dependent on owning the iPhone 6S — you just need iOS 9 on your device — but it's been enough of a pain point for iOS users that it's worth a special mention.