How to Use an iPhone: A Beginner's Walkthrough

Getting a new iPhone can feel exciting and a little overwhelming at the same time — there are no labels on the glass, and nobody hands you a manual. You are not alone in that feeling. This walkthrough covers the everyday basics: how the home screen works, the handful of gestures you actually need, how to make a call or send a message, and how to take a photo. If you are picking up an iPhone for the first time, this is a good place to begin. For a broader look at using an iPhone comfortably as you get older, iPhone for Seniors: The Complete Plain-English Guide goes deeper on many of these topics.

The home screen, explained

When you wake your iPhone, the first thing you see is the home screen — a grid of small, colorful squares. Each square is an app, which is just a program for doing one thing. The one that looks like a green telephone is for making calls. The one with a speech bubble is for sending messages. The one with a camera outline is, unsurprisingly, the camera.

Along the very bottom edge of the home screen is a slightly separate row called the Dock. Think of it as a shelf for the apps you use most. It stays in place even when you swipe left or right to see more pages of apps, so your key shortcuts are always within reach.

If you have more apps than fit on one screen, the home screen has extra pages hidden to the right. A gentle swipe to the left reveals them; swipe back to the right to return. Tiny dots near the bottom of the screen show you which page you are on.

You cannot accidentally delete an app just by tapping it — all a tap does is open it. Explore as freely as you like.

The gestures you actually need

The iPhone responds to your fingers in just a few ways, and you only need to learn four of them to get through most days.

Tap — press once with a fingertip, then lift. This opens apps, selects things, and presses buttons. It is the main gesture you will use.

Swipe — place your finger on the screen and slide it in a direction without lifting. Swiping left and right moves between pages of apps. Swiping up inside many apps scrolls through a list or article.

Getting back home — no matter where you are on the phone, you can always return to the home screen. On models with a Home button (the round physical button below the screen), press it once. On models without a Home button, place your finger at the very bottom edge of the screen and swipe upward in one smooth motion. Either way, you are back at the home screen in an instant. If an app feels confusing or you have gotten somewhere unexpected, this is your reset.

Unlocking — when the screen is dark, you first wake it (press the Home button, or press the button on the right edge if your phone has no Home button), then unlock it. The two main styles work a little differently. On a phone with a Home button, resting your finger on that button reads your fingerprint and unlocks in the same motion. On a phone without a Home button, the phone looks at your face to recognise you, and then you swipe up from the bottom edge to open it. If your face or fingerprint isn't set up yet, a four- or six-digit passcode does the same job.

One reassuring truth: you cannot break the iPhone by tapping around. There is nothing you can stumble into that is not reversible. If something unexpected happens, getting back to the home screen using the gesture above is always the right first move.

Making a call and sending a text

The app for phone calls is called Phone — it has a green background with a white telephone icon. Open it and you will see a few tabs along the bottom. Recents shows your recent call history; tap any name or number to call that person back. Contacts is your address book; scroll or search for a name, tap it, then tap the phone number to dial.

To hang up, tap the red circle on screen. To put a call on speaker — useful if you want both hands free — look for a speaker button that appears during the call and tap it.

For text messages, open the Messages app — a green background with a white speech bubble. To start a new conversation, look for a pencil or compose icon and tap it, then type the name or number of the person you want to reach. Once the conversation opens, tap the text field at the bottom, type your message, and tap the button to send. Messages you send appear on the right side of the screen; replies arrive on the left.

If you would rather speak than type, look for a small microphone icon on the keyboard and tap it. Speak your message naturally, pause for a moment, and your words appear as text. You can fix anything before you send.

If you have not already set up your iPhone, How to Set Up a New iPhone walks through that first-time process step by step.

Taking a photo

The Camera app is one of the simplest things on the iPhone to use. Open it — either from the home screen or by swiping left on the lock screen — and your phone immediately becomes a camera. Point it at what you want to photograph. When you are ready, press the large white circle in the middle of the bottom area. That is the shutter button. The phone takes the photo and you will see a small thumbnail appear in the corner to confirm it was saved.

To look at your photos, open the Photos app. Your most recent pictures appear first. Tap any photo to see it full screen; tap the back arrow or swipe down to return to the gallery. Nothing is lost unless you deliberately delete it — every photo stays in the Photos app until you choose to remove it.

A few things worth knowing: the phone adjusts focus and brightness automatically, so you usually do not need to change anything before tapping the shutter. If something looks a little dark, tap on the subject in the viewfinder and the camera will adjust. The volume-up button on the side of the phone also works as a shutter if pressing the on-screen circle feels awkward.

When you get stuck

Every iPhone user — including experienced ones — occasionally ends up somewhere confusing. The good news is that there is a reliable way to reset the situation without losing anything.

First, go home. Press the Home button, or swipe up from the bottom edge. You are now back at the starting point, no harm done.

If an app has frozen and will not respond to tapping, going home and coming back to it often fixes things. If it still feels stuck, you can close the app entirely: on models with a Home button, press it twice quickly to see your open apps, then swipe up on the frozen one to close it. On models without a Home button, slowly swipe up from the bottom edge and hold your finger still for a moment until your open apps appear as cards. Swipe up on the one you want to close.

If the screen goes dark while you are in the middle of something, the phone has simply gone to sleep to save battery. Press the side button or, on Home-button models, the Home button to wake it up, then unlock it as normal and you will return to exactly where you were.

The iPhone is designed to be forgiving. Nothing short of a deliberate, confirmed deletion removes anything permanently. When in doubt: go home, take a breath, and start again.