The holidays are here. It’s a time for socks you never wanted, big family dinners, and hearing the same holiday songs everywhere you go over and over (and over) again. But maybe, just maybe, someone will give you something that’ll help you actually enjoy the holidays—like a shiny, new phone!
If you’re giving—or getting—a new iPhone this holiday season, here’s some great tips to get started Enjoy-ing it right away. And these are great for both new and experienced, users, alike.
Create your Apple ID
An Apple ID is what you’ll use to access all of Apple’s services, like iCloud, Apple Music, iTunes, and more—and even what you’ll need to buy and download apps onto your iPhone. You can create an Apple ID from your iPhone when you first start it up. Or, you can create a new Apple ID from the iBooks Store, App Store, iTunes Store, Apple Music and Apple News, or iCloud Settings on your iPhone after you’ve set it up. But if you know you’re getting an iPhone as a gift, you can save time by creating an Apple ID right now from your computer—so you can start downloading-away on your new iPhone even faster.
Set up Touch ID
Want to unlock your phone almost instantly without having to type in a passcode each time? How about make a purchase in a store with just your phone? So you don’t have to go fishing for your debit card. Or just keep all the information on your iPhone even more secure? Then you’ll want to use Touch ID.
Touch ID is available on all iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE models and is super easy to set up. You can set it up when you start up the iPhone for the first time. But if you’re so eager to get playing on your new phone that you skip it, you can set it up later by tapping Settings, then Touch ID & Passcode, and enter the passcode you made when you set up your iPhone. Here, you can add up to five fingerprints, choose how Touch ID works with a few Apple services, and more. You can also check out Apple’s Support page for a deeper walkthrough on how to set up Touch ID across various Apple devices.
Set up (and use) Apple Pay
You may be one of those people who’s set in their ways when it comes to making payments. But we’re here to tell you… that Apple Pay is freaking awesome! It’s a wireless way of buying things with your phone that’s not only more convenient than using your debit or credit card in-store or online, but it’s actually more secure, too.
That’s because when you make a purchase, Apple Pay sends a one-time authorization number (called a Token) to the store to allow the purchase. But that token contains none of your personal information—so the retailer never has any direct access to your details. So if a retailer is ever hacked, none of your private details get into the hands of those naughty people (Santa knows which part of the list they’re on). And, the information on your iPhone is securely stored and encrypted in a dedicated chip called the Secure Element—so even Apple doesn’t have access to it!
Like Touch ID, you can set up Apple Pay when you start up your iPhone for the first time. But, you can also set it up later by tapping the Settings app, then selecting Wallet & Apple Pay.
To buy something with Apple Pay, check the store or payment terminal for the logo (pictured below), or just ask the store. Then, simply hold your phone up to the payment terminal and your card will appear. To finish the payment, just place the finger or thumb you used for Touch ID on the Touch ID sensor… and that’s it!
And Apple Pay can hold multiple cards. So if you’d like to use a different card, hold your iPhone up to the terminal, swipe down on the card that’s on your screen, tap the card you want to use, then rest your finger on the Touch ID sensor.
You can even check your recent transactions with Apple Pay. Open the Wallet app, and your last few transactions are automatically visible under your card. And you can see the last ten transactions by tapping at the bottom of your screen.
To learn how to set up Apple Pay across multiple Apple devices—like iPad, Mac, and even Apple Watch—check out Apple’s Support page.
Finding free apps in the App Store
A common misconception among new iPhone users coming from a different device, is that there aren’t any free apps in the App Store. Fortunately, that’s not true—as Apple has tons of free apps!
To find the most popular free apps, tap the App Store app, tap Top Charts along the bottom of your screen, then tap Free along the top. Here you’ll see the top 150 free apps. And each category has their own free apps, too. When you select an app, look for the Get button to the right—that’s Apple’s secret way of saying that app is free!
Get the iPhone for iOS 10 user guide
Few people know this, but iPhone has a user guide online! Well, sort of… it’s actually in the iBooks Store. You can download it right from your iPhone into your iBooks app—so an in-depth guide to everything about your iPhone is right in your pocket… on your iPhone! And your iPhone isn’t the only one with a convenient guide for your device. iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV all have user guides in iBooks. But if you’d prefer to look at the guide on a bigger screen, you can check Apple’s Support page, here, for guides on all of their hardware and software.
How to use your camera
You may not have taken a lot of pictures with your last phone, but believe us, you’ll want to with your new iPhone! And there’s many ways to quickly get to your camera.
With your iPhone unlocked, tap the Camera app on your Home screen to open the camera—then tap the shutter button or either of the volume buttons to snap the shot.
To get to more camera options even quicker, press the camera app to bring up a selection of actions you can immediately jump to, like take a selfie, record a slo-mo video, and more. You can also ask Siri to “Open camera” and “Take a photo”—which is great for when it’s 5-degrees out and your mittens don’t seem to be playing nicely with your phone.
And if you want to quickly capture that perfect moment without even unlocking your iPhone, just swipe left from the Lock Screen.
Add Favorites to your Phone
There’s always those few people you call all the time. Well here’s how you can make calling them all the time even easier (yay, them). In the Phone app, tap Favorites on the bottom left of your screen. Then, tap 
in the top, left of your screen, and select the contact you’d like to favorite. That’s it. If you find they’re not your favorite person anymore, you can delete them from the Favorites list without deleting them from your phone (you know, just in case) by tapping Edit, then 
next to the contact’s name. And while you’re in Edit mode, tap and hold 
to arrange your Favorites, so your mom is at the top. Because let’s be honest, she’s probably a bit more important than Domino’s.
How to activate Siri
Siri is your helpful assistant that lets you do things like send messages, schedule meetings, make phone calls, open apps, and much more with just the sound of your voice. But how do you make the magic iPhone genie appear? It’s easy.
First, make sure your iPhone is connected to the Internet (Wi-Fi or cellular)—as Siri needs it to find information. Then, you can activate Siri either by pressing the Home button, then releasing it when Siri appears on your display—or by simply saying “Hey Siri”. To turn on “Hey Siri”, tap the Settings app, tap Siri, then turn on Allow “Hey Siri”. Then, just ask away. And while you’re at it, ask Siri to tell you a joke… because who doesn’t love bad jokes?
Find stuff on your iPhone with Spotlight
If you have problems finding things on your iPhone, like emails, photos, or that one app you rarely open, but is now hidden amongst the 200 apps you never use, Spotlight will make searching much easier. Simply drag your finger down on your Home screen to reveal the search bar. Then, just type in what you’re looking for.
Spotlight is great for all kinds of things beyond looking for stuff on your iPhone, like doing quick conversions, calculations, finding nearby places, and more.
Get familiar with Today View and Widgets
If you want to see a bunch of information from some of your favorite apps at the same time without having to open all of those apps, then you’ll love Today View (as that’s what it literally does). Today View shows information from Maps, Calendar, News, Reminders, and more. And Widgets lets you control what information is shown, as well as the order in which it’s shown. Check out our blog on iOS 10 Tips to learn how to use Widgets.
Change the Home button (if you want)
If you’re moving from an older iPhone to a new iPhone 7, the first thing you may notice is that round button you used to press on the bottom of your phone to do things like get back to the main screen or activate Siri is now… well, unpressable. That’s because in iPhone 7, the Home button is static and is actually not a button anymore—instead, delivering various vibrations to mimic a press. But if that buzz doesn’t quite feel right to you, you can easily adjust it from your Settings app.
Check out our blog tip to learn how to change the Home button on your iPhone 7.
Turn on Night Shift to reduce eye strain
Let’s be honest, you’re going to look at your new iPhone all night long, aren’t you (even though you probably know you shouldn’t)? Well, if you must stare at your screen at night, at least do something that’ll help reduce eye strain by turning on Night Shift.
A feature of iOS 10, Night Shift automatically changes your iPhone display’s colors at times you schedule. So as it gets darker, your iPhone’s screen will get warmer—helping reduce eye strain and (possibly) helping you get a better night’s sleep. And when the sun comes back up, your screen will adjust back to its normal temperature. If you’d prefer to manually control when it turns on and off, just swipe up from the bottom of your display to activate Control Center—then just tap the Night Shift button.
Quickly clear (and manage) all those notifications
Once you download all those apps, you may find all of them want to notify you of something (because you’re so popular, and all). And unless you’re on top of it, you may soon be drowning in a sea of notifications. So, knowing how to quickly clear all of those notifications may help you remain sane.
To do this, Press 
down until you feel a slight vibration from your display and see the Clear All Notifications bubble appear. Then just tap the bubble, and voila.
And if you want to manage which apps can send you notifications (so you don’t get bombarded in the first place), tap the Settings app, tap Notifications, then select an app and turn off Allow Notifications.
There’s lot of things to learn with your new iPhone. So to find out even more cool things you can do, check out our iOS 10 Tips blog—as well as other iPhone-related blogs on our site. Or chat with an Enjoy Expert during a Visit or by clicking Chat with an Expert in the bottom, right corner of our website.
Enjoy… your new iPhone!