Categories: Technology

The One Thing You Must Do Before You Set Up Your New iPhone

Unwrapping a brand new smartphone can be a very exciting experience. All right, maybe not, but still it’s nice to take proud ownership of your new possession.

But once you’ve opened it, there’s the drudgery of setting it up. Well, there was, but things have just got a lot better in the world of Apple. So if you are getting your new iPhone here’s the one thing you must do:

Upgrade your current device to iOS 11.

Okay, you’re thinking, why should I bother, it’s only been out a few days and the new phone will come with it already installed, won’t it? Why do I need to do that?

Because of Automatic Setup (which really is as cool as it sounds), that’s why.

You may not have the option, of course, if you’re switching to Apple from an Android phone, in which case you need to launch Google Play (for possibly the last time!) and download an Apple app called Move to iOS.

Or maybe you have an iPhone that’s older than the iPhone 5s, which is the oldest phone compatible with iOS 11. You’re out of luck, but think of it this way, you’ve had that old phone a long, long time so a bit of effort now is long overdue.

But if you do qualify, then definitely do update to iOS 11, and come back here when you have. All done?

Great. Now you can do Automatic Setup which is hands-down, hats-off, brilliant.

I tried it earlier this week when I was testing the iPhone 8 for review. It’s one of the things that sets iOS 11 apart and, once you’ve used it you realize it’s the thing you’ve been waiting for since the first time you switched mobiles.

When both your old and your new cellphone have iOS 11 on board, this is what you do.

Turn on the new phone and select your language. The next screen, called Quick Start, will appear and ask you to bring your old phone nearby. Do that and the old phone, as if by magic, will see the new phone is there and ask you to unlock it. The new phone will then display a sort of freckly, fizzing circle and when you hold the old phone in front of it, the camera will recognize this.

Then, you enter your passcode on the new phone.

And, er, no, that’s it. You’re done.

Just leave the phones to get to know each other, and the old phone will tell the new phone everything it knows and transfer everything to it. No setting a wi-fi password, nothing.

This is what switching from one phone to another should be like.

Good luck!