The secret functions in your iPhone’s volume buttons REVEALED: Users go wild with these eight hacks

There’s more to your iPhone’s volume buttons than meets the eye.

Users are going wild after recently discovering that the sound buttons activate eight functions such as taking photos, making videos and scanning documents.

Some third-party developers have also developed games to incorporate the buttons and transform them into small controllers.

However, Apple has added more useful tasks that are activated with just the touch of a button.

Making pictures

Open the Camera app, hold your phone away from your face and press one of the volume buttons.

This can be done to take pictures in portrait, traditional photo and panorama modes when shooting with the rear camera

Send SOS messages

Apple lets users send text messages in case of emergency when a cellular network is available.

There is a dedicated app, but users can send an SOS by holding down the power button and one of the volume buttons.

This will forward the text to the emergency services and any contacts you have marked as an emergency.

Take videos

This task is triggered just like taking hands-free photos – open the Camera app first.

Then switch to video mode and press either of the volume buttons to start and end.

Scan documents

Many iPhone users may not know that there is a built-in scanner that can be controlled by the volume button.

Just open the Camera app and press the volume button to take a picture of the document.

This can also be done by selecting Shutter. Then drag the corners to fit the scan to the page, then tap Keep Scan

Switch off alarm clock

When an alarm goes off, you can long press the notification banner to choose whether to snooze or stop the alarm.

You can also press one of the volume buttons to snooze the alarm and have it sound again nine minutes later.

Block FaceID or Touch ID

Blocking ways to access your iPhone may come in handy one day, and Apple designed it to be a quick change.

Press and hold the side lock button or volume button for two seconds to activate the screen to call emergency services. Once the slider appears, you can press the side buttons to lock FaceID or Touch ID.

When your iPhone freezes

The simple trick of turning it on and off usually works when an iPhone freezes.

If your iPhone freezes, try a “hard restart” – this is where you turn the phone off and on manually by holding down certain buttons.

Start by pressing the volume up button, then release it, then do the same with the volume down button.

Disable volume buttons

If you don’t want the volume buttons to affect anything on your iPhone when you use a specific app, like Music, you can take advantage of Guided Access. T

The accessibility feature restricts anyone using your iPhone to the current app, so they can’t mess with anything else on the device.

Go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Guided Access, then enable Guided Access.