These six settings take about fifteen minutes. Each one makes your phone easier to use or safer to carry.
Menus move a little with each new version of iOS. If a setting isn't exactly where I say, type its name into the search bar at the top of the Settings app.
1. Make the text bigger
Arms getting too short? Reading glasses always in the other room? You can make the text on your phone bigger everywhere:
Settings › Display & Brightness › Text Size
Drag the slider until it's comfortable. Need it bigger still? Go to Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Larger Text and turn on Larger Accessibility Sizes.
Bonus trick: you can make the text bigger in just one app. Add the Text Size control to your Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner, tap the +, and add it), then use it while you're in that app.
2. Turn on Stolen Device Protection
If a thief watches you type your passcode and then grabs your phone, they could change your Apple Account password and lock you out of everything. Stolen Device Protection stops that: when your phone is away from familiar places like home or work, the most important changes require your face or fingerprint, and some require a one-hour wait.
Settings › Face ID & Passcode › Stolen Device Protection
Turn it on. Day to day, you'll barely notice it.
3. Stop answering spam calls
Let your iPhone screen callers who aren't in your contacts. Unknown callers are asked who they are and why they're calling before your phone ever rings, and real people (the pharmacy, the school nurse) still get through.
Settings › Apps › Phone
Look for Screen Unknown Callers. On older iPhones, the option is Silence Unknown Callers, which sends them straight to voicemail.
4. Set up your Medical ID
If you're ever in an accident, paramedics can see your allergies, medications, and emergency contacts from your lock screen, without your passcode.
Open the Health app, tap your picture in the top corner, and choose Medical ID. Fill it in, and turn on Show When Locked. Do the same for your parents' phones next time you visit.
5. Use Check In instead of "text me when you get there"
You know the drill: "Text me when you get home!" And then they forget, and you lie awake. Check In does it automatically. When your kid (or your friend, or your mom) gets home, you get a notification. If they don't arrive when expected, you're alerted and can see where they are.
To use it, open a conversation in Messages, tap the + next to the text box, choose Check In, and set where they're going. It works between iPhones.
6. Add a Legacy Contact
This one is easy to put off. If something happens to you, everything on your Apple account is locked: your photos, your notes, your messages. Without a Legacy Contact, even your closest family can have a very hard time getting to them.
A Legacy Contact is someone you choose who can request access to your account data after you pass away. Apple gives them an access key, which they use along with a death certificate. They can't get in while you're alive, and they can't see your passwords or payment information.
Settings › [your name] › Sign-In & Security › Legacy Contact
Tap Add Legacy Contact and pick someone you trust. If they have an iPhone, Apple sends them the access key; if not, you can print it or save it as a PDF to keep with your will or important papers. You can add more than one person.
While you're in Sign-In & Security, also look at Account Recovery and add a Recovery Contact: someone who can help you get back into your own account if you ever forget your password.