When you’re swamped with work, chatting with clients, or in a meeting, you might forget to mute your phone or get a surprise call. In these cases, a ringing phone can startle you. If you want to hush your phone without hanging up, firmly press the volume – down button. This mutes the ringtone while keeping the call going. Then, you can deal with the call as needed.
You can also use the volume – down button when an alarm or other notifications go off. Pressing it stops the sound and won’t disrupt your activities.
The phone’s flashlight is super handy, especially at night or in dim places like dark streets. After using it, you usually have to unlock the screen and swipe up the control panel to turn it off. But there’s a quicker way. On some phones, just press the volume – down button twice to turn off the flashlight without unlocking the screen.
To adjust the ringer volume or notification sounds, instead of going through the sound settings, just unlock the screen and press the volume – up or volume – down button. This lets you change the volume right away.
Another cool use of the volume buttons is in the camera. When taking pictures or recording videos, you can use the volume – up or volume – down button to start the process instead of tapping the screen. But first, you might need to go into the camera app settings and enable the option to use the volume buttons for this.
If you want to take a screenshot fast, hold down the power button and the volume – down button at the same time. This captures the screen without going into the control center.
When reading e – books on your phone, the volume – up or volume – down button can be used to flip pages automatically, depending on your reading app and phone model. You don’t have to tap the screen to turn the page.