Apple includes an accessibility feature in iOS that's useful if you have a visual impairment, but can even come in handy if your eyes are simply tired or you're struggling to read something like small print, especially in poor light.


It's called the Magnifier, and has several advantages over just opening up the camera app and zooming in to get a better look at something.

magnifier ios save image
Enabling it is easy: Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, navigate to General -> Accessibility -> Magnifier, and toggle on the Magnifier switch.

magnifier ios accessibility
After that, all you need to do to use it is triple-click the Side button (or Home button, depending on your device). You can also add it to the Control Center by going to Settings -> Control Center -> Customize Controls, and tapping the green plus button next to Magnifier.

When you launch Magnifier, you'll see a camera-like interface at the bottom of the screen, but with some unique features. The slider controls the magnification of the scene in the lens frame, while the button at the bottom left turns on the flashlight so you can illuminate it. The padlock button next to that locks the focus.

magnifier ios
Tapping the big button in the center freezes the image (a frozen image is indicated by a yellow ring around the button), allowing you to move your phone around freely and still look at the image. You can also use the magnification slider to zoom in and out of the frozen image.

Note that when you freeze an image in the Magnifier, it isn't saved to your photo album. But if you want to save the entire image, you can.

Simply tap and hold on the frozen picture and select Save Image from the contextual popup menu. You'll find a Share option in there, too.

magnifier ios color schemes
Over on the far right of the Magnifier interface is a button made up of three circles that provides access to additional sliders for adjusting brightness and contrast.

If you suffer from color blindness or another visual impairment, you can swipe through several color schemes in this extended menu and even invert the colors to find which combination works for you.

Top Rated Comments

ScooterComputer Avatar
82 months ago
This is one of the best, least-known-about features in iOS. I work with a LOT of older folks who are buying into the Apple ecosystem in DROVES… and this feature, ALONE, gets me more "happiness" from the folks that I show it to, configure it for, than any other. Just completely unable to put into words how much small accessibility features like this can really fundamentally change how users use their iPhones. You –KNOW– a feature is awesome when you see 70+ year olds you've enabled Magnifier for showing other 70+ year olds how to enable it months later; that's a success. I wish Apple wouldn't bury it so deeply, and I wish Apple would create an app for older users to walk them through some of the accessibility features that may be helpful to them; what I find, especially, is that older users tend not to like to think they need help, don't like the word "accessibility"—call it excessive pride, I dunno—but if you reframe the features as just "configuring your environment for you, for what you need and do", they're fine with it, acccept it. Perhaps the Tips app might be the place for Apple to showcase these kinds of features, but I find most users are not discovering them on their own. Which is a shame. Thanks, MacRumors, for putting it front and center!

EDIT: Oh, and perhaps I should also mention, I'm nowhere near 70 and I use Magnifier ALL THE TIME! It is great for reading serial numbers and MAC addresses off hard to reach devices, as I find the auto-focus system to be an improvement for such things over the standard Camera auto-focus. Reading fine print in ads. Etc. Just a handy handy feature.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
name99 Avatar
82 months ago
This is one of the best, least-known-about features in iOS. I work with a LOT of older folks who are buying into the Apple ecosystem in DROVES… and this feature, ALONE, gets me more "happiness" from the folks that I show it to, configure it for, than any other. Just completely unable to put into words how much small accessibility features like this can really fundamentally change how users use their iPhones. You –KNOW– a feature is awesome when you see 70+ year olds you've enabled Magnifier for showing other 70+ year olds how to enable it months later; that's a success. I wish Apple wouldn't bury it so deeply, and I wish Apple would create an app for older users to walk them through some of the accessibility features that may be helpful to them; what I find, especially, is that older users tend not to like to think they need help, don't like the word "accessibility"—call it excessive pride, I dunno—but if you reframe the features as just "configuring your environment for you, for what you need and do", they're fine with it, acccept it. Perhaps the Tips app might be the place for Apple to showcase these kinds of features, but I find most users are not discovering them on their own. Which is a shame. Thanks, MacRumors, for putting it front and center!

EDIT: Oh, and perhaps I should also mention, I'm nowhere near 70 and I use Magnifier ALL THE TIME! It is great for reading serial numbers and MAC addresses off hard to reach devices, as I find the auto-focus system to be an improvement for such things over the standard Camera auto-focus. Reading fine print in ads. Etc. Just a handy handy feature.
Absolutely! Let me add two comments.
(a) There are alternative magnification apps available. However the Apple solution seems to do a better job of locking onto focus fast, and then stabilizing the text against jitters. And this seems to have improved in more recent hardware. My iPhone XS seems to be quite a bit more visually stable than my iPhone 7 (OIS? or better processing?). So if this is something you care about and use a lot, it might be worth seeing how well it performs in a newer iPhone compared to what you have, and might make it worth the upgrade.

(b) My experience has been that the triple-click launch method is EXTREMELY dodgy, very likely (30% or so) to lock the phone in some sort of strange state where it's not at all obvious how to get out of magnification mode. Maybe Apple has FINALLY fixed this with iOS 12.1?
For this reason, my preferred launch method is to put a launcher on the Control Center page.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Analog Kid Avatar
82 months ago

(b) My experience has been that the triple-click launch method is EXTREMELY dodgy, very likely (30% or so) to lock the phone in some sort of strange state where it's not at all obvious how to get out of magnification mode. Maybe Apple has FINALLY fixed this with iOS 12.1?
For this reason, my preferred launch method is to put a launcher on the Control Center page.
As an accessibility function that could be very useful to the elderly, it would be nice to have this available from the lock screen alongside, or instead of, the flashlight or camera buttons...
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coumerelli Avatar
82 months ago
This is well done. Bravo Apple!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Next Week With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday February 14, 2025 6:18 am PST by
The first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner, and the update is expected to include many new features and changes. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the iOS 18.4 beta to be released by next week. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri is expected to get several enhancements powered by Apple Intelligence on iOS...
iPhone 17 Roundup Feature 2

iPhone Design to Change 'Significantly' This Year

Monday February 17, 2025 7:09 am PST by
Apple is set to "significantly change" the iPhone's design language later this year, according to a Weibo leaker. In a new post, the user known "Digital Chat Station" said that the iPhone's design is "starting to change significantly" this year. The "iPhone 17 Air" reportedly features a "horizontal, bar-shaped" design on the rear, likely referring to an elongated camera bump. On the other...
apple launch feb 2025

Tim Cook Teases an 'Apple Launch' Next Wednesday

Thursday February 13, 2025 8:07 am PST by
In a social media post today, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an upcoming "launch" of some kind scheduled for Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," he said, with an #AppleLaunch hashtag. The post includes a short video with an animated Apple logo inside a circle. Cook did not provide an exact time for the launch, or share any other specific details, so...
Apple iPhone 16e Feature

Apple Announces iPhone 16e With A18 Chip and Apple Intelligence, Pricing Starts at $599

Wednesday February 19, 2025 8:02 am PST by
Apple today introduced the iPhone 16e, its newest entry-level smartphone. The device succeeds the third-generation iPhone SE, which has now been discontinued. The iPhone 16e features a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, up from a 4.7-inch LCD on the iPhone SE. The display has a notch for Face ID, and this means that Apple no longer sells any iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint button, marking the ...
Apple Maps 2024

Apple Maps Might Start Showing Ads

Sunday February 16, 2025 7:22 am PST by
Apple is "exploring" the idea of showing search ads in the Apple Maps app, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Back in 2022, Gurman said software engineering was "already underway" to display ads in the Apple Maps app, but Apple did not move forward with the idea at the time. Today, he said Apple is "giving this notion more thought" again. This time around, he said Apple has yet to...
Tim Cook Apple Park

10+ Announcements Apple Could Have Rolled Into a February Event

Saturday February 15, 2025 8:00 am PST by
Apple appears to have enough upcoming product announcements to justify a full event this month, yet all signs indicate these reveals will be handled through a series of press releases instead. There are a multitude of rumors from reliable sources about specific announcements in the coming weeks, so here's everything that Apple could have feasibly included in a hypothetical February event: ...
apple launch feb 2025 alt

What to Expect From the 'Apple Launch' Next Week

Thursday February 13, 2025 11:48 am PST by
Apple has yet to announce any new devices this year, but that could change starting next week. Apple CEO Tim Cook today said to "get ready" for a "launch" on Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," said Cook, in a social media post. The post includes an #AppleLaunch hashtag, along with a short video featuring an animated Apple logo inside of a circle....
Apple 2025 Thumb 1

Two of Apple's Oldest Products Are Finally Getting Updated This Year

Friday February 14, 2025 6:03 am PST by
Apple released the HomePod mini in November 2020, followed by the AirTag in May 2021, and both still remain first-generation products. Fortunately, rumors suggest that both the HomePod mini and the AirTag will finally be updated at some point this year. Below, we recap rumors about the HomePod mini 2 and AirTag 2. HomePod mini 2 In January 2025, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple is ...