How to Use Your IPhone As a Magnifying Glass for Anything in the World
The iPhone lets you stay in touch with the world, but there’s another, easier way that can help you make sense of what’s going on around you: you can use its magnifying glass feature like a real magnifying glass.
This little-known option, recently available as a standalone app, lets you zoom in and out on anything you point the camera at, such as a nutrition label printed in small print. While the camera app has a maximum zoom of 5x, the Magnifier app allows you to zoom in up to 10x. Magnifier also has additional features that adjust contrast and brightness, making these images even easier to see.
How to use the Magnifier app on your iPhone
Starting with iOS 15, Magnifier is available as a standalone app (previously it was only available through the Control Center). You will find it in the Utilities folder.
As soon as you open the application, you will see the image from the camera. You can pinch your fingers to zoom in, or use the Zoom slider below which you’ll see five icons:
- Camera : Use this button to switch between front and rear cameras.
- Brightness : Use this slider to increase or decrease the brightness. (Increased brightness will help you detect smaller objects.)
- Contrast : Use the slider to increase or decrease the contrast. The higher the contrast, the darker the image will be.
- Filters : Add color filters like Red, Grayscale, Blue on Yellow to make it easier to see.
- Flashlight : Use this button to quickly turn on the flashlight.
Press the white shutter button to freeze the frame. This will make it easier to read the text in the photos so that it doesn’t jump when you move your hands. *(This will not save this image in the Photos app.) You can use the button on the bottom right corner to freeze a few frames for viewing later. You can also customize the controls available on this screen by tapping the gear icon.
Add Magnifier to Control Center
If you want to have quick access to Magnifier, you can add a shortcut to Control Center. Go to Settings > Control Center and add the Magnifier control to the list. Swipe down from the top right corner of the screen to open the Control Center and tap the magnifying glass icon to open the app.