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25 Key iPhone Settings to Change (2025)
Product Reviews

25 Key iPhone Settings to Change (2025)

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Apple’s software design strives to be intuitive, but each iteration of iOS contains so many additions and tweaks that it’s easy to miss some useful iPhone settings. Apple focused on artificial intelligence when it unveiled iOS 18 in 2024 and followed it with Liquid Glass in iOS 26 (the name is now tied to the following year), but many intriguing customizations and lesser-known features lurk beneath the surface. Several helpful settings are turned off by default, and it’s not immediately obvious how to switch off some annoying features. We’re here to help you get the most out of your Apple phone.

Once you have things set up the way you want, it’s a breeze to copy everything, including settings, when you switch to a new iPhone. For more tips and recommendations, read our related Apple guides—like the Best iPhone, Best iPhone 16 Cases, Best MagSafe Accessories—and our explainers on How to Set Up a New iPhone, How to Back Up Your iPhone, and How to Fix Your iPhone.

How to Keep Your iPhone Updated

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These settings are based on the latest version of iOS 26 and should be applicable for most recent iPhones. Some settings may not be available on older devices, or they may have different pathways depending on the model and the software version. Apple offers excellent software support for many years, so always make sure your device is up-to-date by heading to Settings > General > Software update. You can find the Settings app on your home screen.

Updated September 2025: We’ve added a few new iPhone tips and updated this guide for iOS 26.

Table of Contents

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Enable Call Screening

Apple via Simon Hill

Make cold-calling pests a thing of the past with Apple’s new Call Screening feature. Go to Settings, Apps, and select Phone, then scroll down to Screen Unknown Callers and select Ask Reason for Calling. Now, your iPhone will automatically answer calls from unknown callers in the background without alerting you. After the caller gives a reason for their call, your phone will ring, and you’ll be able to see the response onscreen so you can decide whether to answer. You should also make sure Hold Assist Detection is toggled on, so your iPhone detects when you are placed on hold, allowing you to step away, then alerting you when the call has been picked up by a human.

Turn on RCS

The texting experience with Android owners (green bubbles) got seriously upgraded last year when Apple decided to finally support the RCS messaging standard (rich communication services). RCS has been around for several years on Android, and allows for a modernized texting experience with features like typing indicators, higher-quality photos and videos, and read receipts. Group chats may still be wonky, but they’re still a significant improvement. However, on a new iPhone, RCS is disabled by default (naturally).

Make sure you turn it on for the best messaging experience. Head to Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging and toggle it on.

Customize the Control Center

Apple via Simon Hill

Swipe down from the top right of the screen to open the Control Center, and you’ll see it’s more customizable than ever. You can tap the plus icon at the top left or tap and hold on an empty space to open the customization menu. Here you can move icons and widgets around, remove anything you don’t want, or tap Add a Control at the bottom for a searchable list of shortcut icons and widgets you can organize across multiple Control Center screens. You can also customize your home screen to change the color and size of app icons, rearrange them, and more.

Change Your Lock Screen Buttons

Apple via Simon Hill

Screenshot

You know those lock screen controls that default to flashlight on the bottom left and camera on the bottom right? You can change them. Press and hold on an empty space on the lock screen and tap Customize. Tap the minus icon to remove an existing shortcut, and tap the plus icon to add a new one. You can also change the weather and date widgets, the font and color for the time, and pick a wallpaper. One of the clocks will even stretch to adapt to your wallpaper.

Extend Screen Time-Out

Apple via Simon Hill

While it’s good to have your screen timeout for battery saving and security purposes, I find it maddening when the screen goes off while I’m doing something. The default screen timeout is too short in my opinion, but thankfully, you can adjust it. Head into Settings, Display & Brightness, and select Auto-Lock to extend it. You have several options, including Never, which means you will have to manually push the power button to turn the screen off.

Turn Off Keyboard Sounds

Apple via Simon Hill

The iPhone’s keyboard clicking sound when you type is extremely aggravating. Trust me, even if you don’t hate it, everyone in your vicinity when you type sure does. You can turn it off in Settings, Sounds & Haptics by tapping Keyboard Feedback and toggling Sound off. I also advise toggling off the Lock Sound while you’re in Sound & Haptics.

Go Dark

Apple via Simon Hill

Protect yourself from eye-searing glare with dark mode. Go to Settings, pick Display & Brightness, and tap Dark. You may prefer to toggle on Automatic and have it change with the sun setting, but I prefer to be in Dark mode all the time.

Change Your Battery Charge Level

Apple via Simon Hill

If you’re determined to squeeze as many years out of your iPhone battery as possible, consider changing the charging limit. You can maximize your smartphone’s battery health if you avoid charging it beyond 80 percent. The iPhone’s default is now Optimized Battery Charging, which waits at 80 percent and then aims to hit 100 percent when you are ready to go in the morning. But there’s a slider you can set to a hard 80 percent limit in Settings, under Battery, and Charging. If it bugs you, this is also where you can turn Optimized Battery Charging off.

Turn On Adaptive Power Mode

Apple via Simon Hill

If you get worried about running out of battery, go to Settings, Battery, and scroll down to select Power Mode, where you can toggle on Adaptive Power. This mode will detect when you are using more battery life than normal and make little tweaks, like lowering display brightness or limiting performance, to try and get you through to the end of the day.

Set Up the Action Button

Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill

20-Setting_Action Button 1_Photo SOURCE Simon Hill

Screenshot

Folks with an iPhone 15 Pro model, any iPhone 16 model, or any iPhone 17 have an Action Button instead of the old mute switch. By default, it will silence your iPhone when you press and hold it, but you can change what it does by going to Settings, then Action Button. You can swipe through various basic options from Camera and Flashlight to Visual Intelligence, but select Shortcuts if you want it to do something more interesting. If you’re unfamiliar, check out our guide on How to Use the Apple Shortcuts App.

Customize Camera Control

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The iPhone 16 series debuted Camera Control, a physical button that sits below the power button and triggers the camera with a single press. When you’re in the camera app, pressing it will capture a photo, and a long-press will record a video. Pressing and holding Camera Control outside of the camera app triggers Apple’s Visual Intelligence feature (sort of like Google Lens). But what I find most annoying is Camera Control’s second layer of controls: swiping. You can swipe on the button in the camera app to slide between photography styles, zoom levels, or lenses. It’s neat in theory, but way too sensitive.



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If You're Playing Skate, Change These Settings ASAP
Game Updates

If You’re Playing Skate, Change These Settings ASAP

by admin



After what felt like a couple of centuries in the making, EA has finally revived its classic Skate franchise with a new, free-to-play entry in the series. It’s an early-access title right now, so it’s fairly barebones in terms of its presentation, and the live-service aspect has sparked quite a bit of, ah, discussion among longtime fans of the series. But there is one thing that folks seem to be in agreement on with the new Skate: They nailed the feel of skating just like the original games did.

Out of the box, however, it may not feel exactly the way you remember. But there’s a pretty easy solution to that problem in the game’s settings, where certain “assists” are activated by default that make skating a much more forgiving experience. In addition to those must-tweak settings, we have some recommendations for other options related to custom ramps that most players will want to consider, and and audio option related to the game’s narrator that could make your experience just a little less irritating in the long run. Let’s take a look.

Best settings to make new Skate make feel like the old Skate

Navigate into the settings menu, then choose Gameplay, and then tab over to the Assists menu. For the true, old-school Skate experience, turn everything in the difficulty options section down. I did, however, allow myself to keep Allow Fall Height at 1, the middle option, for the sake of sick jumps.

For the truly unforgiving old Skate experience, turn all these options all the way to the left.

But wait, there’s more! Below that you’ll also find On-Board Helpers, and it’s the same story here as it is above: turn them off. But if you’d like to ease yourself into it, you can leave on Prevent Low Air Spins, which makes it a little easier to maintain control at high speeds by preventing you from turning yourself when you’re bouncing slightly. But eventually you’ll want to turn that one off too.

These On-Board Helpers can make your skating time easier if that’s what you’re into.

There’s also an Off-Board Helpers section at the bottom of this menu, but you can do whatever with those since those settings make it easier to get around on foot. You can do far more on foot in this game, like climbing up the sides of buildings, than you could in the old ones, so we endorse anything that makes that go faster so we can get back to skating.

Congrats, you’ve turned the new Skate into the same sort of painful and unforgiving experience that the old games were. But there are a couple other very important settings you’ll also want to know about before too long.

Turn off other people’s quick-drop ramps

The new Skate brings back and improves upon one of Skate 3’s best features: the ability to place ramps and other objects anywhere you want in the world with a couple of button presses. The downside of this, however, is that this new Skate is an always-online game in which the world is constantly filled with other players, and they can also place ramps wherever they want, too. Knowing our fellow gamers the way we do, it’s not hard to imagine a number of different scenarios in which folks might be really irritating with their ramp powers.

Fortunately, this problem can be wrangled quickly in a way that you probably didn’t even know existed since you can’t access it from the normal settings menu. To find it, you’ll need to pull up the quick drop menu by pressing right on the d-pad, and then press the Options/Start button to open the quick drop settings menu. Scroll to the Multiplayer section at the bottom. Here you can govern whether you’ll be subject to ramps placed by other players–and, crucially, you can make it so other players can’t mess with the ramps that you place.

Free yourself from the tyranny of random people’s ramps.

Once you’re done with that, there’s still one more setting you may want to keep in mind, particularly in the early goings.

How to turn off the narrator

Throughout your time in Skate, a nice digital lady called Vee runs you through the tutorials and missions as you learn the game and progress through, similar to the cameraman role that Giovanni Reda played in the original three games. Unfortunately, Vee is not as much fun to listen to as Reda was, and she really talks way, way more than she should, often repeating the same message over and over every time you return to your session marker, which is maddening. Fortunately, you can disable her idle chatter completely by turning off Gameplay Vee Comments in the Audio settings menu.



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15th September video games roundup: Valve's grip on adult games tightens as Randy Pitchford gives Borderlands 4 PC settings advice
Game Reviews

15th September video games roundup: Valve’s grip on adult games tightens as Randy Pitchford gives Borderlands 4 PC settings advice

by admin


Undertale turns 10 years old today

Undertale has nearly 150,000 “overwhelmingly positive” reviews on Steam. To say that this disarmingly simple-looking indie game has had a large impact would be an understatement.


In fact, it was one of our games of 2015. “Few games have ever touched so many people so deeply, or been so misunderstood by their critics,” wrote Richard Cobbett in his piece for us.

“It’s something harder to process – an incredibly smart, well-written and insightful RPG that’s comfortable enough to do the gaming equivalent of showing up in a tracksuit and sneakers. You look at any part of it and yes, it’s simple. Combine the pieces, and it’s special…”

It’s the sort of game that reveals itself, its humour and warmth, in the retelling, etching itself deeper in the memory with every subsequent lap.



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The best Borderlands 4 PC graphics settings
Game Reviews

The best Borderlands 4 PC graphics settings

by admin


Ready to shoot and loot until you can’t any longer? Borderlands 4 has arrived, and it’s brought some hefty visuals with it.

Gearbox’s latest FPS has some demanding settings when it comes to PC performance, so it may take some tweaking to get the game looking and running properly, especially if you have a somewhat older build like I do. I struggled early on until I figured out the right settings for my PC.

Thankfully, I now have the game running at a stable framerate, albeit with some sacrifice to visual quality. But trust me, you want BL4 to run smoothly as you are running, gliding, grappling, and driving around the new, awesome location of Kairos.

Here are my tips for the best PC graphics settings to use in Borderlands 4.

Best Borderlands 4 graphics settings

Image via 2K

First, I would suggest using the Auto-Detect Graphics Preset to Run Auto-Detect within the game’s Advanced Visuals options to see what the game recommends for your PC. From there, it’s time to tweak settings up or down to get the best performance while also retaining fidelity.

If you’re having difficulties running Borderlands 4 at a smooth framerate, try out these settings:

  • General
  • Resolution Scaling
    • Upscaling Method: GPU-dependent
      • Use DLSS for Nvidia GPUs or FSR for AMD GPUs.
    • Upscaling Quality: Balanced or Performance
      • This was the single most important setting for me. Once I lowered it, I saw an immediate boost in general FPS and stability. Balanced will retain some visual fidelity while also helping with performance, but if you continue to struggle with frames, lower this to Performance or Ultra Performance at the cost of making the game a bit uglier. I do think it’s worth it when it comes to keeping your FPS stable.
    • Spatial Upscaling Quality: Disabled
    • Scene Capture Quality: Full Resolution
    • Frame Generation: Off
    • Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: Boost
  • Environment
    • HLOD Loading Range: Near
    • Geometry Quality: Low
    • Texture Quality: Medium
    • Anisotropic Filtering Quality: x1
    • Foliage Density: Very Low
    • Volumetric Fog: Low
    • Shadow Quality: Low
    • Directional Shadow Quality: Low
    • Volumetric Cloud Shadows: Disabled
    • Lighting Quality: Low
    • Reflections Quality: Low
    • Shading Quality: Low
  • Post-Processing
    • Post-Processing Quality: Low
    • Motion Blur Amount: 0.0
    • Motion Blur Quality: Off

Borderlands 4 system requirements

Image via 2K

Before picking up BL4, make sure that your system meets the requirements below. The more VRAM and RAM you have, the better it will be for you in the end.

  • Minimum requirements
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT / Intel Arc A580
    • Storage: 100 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system. Requires 8 CPU Cores for processor. Requires 8 GB VRAM for graphics. SSD storage required
  • Recommended requirements
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
    • Memory: 32 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Intel Arc B580
    • Storage: 100 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system. SSD storage required

Borderlands 4 Nvidia optimization guide

Due to BL4’s varying performance at launch, Nvidia and Gearbox came together to release a full-fledged optimization guide for several different graphics cards and resolutions. Check out the full list of info on the Gearbox website.

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Borderlands 4 PC Specs Revealed, Alongside Graphics Settings And Accessibility Features
Game Updates

Borderlands 4 PC Specs Revealed, Alongside Graphics Settings And Accessibility Features

by admin



Gearbox has disclosed the PC specs for Borderlands 4. The specs were shared by 2K on the Borderlands 4 website, covering both minimum and recommended. 2K also disclosed the numerous PC-specific settings that players can choose from, along with a range of accessibility features.

For the minimum specs, 2K said players who meet the standards can run Borderlands 4 with “solid performance on older PC hardware.” The recommended PC specs, meanwhile, provide “the intended experience for Borderlands 4,” 2K said. These settings strike a balance between performance and graphics, 2K said.

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You can see the minimum and recommended PC specs below, along with a rundown of the graphics setting and accessibility feautres.

2K also disclosed Borderlands 4’s three difficulty settings. These include Easy, Normal, and Hard, while people should also be aware that difficulty scales individually in co-op parties. Here are the descriptions for each difficulty setting in Borderlands 4.

  • Easy: “Looking for a story.” Reduced damage, Elemental Affinities matter less
  • Normal: “Looking for a balanced experience.”
  • Hard: “Looking for a challenge.” Increased damage taken, increased Cash, Loot Quality is increased, Elemental Affinities matter more

Minimum PC hardware requirements:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • Requires SSD
  • OS: Windows 10 / 11
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT / Intel Arc A580
  • Requires 8 CPU Cores for processor and 8 GB VRAM for graphics.
  • Storage: 100 GB available space

Borderlands 4 ‎ recommended PC specs:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • Requires SSD
  • OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
  • Memory: 32 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Intel Arc B580
  • Storage: 100 GB available space

Borderlands 4 ‎ PC graphics settings:

  • Basic
    • General:
      • Display Mode: Fullscreen, Windowed Fullscreen, Windowed
      • Resolution (Varies by setup)
      • Display Stats: None, FPS, All
      • Limit Frame Rate: Off, On
        • Custom FPS Limit (Varies by setup)
      • Vertical Sync: Off, On
      • Field of View (ultrawide monitors supported)
      • Vehicle Field of View (ultrawide monitors supported)
  • Advanced:
    • General:
      • Graphics Preset: Low, Medium, High, Very High, Badass
      • Anti-Aliasing: Disabled, Enabled
    • Resolution Scaling
      • Uscaling Method: Disabled, DLSS, FSR, TSR, XeSS
      • Upscaling Quality: Ultra Performance, Performance, Balanced, Quality, Full Resolution
      • Spatial Upscaling Quality: Performance, Balanced, Quality, Ultra Quality, Disabled
      • Scene Capture Quality: Low, High, Full Resolution
      • Frame Generation: Off, On
      • NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: Off, On, Boost
    • Environment:
      • HLOD Loading Range: Near, Medium, Far
      • Geometry Quality: Low, Medium, High
      • Texture Quality: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Textures Streaming Speed: Medium, High, Very High
      • Anisotropic Filtering Quality: Off, x1, x2, x4, x8, x16
      • Foliage Density: Off, Very Low, Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Volumetric Fog: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Volumetric Cloud: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Shadow Quality: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Directional Shadow Quality: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Volumetric Cloud Shadows: Disabled, Enabled
      • Lighting Quality: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Reflections Quality: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Shading Quality: Low, Medium, High
    • Post-Processing:
      • Post-Process Quality: Low, Medium, High, Very High
      • Motion Blur Amount
      • Motion Blur Quality: Off, Low, Medium, High, Very High

Borderlands 4 ‎ accessibility features:

  • Basic
    • Subtitles:
      • Show Subtitles: Off, On
      • Subtitle Text Size: Normal, Large, Extra Large
      • Force Bold Text: Off, On
      • Subtitle Color: White, Orange, Yellow, Pink, Light Blue, Green
      • Subtitle Background: Off, On
      • Subtitle Background Opacity: Off, Low, Medium, High, Full
    • Speaker Identity:
      • Toggle Speaker Identify: Off, On
      • Speaker Identify Color: White, Orange, Yellow, Pink, Light Blue, Green
  • Audio & Visuals:
    • General:
      • Menu Text Scaling: Off, Size 1, Size 2
      • Damage Numbers: Off, On
    • Audio:
      • Force Mono (converts all game audio to mono): Off, On
      • Mix Preset: Bass Reduction (Vestibular), Ear Fatigue Reduction, Hyperacusis Relief, Misophonia Relief, Sensory Comfort, Tinnitus Relief General, Tinnitus Relief Targeted, 80 Hz Notch
    • Colors:
      • Color Preset (accessibility settings for different types of color vision deficiency):
        • Default
        • Green/Red (recommended for those that experience Deuteranopia)
        • Red/Green (recommended for those that experience Protanopia)
        • Blue/Yellow (may help those that experience Tritanopia)
      • High Contract HUD: Off, On
      • High Contrast Reticle: Off, On
      • Friendly Reticle Color: Green, White/Blue, Red, Blue, Orange, Purple
      • Enemy Reticle Color: Green, White/Blue, Red, Blue, Orange, Purple
      • Neutral Reticle Color: Green, White/Blue, Red, Blue, Orange, Purple
  • Gameplay:
    • General:
      • Map Zoom Speed (Adjust how quickly the Map zooms in and out)
      • Enable Vibration: Off, On
      • Enable Adaptive Triggers: Off, On
      • Screen Shake Intensity
    • Movement:
      • Toggle Crouch: Off, On
      • Toggle Sprint: Off, On
      • Enable Dash: Off, On
      • Camera Head-bob
      • Grapple View Tilt: Off, On
      • Mantle with Forward: Off, On

In other news, Gearbox disclosed its post-launch plans for Borderlands 4, but if you want the new Vault Hunters then you’ll have to pay for the $130 Super Deluxe Edition. It’s currently unclear if Gearbox will sell the new additions as standalone DLC. There will also be additional storylines and side missions as well Bounty Packs that introduce new areas and missions that will lead to unique boss fights and the chance to earn more loot. Bounty Packs will be included with both the Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions.

Borderlands 4 will hit PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S on September 12, with a Switch 2 edition coming in early October. For more, check out the global launch times for Borderlands 4.



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Key Pixel Settings to Change on Your Google Phone
Gaming Gear

Key Pixel Settings to Change on Your Google Phone

by admin


While we’re talking about the display, make sure your Pixel is using the highest screen resolution. In Display & touch, scroll down to Screen resolution and choose Max resolution. It may eat up more battery life, but you paid for a high-quality display! Use it. Smooth display sits right below, but it’s finally enabled by default, allowing your phone to hit a 120-Hz screen refresh rate.

Enhance Your Lock Screen

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The lock screen is fairly customizable. Head to Settings > Display & touch > Lock screen to customize how notifications appear (compact or full list), hide silent notifications, hide sensitive content, and add shortcuts to the left or right corner (like Flashlight or Wallet). You should also enable Dynamic clock, which changes the size of the clock based on what’s on the lock screen. To change the appearance of the lock screen clock, head to Settings > Wallpaper & style and Clock (on the lock screen tab). There are several styles to choose from, and you can adjust the colors and size.

As for your lock screen wallpaper, tap on a photo and then tap Effects. You can customize how photos of your loved ones appear—within shapes, a fresh background color, with real-time weather animations, or a Cinematic look that adds depth.

Change the Power Button Behavior

If you want to restart your Pixel or turn it off, you have to pull down the notification drawer and tap on the digital power button. What about the physical power button? Google defaults it to triggering its Gemini voice assistant. You can actually get the power menu back by pressing the power button and the top volume button simultaneously, but if you want the old-school behavior back, head to Settings > System > Gestures > Press & hold power button.

If you go this route but still want to access Gemini, you can just say, “Hey Google,” to set up voice commands, or use the Gemini widget on the home screen to activate it. To add a widget, press and hold anywhere on the home screen, tap Widgets, and scroll to Gemini.

Switch to the AV1 Codec and Use Video Boost

This is for the Pixel 10 series, but these phones can now record in the AV1 video format. This greatly saves storage space, so if you’re someone who takes a lot of video, it’s the smart approach. However, AV1 isn’t supported universally. You shouldn’t have issues uploading AV1 videos to Instagram, for example, but you’ll want to check if the source you want to upload to supports it. To switch to AV1, open the camera app, click the gear icon on the left, then tap the three dots at the top right. Scroll to the bottom, tap on Video format, and choose AV1.

Speaking of video, Google’s Pro Pixel phones, since the Pixel 8 Pro, have been able to use a feature called Video Boost. This sends your footage to the cloud for processing, improving color, brightness, and stabilization, while reducing noise. Depending on the length of the video, the processing can take 20 minutes, several hours, or even a day. You’ll be notified when it’s ready, and until then, you can use the native footage you originally shot. It’s a smart way to level up the video quality (the Pixel 10 Pro can even upscale it to 8K), even if it’d be nice if Google just improved native video capture. To enable Video Boost, switch to the Video tab in the camera app, tap the gear icon in the camera app, and toggle it on.

Disable Pro Res Zoom and Camera Coach

Courtesy of Joel Chokkattu

Another one for Pixel 10 users, Pro Res Zoom is available on the Pixel 10 Pro models, and Camera Coach is on all Pixel 10 phones (though there’s a chance one of these could come to older Pixels). You can learn more about how these camera features work here, but Pro Res Zoom essentially stitches hundreds of frames together once you go past 30X to 100X digital zoom, and employs generative AI to fill in the details of the image. That results in spectacularly sharp zoomed-in photos, but it may leave a weird taste in your mouth because parts of it were AI-generated. You can turn it off! Open the camera, press the gear icon on the bottom left, and tap the three-dot menu icon. Tap Model download and then the trash icon next to Pro Res Zoom.



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Battlefield 6: A soldier wearing a tan uniform, including a helmet, glasses, and mask, facing to the side with a sledgehammer over their shoulder while turning to look at the camera.
Product Reviews

EA knows Battlefield 6’s settings menu was a mess in beta, and ‘it’s probably still going to be a little clunky when we launch’

by admin



As simple and mundane as they are, there’s an art behind making a good menu, and sadly, the Battlefield 6 beta missed the mark in that regard. The menus felt designed for controllers over mouse and keyboard, though even that felt remarkably clunky. It’s a shame, considering the interface in previous Battlefield games has been just fine on both consoles and PC.

If you needed to tweak something during a match, you’d be faffing around for way longer than you’d have liked, thanks to the many layers and tabs you had to sift through. Having a lot of options to mess around with can be a good thing (I love the new Very Aggressive Listening setting), but it also makes it a pain to actually find what you’re looking for.

Likewise, the ‘Netflix UI’ style of the main menu and class customisation made simple things like searching for a specific mode or changing your weapon a chore. In fact, it even sparked some conspiracy theories during the beta, as players felt the classic closed-weapons playlists were being intentionally buried, which Battlefield Studios had to quickly shut down.


Related articles

Fear not, though, as Battlefield 6’s menus are getting a touch-up prior to release. In an interview with PC Gamer, Battlefield Studios’ technical director Christian Bruhl explains that the team is “looking at [the] feedback” around the menus and making a few changes.

“I can’t say exactly what we’ll fix. You know, we’re not going to rebuild our menu from scratch, obviously, between now and launch, but we are looking to improve [based on] some of the biggest feedback.”

Bruhl goes on to admit that “it’s probably still going to be a little bit clunky when we launch, but we’re going to continue to improve it going forward.”

(Image credit: EA)

If I had to guess, it’ll likely be the settings menu that sees the biggest changes, with smaller (nonetheless welcome) tweaks elsewhere, as the main menus’ streaming service look seems very much baked-in and would surely require more extensive work. Nevertheless, I hope that’s something we see eventually, as I’d rather not struggle with UI just to change my loadout.

These improvements come alongside a number of other sweeping changes based on beta feedback that were revealed last week, such as nerfs to movement and tweaks to weapon handling, as well as fixes for key bugs like ‘super bullets’ that plagued the beta. All in all, I’d say it was a successful playtest for all involved: we got to play BF6 early and voice feedback, and EA got a massive win ahead of Black Ops 7’s deflating reveal.

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