The iPhone allows audio conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. Voice dialing and video calling are not supported by the iPhone.

The iPhone includes a visual voicemail feature allowing users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to and deleted in a non-chronological order by choosing any message from an on-screen list. AT&T, O2, T-Mobile Germany, and Orange modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple. A lawsuit has been filed against Apple and AT&T by Klausner Technologies Inc. claiming the iPhone's visual voicemail feature infringes two patents.

A music ringtone feature was introduced in the United States on September 5, 2007. For a fee equal to the price of the song on iTunes, the user is allowed to create their custom ringtones. It is not yet available in all countries where the iPhone has been released. The ringtones can be from 3 to 30 seconds in length of any part of a song, can include fading in and out, can pause from half a second to five seconds when looped, and never expire. All customizing can be done in iTunes, and the synced ringtones can also be used for alarms on the iPhone. Custom ringtones can also be created using Apple's GarageBand software 4.1.1 or later (available only on Mac OS X) and third-party tools.

Multimedia

The layout of the music library is similar to iPods and current Symbian S60 phones, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Just like iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.

The iPhone supports gapless playback.

Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and full-screen video playback.

The iPhone allows users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi with the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, but not over the cellular data network.

Internet connectivity

 

Wikipedia Main Page on iPhone's Safari in landscape mode

Internet access is available when the iPhone is connected to a local area Wi-Fi or a wide area GSM or EDGE network, both second-generation (2G) wireless data standards. The iPhone 3G supports third-generation UMTS and HSDPA, but not HSUPA networks. Steve Jobs had stated in September 2007 that 3G would need to become more widespread in the United States and 3G chipsets would need to become much more energy efficient before inclusion in the iPhone. It is not clear whether it supports HSDPA 3.6 or HSDPA 7.2. By default, the iPhone will ask to join newly discovered Wi-Fi networks and prompt for the password when required, while also supporting manually joining closed Wi-Fi networks. When Wi-Fi is active, the iPhone will automatically switch from the EDGE network to any nearby previously approved Wi-Fi network. 802.1X is supported by the iPhone OS version 2.0, which is used by many university and corporate Wi-Fi networks.

The ubiquitous Internet connection offered by the iPhone has been widely utilized by users. According to Google, the iPhone generates 50 times more search requests than any other mobile handset. According to Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann, "The average Internet usage for an iPhone customer is more than 100 MBytes. This is 30 times the use for our average contract-based consumer customers.

The iPhone is able to access the World Wide Web via a modified version of the Safari web browser. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and supports automatic zooming by pinching together or spreading apart fingertips on the screen, or by double-tapping text or images. The web browser displays complete web pages similar to a desktop web browser and supports zooming by double-tapping the screen.

The iPhone does not support Flash nor Java technology.

According to AT&T, the iPhone 3G has a maximum download rate of 1.4Mbp/s. Apple developed an iPhone application for accessing Google's maps service in map, satellite or hybrid form, a list of search results, or directions between two locations, while providing optional real-time traffic information. During the product's announcement, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby Starbucks locations and then placing a prank call to one with a single tap. Though Flash isn't supported in Safari on the iPhone, Apple also developed a separate application to view YouTube videos on the iPhone, similar to the system used for the Apple TV.

E-mail

The iPhone also features an e-mail program that supports HTML e-mail, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone. Apple's MobileMe platform offers push email, which emulates the functionality of the popular BlackBerry email solution, for an annual subscription. Yahoo! offers a free push-email service for the iPhone. IMAP (although not Push-IMAP) and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange and Kerio MailServer. In the first versions of the iPhone firmware, this was accomplished by opening up IMAP on the Exchange server. Apple has also licensed Microsoft ActiveSync and now supports the platform (including push email) with the release of iPhone 2.0 firmware. The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple's own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Entourage, or manually configured using the device's Settings tool. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can check almost any IMAP or POP3 account.

Camera

The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera located on the back for still digital photos. It has no optical zoom, flash or autofocus, and does not support video recording.

The iPhone includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The user zooms in and out of photos by "unpinching" and "pinching" them through the multi-touch interface. The software interacts with iPhoto and Aperture software on the Mac and Photoshop software in Windows. In version 2.0 of the iPhone OS, users can choose to allow location data to be embedded in the pictures producing geocoded photographs (geotagging).

Others

The built-in Bluetooth 2.x+EDR supports wireless earpieces, which requires the HSP profile, but notably does not support stereo audio (requires A2DP), laptop tethering (requires DUN and SPP), or the OBEX file transfer protocol (requires FTP, GOEP, and OPP). The lack of these profiles prevent iPhone users from exchanging multimedia files with other bluetooth-enabled cell phones, including pictures, music and videos.

Text messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient's name. The iPhone currently has built-in support for e-mail message forwarding, drafts, and direct internal camera-to-e-mail picture sending. However, it does not yet have capabilities for delivery reports, MMS, or copy/cut/paste. Support for multi-recipient SMS was added in the January 2008 (v1.1.3) software update.

Text input

 

Virtual keyboard on the original iPhone's touchscreen.

For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. It has automatic spell checking and correction, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words. The predictive word capabilities have been integrated with the dynamic virtual keyboard so that users will not have to be extremely accurate when typing—i.e. touching the edges of the desired letter or nearby letters on the keyboard will be predictively corrected when possible. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced farther apart when in landscape mode, currently available using the Safari web browser and certain third-party applications with Landscape Mode support. Not focusing more on texting has been considered a chief weakness of the iPhone, while at the same time others believe the virtual keyboard to be a bold step and a worthwhile risk. The lack of a physical keyboard allows for the keyboard to be optimized for different applications and languages.

Accessibility

According to Apple's accessibility statement "effective use of the iPhone 3G requires a minimal level of visual acuity, motor skills, and an ability to operate a few mechanical buttons. Use of iPhone 3G by someone who relies solely on audible and tactile input is not recommended." The iPhone 3G can be used with external TDD/TTY devices using a separately purchased adaptor cable. The iPhone 3G has not been rated under the United States Federal Communication Commission guidelines for hearing aid compatibility at either level M3 or T3.