As the new iPhone 16 series of smartphones reaches users’ hands on Sept. 20, plenty of people will want to familiarize themselves with iOS 18 and their new device. Here’s one setting you should head for immediately if, like most people, you hate those Captcha security puzzles. The good news is that you don’t have to own the latest iPhone to rid yourself of this annoying security feature. Here’s how.
Ask the average smartphone user what the most annoying security feature they encounter is, and while dodgy fingerprint scanners, facial recognition that doesn’t and entering two-factor authentication codes in time are right up there, the top of the list has to belong to solving Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart puzzles. I’m talking about Captcha, a system meant to verify you are a human, not a bot. It certainly brings out my human side in a not-very-pleasant way. The good news is that owners of the brand new iPhone 16 series, as well as other iPhone users, can banish them to the waste bin of security stupidity forever.
Why You Should Banish Captcha Tests
The first and most apparent reason to banish Captcha tests once and for all is the annoyance factor. Not only do they often prove all but impossible to complete correctly, at least for those of us not blessed with 20:20 vision, but the time wasted attempting so to do can drive users away from the service they were looking to use in the first place. Yes, I know there are alternatives, such as having a spoken version, but all of this wastes time that, frankly, I neither have to spare nor care to devote to such a pointless exercise.
Websites and services that employ Captcha tests will tell you they are a vital tool in defeating the army of bots that attempt to automate the process of creating accounts. I’d reply that the army of bots is more intelligent than you give it credit for, and AI is already helping cybercriminals and fraudsters solve these pointless puzzles. Websites and services that employ Captcha tests will tell you they are a vital tool in defeating the army of bots that attempt to automate the process of creating accounts. I’d reply that the army of bots is more intelligent than you give it credit for, and AI is already helping cybercriminals and fraudsters solve these pointless puzzles. Oh, and I’m not even going down the route of ranting about how Captcha’s are sometimes used to help train AI models.
Then there’s the security risk that can be posed by “fake” Captcha tests. These have recently been found to deployed in information-stealing campaigns by threat actors targeting Windows users.
How To Bypass Captcha’s Using An iPhone 16
The methodology needed to vanquish Captcha’s is the same for all iPhone users as long as they have a device running iOS 16 or later. Following these simple steps will ensure that Apple’s iCloud can automatically and privately verify your device and account, bypassing the need for you to do so.
Step 1. Open the settings app and click on your name to access your Apple account settings.
Step 2. Click on Sign-In & Security.
Step 3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen to the Advanced section and ensure that the Automatic Verification switch is toggled on.
Step 4. Tell everyone else with an iPhone how to do this and earn yourself a gazillion karma points.
There is, however, one disclaimer: Apple said that apps for websites that do not support Automatic Verification may lead to you still seeing the occasional Captcha. But hey, it’s still a win. Automatic Verification should be enabled by default, but follow the steps above to ensure this is the case on your device.