It’s one of those tiny car features that many drivers see every day without ever questioning it. Between the two cup holders on some center consoles are a pair of raised plastic tabs with a narrow gap between them. They may look decorative or like part of the cup-holder design, but they actually have a practical purpose.

That little gap is commonly designed to hold a smartphone upright. Instead of leaving your phone loose inside a cup holder or placing it on the passenger seat, you can slide the bottom edge of the phone between the two raised supports.

Once positioned there, the phone can remain standing vertically where it’s easier to see and retrieve. It’s particularly convenient while the vehicle is parked, and it also prevents the phone from occupying one of the cup holders when you need both spaces for drinks.

Depending on the vehicle, the slot may accommodate different phone sizes and cases, although especially thick phones might not fit securely. Some drivers never discover the feature because the supports blend naturally into the surrounding cup-holder structure.

So that strange little gap isn’t wasted space at all—it’s a built-in phone holder hiding in plain sight. It’s exactly the kind of simple car feature that can go unnoticed for years until someone finally discovers what the designers intended it to do.