8 Amazing iPhone Tips and Hacks You've Never Heard Of
Even if you're an iPhone user, you probably don't know all of its ins and outs. While the interface doesn't change much from version to version, there are still plenty of hidden features within it, not to mention some of the options that don't get quite as much attention from Apple's marketing team as they should. In this article, we'll go over 8 amazing iPhone tips and hacks that you've never heard of or thought about using before. Make sure to bookmark this page so you can refer back later!
1) 3 Secret Ways to Save Battery Life
1. Check Your Battery Usage Regularly
2. Adjust Brightness and Screen Timeout Settings
3. Use Power Saving Mode. Here's how to use it: Open your Settings app > Tap Battery > Tap Low Power Mode to enable it. After turning on Low Power Mode, you can customize the settings by adjusting screen brightness, background app refresh, and more. 4. Enable Reduce Motion for a Smoother Experience: To reduce motion on your phone, open your Settings app > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion
2) How to Record a Secret Video on Your Phone
It's actually really easy to record a secret video on your phone, and there are a few different ways to do it. One way is to use the screen recording feature that's built into iOS. To do this, just open up the Control Center and tap on the screen recording icon. Then, point your camera at whatever you want to record and hit the record button. The video will be saved to your camera roll automatically. You can also use an app like Vysor to mirror your phone's screen onto your computer or Mac. After installing the app, all you have to do is open it and connect your device via USB or Wi-Fi. From there, you'll see a mirrored image of your phone on your desktop. To start recording videos, all you have to do is press the red button in the upper left corner of the interface. Pressing the square on the right side will save your current recording as a new file so you don't overwrite what you're currently working on. A third option for making secret recordings is using AirPods. Just open any one of your favorite social media apps (like Instagram) and start streaming live audio over Bluetooth to your AirPods by tapping on the AirPod icon next to LIVE inside of Settings. That's it! All audio from that app will now stream over Bluetooth instead of through your microphone and out loud for everyone around you to hear. When you're done, all you have to do is stop streaming and close the app.
The best part about these tricks? They work on any phone with a headphone jack, not just iPhones! And if you want to listen back to your recording without having someone watch you listen, there's always Siri! If you turn off the screen and hold down the Home button, Siri will prompt you to speak your message. Once you finish talking, she'll ask if she should write it down or read it back to you - select read aloud and she'll read your message aloud while transcribing it onscreen! So neat!
All of these tricks require little more than some buttons presses here and there - no fancy hacking skills required! Plus, since they work on any phone with a headphone jack, chances are good that you already know how to use them! And if you don't? Well then I guess we're even luckier because we get to share our knowledge with others! Here are a few other tips to help keep your phone safe: - Install a free anti-virus software such as Avast Mobile Security, AVG AntiVirus FREE, or Antivirus & Security Pro;
- Use Find My iPhone/iPad/Mac;
- Lock your phone with Touch ID or Face ID;
- Avoid sharing sensitive information on public wifi networks; and finally,
- Update your software regularly. This ensures your phone is running smoothly and safely. There are two versions of iOS, which means you'll need to update to the latest version depending on which type of phone you have. This may sound difficult, but it's not! Just follow the instructions provided on Apple's website and you'll be updating in no time.
- Turn on 2FA wherever possible to make sure your passwords stay secure and never miss a notification! There are several types of 2FA available, including SMS, email, or authenticating with another trusted device. You might think this step isn't necessary because it doesn't seem too hard to remember a password...until your account gets hacked and you realize why it was important after all! An easier way to prevent this from happening is by turning on 2FA (two-factor authentication) where available. There are several types of 2FA, including text messages, emails, or authenticating with another trusted device. No matter what type you choose, it adds an extra layer of security to your account so hackers can't access it as easily! Finally, before we go into detail about all 8 hacks and tips below, let's take a look at one final tip for staying safe online: avoid clicking links sent via text message (SMS). It seems like common sense that you shouldn't click links sent through text messages...but many people still do!
3) 4 ways to secretly take pictures with your phone
1. Use the volume buttons to take pictures instead of the on-screen shutter button. This can be helpful if you don't want people to know you're taking their picture.
2. If you want to take a picture of something far away, use the zoom feature. First, tap on the screen where you want to focus. Then, use the volume buttons to zoom in or out.
3. To take a picture quickly, without having to fiddle with the shutter button, set your phone to burst mode. To do this, just hold down the shutter button and it will take multiple pictures in quick succession. 5. How to turn off all notifications from one app: When you have a lot of apps open and receive an annoying notification from one app that's interrupting what you're doing, there's an easy way to stop them.
To do this, swipe up from the bottom of the screen until you see Close All.
Then swipe left over any app that has a red dot next to it and then click Off. Now the only thing you'll get is the notification sound for that app.
6. One last tip - make sure you check what your flashlight setting is! Apple now lets users toggle between white and yellow screens by going into Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Display Accommodations -> Invert Colors and turning it on (the switch should appear at the top). The difference is subtle but worth noting as white light is more effective for reading at night while yellow light might help prevent eyestrain. Apple also introduced Night Shift, which changes the colors on your display throughout the day to mimic sunset. For those who find it difficult to sleep when using devices close to bedtime, Night Shift automatically senses how long it's been since you opened your laptop or looked at your phone and adjust its settings accordingly.
For example, iPhones are programmed not to show bright-white pixels after sunset and iPads are programmed not to show blue light before sunrise.
I hope these tips will help make navigating through iOS a little easier! With all the information available, it's possible to spend hours learning about the many ways you can interact with your device. We covered 4 hidden features that allow you to snap photos secretly, how to quickly take a photo without worrying about hitting the wrong button, and five ways to disable notifications from specific apps. But we still have time for two more features!
First is Siri - did you know she can give directions? Just tell her Directions home or directions to Starbucks and she'll ask if you want public transit directions or driving directions before giving you step-by-step instructions. She can also tell jokes, translate words/phrases, tell sports scores/games/schedules...you name it!
Second is Photos - search for anything inside your library of images and Photos will present relevant results. Want old photos of family members?
4) 5 Ways to Use Siri Without Speaking
1. Press and hold the Home button to launch Siri without speaking.
2. Type to Siri instead of speaking by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Siri and enable Type to Siri.
3. Set up hands-free Siri by going to Settings > General > Siri and enable Allow Hey Siri.
4. Use Siri shortcuts by adding them in the Shortcuts app.
5. Use AirPods or Beats earphones with Hey Siri enabled to activate Siri without using your hands. 6. When listening to music, open the Now Playing app, press on the circular album art icon at the bottom left corner, tap on i next to a song title, tap Add Song Info, then tap Add Details (at the top right) then under Artist you can change Artist for all songs in this album by tapping on Details then scrolling down and selecting Album Artist. 7. Go into Settings > Music > Show All Music and scroll down until you see where it says Automatically Add Songs To My Library from My Purchased Items: Off; turn it On so that iTunes will automatically import any new music that you buy from its online store into your library. 8. Turn off lyrics while driving by opening the Apple Maps app, pressing on Directions, and turning off Texts Along Route in the Driving Mode menu. 9. Track someone else's iPhone with Find My Friends by going to Settings > iCloud > Find My Friends and enabling Send Last Location when Sharing my Location is turned On; then select Share my Location for whoever you want to track their location on your phone. 10. Change the display color temperature according to personal preference by opening Settings > Display & Brightness> Night Shift> Adjust Color Temperature 11. Invert colors by opening Settings > General > Accessibility> Display Accommodations and turn Invert Colors On. 12. Download TV shows that are airing live on TV in a specific area by downloading the appropriate tvOS app (the same one as if you were watching it through your TV) and following the prompts to enter your ZIP code during signup or registration, which will let you know what channels are available in your area. 13. Create custom text messages for contacts stored in Contacts by clicking on an individual contact card within Contacts, clicking Edit Recipient Text Message at the bottom of the pop-up window, and entering the message manually within these fields 14. Make apps work offline by adding them to the On-Demand list within Settings > General > Background App Refresh 15. Avoid automatic updates by opening Settings > iTunes & App Store and disabling Automatic Downloads 16. Put your photos in chronological order for easier viewing by clicking on Photos app and choosing Moments, Collections, Years, or Collections from Date Added 17. View more details about a photo before deleting it by holding down on the photo 18. Make sure you have Notification Center set up properly to avoid missing important notifications such as texts and calls
5) Stop Autocorrect From Annoying You
We've all been there- you're typing away on your iPhone and suddenly, autocorrect changes what you're trying to say into something completely different. It's frustrating, to say the least. But did you know that there's a way to stop autocorrect from messing with you? Just go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement, tap the + button in the upper right corner of the screen, enter autocorrection as the phrase you want replaced and then type no in both boxes below it. That's it! From now on when you type autocorrection, it will be replaced by no. You can do this for any word or set of words, so get creative!
Check Your Battery Levels Without Checking Your Phone: On an iPhone 6 or newer model, just swipe down from the top left corner (close to where the battery icon is) and look at the little battery icon on top. If you have more than 50% battery life left, it'll be green; if not, it'll be red. Simple enough! Make Sure the Camera Is Ready for Action: With iOS 12, Apple added a neat new feature that lets you see exactly how much time is left before your camera automatically shuts off. To access this feature, open up Control Center and scroll all the way to the bottom where you'll find Camera near Airplane Mode. Below Camera will be a countdown timer which tells you how long until your camera shuts off.
Pull Up Numbers When Typing Out A Number: Have trouble remembering whether there's an E or a 3 after the 2? Do you feel like your head might explode because your brain has to hold all these numbers in order? Fear not! The shortcut for entering numbers is to just pull them up from the keyboard. For example, if I wanted the number 1234, I would press 123 on my keyboard and then 4789 on my keyboard-- voila! One tap saves me four taps. Awesome! Organize Photos By Location And Time: Speaking of photos, iPhones make it super easy to organize pictures based on location and date taken. So let's say I took some pictures during a family vacation. I could tap Albums at the bottom and then Photo Library, select All Photos in My Library and then find Vacation Pictures by scrolling through my photos starting with oldest first. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Change Your Volume Without Touching Your Phone: Ever had your phone out somewhere public like the gym or library but didn't want people around you to hear what you were listening to? Well fret no more! There's actually a really easy way to adjust volume without ever touching your phone using Siri commands. Simply say Hey Siri, turn it down or Hey Siri, turn it up and your iPhone will obey. These commands work no matter what you're doing on your phone and even if the sound is muted. Cool huh? Finally! A way to listen to music in peace. Sometimes, we all need a break from the stress of everyday life. Sometimes, we all need to escape to our happy place. Sometimes, we need to zone out and tune everything else out. Listening to music is a great way to accomplish this goal and it's always nice when you're able to do it in peace. That's why it's great that there are Siri shortcuts for changing your volume while your phone is on mute! Previously, you needed to tap the onscreen slider to change your volume and then tap the mute button. Now, all you need to do is say Hey Siri, turn it down or Hey Siri, turn it up and your iPhone will comply. The best part? You don't need to touch your phone at all!
6) View Hidden Emojis on iOS Devices
Did you know that there are hidden emojis on your iPhone? To view them, simply go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards, and then tap on the Add New Keyboard option. From there, select Emoji. Once you've done that, you'll be able to access hundreds of different emojis that you can use in your texts and emails. The best part is that these new emojis will only show up for people who have set their keyboard to Emoji as well! So even if someone sends you a text with an emoji that they found by going through this process, you will not see it unless you've gone through the same steps yourself. Here's how to find out which one of your friends has followed the instructions above: send them a message asking Do you have any funny ?????. If they reply with something like No but I do now!, then you know they're using the secret emojis. Check Which Apps Are Using Your Data When Streaming Music: There are a lot of streaming services available today, but many don't offer unlimited music listening without paying extra. However, apps such as Pandora or Spotify Premium offer the ability to listen without worrying about data usage limits. What most people don't realize is that all apps will use data when streaming music so it's important to check which ones are using up the most before cancelling a service such as Pandora (as tempting as it may be). Read How Old People See Things Differently Than Younger People: It turns out that senior citizens' eyesight may not be what you expect at all! In fact, they can see certain colors better than younger generations. For example, reds and greens seem more intense while blues look lighter. Another difference is that older adults typically need less light to see clearly while young adults need more light. Seniors also experience some peripheral vision loss which makes objects seem smaller; thus making the world appear more confined than before. Lastly, reading material appears to shift sideways as our attention shifts. Try doing the following experiment: Take two copies of the same piece of paper with three sentences written on each page and place one copy six inches from your face and the other copy three feet away from your face. Now read both pages back-to-back - after you finish reading the first page move onto the second page while still maintaining focus on the first page (this technique works best with short sentences). Notice how after finishing reading sentence number one, sentence number two shifts over towards sentence number three - this phenomenon is known as parallax movement. This happens because of the optical properties of the eye, and is why we cannot focus on more than one object at a time. Fortunately, there are ways to fix this problem: wearing glasses that fit properly, getting reading glasses that provide a more relaxed viewing angle, and sitting farther away from the object. These methods can make reading more comfortable, which is helpful considering that more than half of seniors live alone. They may not have a spouse to help them with tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and providing emotional support. Therefore, they rely on reading more than ever.
7) Editing Photos from the Lock Screen Without Unlocking
One of the coolest features of the iPhone is the ability to edit photos right from the lock screen. This is a great way to quickly crop or filter a photo without having to unlock your phone. To do this, simply long-press on the photo you want to edit and select Edit. From there, you can use the built-in editing tools to make changes to your photo. Once you're done making changes, press Done in the upper-right corner to save your edits. If you would like to undo an edit, just press the Erase button at the bottom of the screen. Another cool thing about these editing tools is that they are also available in Instagram's camera mode! When you open up Instagram, swipe left from your home feed to reveal all of your filters and effects that you can apply directly before capturing a photo. To edit your photo after it has been taken, tap the pencil icon in the top-left corner of the app. From here, you'll be able to access different editing tools such as adding text (which makes for awesome social media posts!), cropping, rotating and adding stickers. If you want to erase any edits that have been made to your photo, tap Clear Edits on the bottom of the screen. Even though Apple does not allow users to upload their own custom keyboards with iOS, there are plenty of apps available for download in the App Store that will let you customize your keyboard with GIFs, fonts and emoji. One example is Keymoji Keyboard which lets you choose from over 700 colorful animated emoji. Downloading this app will even enable you to type with emoji on other platforms because Keymoji uses auto-correct technology to translate what you typed into emoji when necessary. For example, if I type hi on my iPhone keyboard but spell it he, then the word he would automatically appear as a smiley face instead. Additionally, some keyboards include unique features like being able to send shouting emojis.
One final tip we'd like to share is how you can quickly delete apps that you no longer need. To do this, open the Settings app and select General followed by Storage & iCloud Usage under Device Management. From here, tap Manage Storage followed by All Apps located at the bottom of the screen. The All Apps tab lists all of your installed apps including those that are currently running on your device - so scroll through until you find the one you want to delete and then hit Delete App followed by Delete in order to remove it from your device entirely. Make sure to scroll down the list of all apps again and check off Delete App next to any remaining applications that you wish to delete in order to free up space on your device. It may take some time depending on how many apps you have installed but eventually all of them should disappear. Keep in mind that deleting an app will only remove it from your device - it won't delete its data or content so keep this in mind before deleting anything important. With these tips, you should be able to manage and enjoy your iPhone more than ever before! The weather outside is chilly and dreary, and the winter season is well underway. This means that it's probably time to swap out your flip-flops for boots, put away your summer clothes, and get ready to bundle up! Thankfully, winter fashion doesn't have to be a hassle. This guide provides you with easy and affordable ideas on how to stay warm this winter.
8) Reread Sent Messages without Deleting Them
We've all been there – you send a message to someone and then immediately regret it. Whether it's an embarrassing typo or you just changed your mind about what you wanted to say, rereading a sent message can be cringe-worthy. But did you know that there's a way to reread your messages without having to delete them? All you have to do is hold down on the offending text for five seconds, and voila! The conversation will pop up again in a semi-transparent overlay so that you can read it as if nothing ever happened. Once you're done reading, tap outside of the bubble to dismiss it. If you want to send another message without dismissing the old one first, simply hit Cancel when prompted. If you decide against sending a second message altogether, just swipe away from the bubble before confirming. And finally, if you don't like this feature at all and would rather not have your sent messages show up in the convo at all, go into Settings > Notifications > Messages > Show Previews of Sent Messages to disable it. Turning off previews isn't quite as ideal as turning off notifications entirely (since you'll still see red circles indicating new unread messages), but it should help minimize the frequency with which you need to revisit old conversations by accident. Plus, if you tend to make typos a lot, this option can come in handy when you need to correct yourself. In iOS 12, Siri Suggestions Can Make Life Easier: There are lots of ways to use Siri on your iPhone; she can set reminders, answer questions, give you directions, control your HomeKit devices... But chances are good that you haven't yet used her as a personal assistant—which means that she might be able to simplify certain aspects of your life. That's because iOS 12 introduces Siri Suggestions, which aims to surface helpful shortcuts based on things Siri knows about you. She might suggest calling back the person who called three minutes ago or opening Apple Pay after scanning a QR code at checkout—both very useful suggestions indeed! Say you wrote I'm going 2 work and realized after sending it that you meant I'm going to work. Simply pull down on the wrong word until the cursor turns into a crosshair, then drag it over to where you want it fixed. Voila! Your sentence now reads I'm going to work. As long as your recipient doesn't use 3D Touch, they won't even notice that anything was different.
Posts
