iOS & iPhone How-Tos
How To: Use 3D Touch or Haptic Touch to Quickly Open Apps Inside of Folders on Your iPhone
Folders are great for organizing apps and removing clutter from your home screen. But once they become overfull, it's not as easy to find and launch an app. If you have a jailbroken device, however, there's a tweak that will lessen the hassle of rummaging through folders and make it easier to open the apps they contain.
How To: Open Previous Drafts Faster in Your iPhone's Mail App — From Any Mailbox or Folder
All of your partially written, unsent emails live in your "Drafts" folders, in limbo until the day they are sent off or deleted. In Apple's Mail for iPhone, you can access all drafts from all accounts in a combined "All Drafts" folder from the app's main Mailboxes list — but only if you added it manually. But there's an even better way to access all of your drafts in Apple Mail in iOS; it's just not obvious.
How To: Disable Auto-Rotation in Your iPhone's Messages App
Having your iPhone's display orientation go from portrait to landscape while lying down in bed can get pretty annoying, especially while chatting with others within Messages. If you have a jailbroken device, however, you can easily remedy this headache by way of a free tweak.
How To: Create Custom Text Tones for Your iPhone Using macOS 10.15 Catalina
Apple hasn't refreshed its text tones on iPhones since iOS 7. That's six years of the same sounds. And while text tones like Bamboo and Hello have undoubtedly aged like fine wine, that's still too long to live with the same old sounds day after day. Let's take matters into our own hands — let's make our own text tones, right in Music on macOS 10.15 Catalina.
How To: Create Ringtones for Your iPhone Using 'Music' in macOS 10.15 Catalina
Have you ever heard someone else's iPhone ringing and thought it was yours? Of course you did. iPhone ringtones are iconic, but not varied. If you're using one of the more popular iOS sounds, you'll likely encounter it in the wild multiple times. Why bother, when you can create your own custom ringtones right on your Mac.
How To: Type to Siri Without Changing a Setting in iOS 13
One of my favorite iOS hacks is Type to Siri. This lets you type your queries to the iPhone digital assistant without needing to use your voice. Unfortunately, Type to Siri replaces the typical Siri voice prompt on the Home or Side button, meaning you need to choose between one or the other. That is, until iOS 13.
How To: Share Any Password from Your iPhone to Other Apple Devices
In iOS 11, Apple made it easier for you to share passwords with friends. Back then, it was just Wi-Fi passwords, which made sense. "What's the Wi-Fi?" gets old after a while. But now, whether you're running iOS 12 or 13, you can share any password you want with any iPhone around, all with one of iOS' best features: AirDrop.
How To: Set Reminders to Alert You on a Particular Day & Time on iOS 13
The Reminders app has always lacked the oomf that would make a person switch from a powerful third-party task manager. But Reminders has received quite the makeover in iOS 13, including a revamped UI and several new features, such as timed reminder alerts, which make the app a worthy to-do list option for the iPhone.
How To: Use 'Sign in with Apple' on iOS 13 for Better Security & Privacy
We've all seen the login pages that allow you to log in to third-party accounts using your credentials from Facebook, Google, or Twitter. It saves you the trouble of creating another account and remembering more passwords — but it can also become a privacy and security issue, which is why Apple created the "Sign in with Apple" feature for iOS 13.
How To: Remove Contacts from the Share Sheet on iOS 13
The share system on your iPhone serves as a hub for actions and share extensions, streamlining the process of saving files, sharing photos and videos, and other important tasks. On iOS 13 the Share Sheet has received a considerable upgrade, including the ability to more easily share content with your favorite contacts.
How To: Add, Remove & Reorder the Share Sheet Options on Your iPhone
On iPhones, the share sheet is a powerful yet largely underestimated tool. For the uninitiated, the share sheet is the menu that opens whenever you tap the share button (the box with the up-arrow). This menu features sharing options to first and third-party apps, as well as extra functions like saving, copying, duplicating, and more. Best of all? It's surprisingly customizable.
How To: Set & Trigger Location-Based Reminders on Your iPhone
Apple's Reminders app is essential for those of us with a forgetful memory. But a standard Reminders entry isn't foolproof. They aren't great if you need to do something right when you get somewhere, since it can be tricky to set a specific time for that reminder. That's why Apple's location-based reminders are so darn useful.
How To: Return to the Default Font in Mail Drafts After Using a Custom One
One of iOS 13's coolest features is the ability to download, install, and choose fonts in select apps like Pages and Mail. However, you might notice an issue when writing an email with a custom typeface: there's no option to return to the default font. What gives?
How To: Re-Enable Checkra1n Jailbreak After Restarting Your iPhone
Semi-untethered jailbreaks are here to stay, as evidenced by iOS 11's Electra method, Chimera for iOS 12, and even the new bootrom-based Checkra1n tool for iOS 13. While not as convenient as fully untethered, re-enabling a semi-untethered jailbreak is still pretty easy once you get used to the steps involved.
How To: Jailbreak iOS 12.0 to iOS 14.0 on Your iPhone Using Checkra1n
After an update on Sept. 22, 2020, the Checkra1n jailbreaking tool expanded its compatibility to include iOS 12.0 to iOS 12.2, as well as iOS 13.5.1 to iOS 13.7. More importantly, however, it now can jailbreak iOS 14 on select iPhone models, with more support coming soon.
How To: Focus Your iPhone Photos & Videos by Adding a Vignette
If there's one tool at your photo editing disposal to instantly dramatize a picture, it's the vignette. It shades away the corners of a photo, which highlights the center of the image without any effort on your part. In the past, you'd have to look outside the Photos app on your iPhone to achieve such a result, but with iOS 13, a vignette is within immediate grasp.
How To: Shrink Your iPhone's Home Indicator Bar for a Cleaner Look
The home bar first introduced on the iPhone X is a handy visual guide as you get accustomed to using gestures like swiping up to unlock or going back to the home screen. As you master the gestures, however, the home bar becomes less of an aid and more of an obstruction that you can't remove or resize, unless you've jailbroken your iPhone.
How To: Create a ZIP Archive Using the Files App on Your iPhone
In iOS 13, Apple finally took the built in Files app from an extremely rudimentary file browser to a full featured app that can serve the needs of most any user. Among the new features is the ability to compress a file or series of files into a standard ZIP archive right from your iPhone.
How To: Play Castlevania 'Grimoire of Souls' on Your iPhone Right Now
Castlevania ranks up there with Super Mario as one of the most memorable video games ever, and a new iteration of the side-scrolling action RPG has been soft-launched in Canada ahead of a worldwide release. If you want to try out the game on your iPhone before everyone else, there's a simple hack to try.
How To: There's Finally a Way to Disable Those Annoying Memoji Stickers in Messages on iPhone
There's a lot to love about iOS 13. Permanent Memoji stickers though? Not so much. Whether you love or hate these personalized icons, most of us can probably agree it's super annoying Apple doesn't let you disable them in the "Frequently Used" section of the Emoji keyboard. Every time you go to use an emoji, you have to see the stickers, whether you want to or not. That is, until now.
How To: Prevent Thieves From Turning off Your iPhone
The prospect of loss or theft is something we constantly live with. Stolen iPhones fetch a premium price on the black market for parts like OLED display assemblies, frames, and charging ports. Making matters worse, if someone were to steal your phone, they could simply turn it off to avoid anti-theft features like Find My iPhone.
How To: The Ultimate Guide to Customizing Your iPhone
Cases and stickers are always great, but they aren't the only way to customize an iPhone. The software on your device is full of customization options, from a better-looking home screen and cooler lock screen wallpapers to app icon changes and a system-wide dark mode. There's literally over 100 ways to make iOS on your iPhone genuinely unique, some of which are hiding in plain sight.
How To: Respring Your iPhone Without Losing Jailbreak & Sileo
Restarting your iPhone can cure software glitches, but it should only be done as a last resort if your device has a semi-tethered jailbreak, because it will disable any tweaks you've applied. Luckily, your jailbroken iPhone has a faster alternative to rebooting to help you troubleshoot and make changes on the fly.
How To: The 10 Best Notification Center Tweaks for Your iPhone
It's easy to take your iPhone's Notification Center for granted. As useful as it is for viewing important alerts, reminders, and more, the feature is pretty drab when compared to the customizable Control Center, Accessibility Shortcuts, and others.
How To: Cut Text on Your iPhone with a Simple Gesture
Why is it that "cut" is such an underappreciated edit function? It copies and deletes text, what more could you ask for? Well, how about a more efficient way to do so? With iOS 13, Apple introduced a suite of new gestures and swipes to edit text easier on iPhone. It just so happens cutting text gets its own gesture as well.
How To: Keep Low Power Mode Enabled Indefinitely on Your iPhone
Low Power Mode (LPM) decreases the amount of battery your iPhone uses by disabling background app refreshing and automatic downloads, locking your screen after 30 seconds, and more. While it's only meant to be used temporarily, if you're struggling with battery life, you may want to enable LPM permanently.
How To: Move All Your iPhone's Camera Controls to the Bottom for Easier Access
If reaching up to access Camera controls like the flash, HDR, and timer wasn't bad enough, it's gotten a lot more tedious on recent iPhones like the X, XS, and 11 series thanks to their tall displays. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, however, you can easily fix this issue using a free tweak.
How To: Bulk Delete Messages Faster with This Hidden iOS 13 Gesture
On the surface, deleting conversations in Messages seems harder in iOS 13 after Apple removed the "Edit" button on the main page. Fortunately, they added a new gesture that lets you remove entire threads and individual messages with ease.
How To: Bypass Paywalls in Safari to Read Any Article on Your iPhone
Paywalls make it nearly impossible to access certain content unless you have a subscription. It's a practice that many news organizations and other online publications use to increase revenue: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Wired, and so many more. But just because a paywall is in place doesn't mean you can't get around it on your iPhone.
How To: There's a Much Faster Way to Rearrange Your iPhone's Home Screen
For most of the iPhone's history, rearranging apps has been a giant pain. On the surface, iOS 13 seems to make things worse — with the new long-press gestures, it takes longer for iOS to know you want to move apps around. That might be true, but iOS 13 also introduced a way to make the process so much faster.
How To: Make Your AirPods Pro Fit Better by Testing the Rubber Tips
Everybody loves AirPods, right? Well, maybe everybody whose ears fit AirPods. That was the issue with the first two generations — one size doesn't fit all. But the new AirPods Pro come with three rubber ear tips of different sizes. While you can experiment on your own to figure out which fits best, Apple programmed your AirPods Pro to make that determination itself.
How To: Enable Active Noise Cancellation on Your AirPod Pros
Apple unveiled the latest generation of its flagship earbuds, AirPods Pro, on Monday, Oct. 28. Aside from the increased price tag, new in-ear design, and wider charging case, the biggest change by far is in Active Noise Cancellation. Finally, we can listen to AirPods on a plane, walking by a busy road, anywhere with a lot of noise pollution. But how does it work?
How To: The Easiest Way to Unlock Apple Maps' Hidden 3D View
By default, Apple's Maps features a 2D overhead viewing angle when you search for a place or get directions to a specific address. In the past, Apple Maps had a button in the top-right to view cities and landmarks in 3D, but that has now disappeared for the most part in iOS 13. However, the feature is still available to use — it's just sort of hidden this time around.
How To: It's Really Easy to View Your Apple Music Listening History in iOS 13.2
Apple Music's Recently Played page is supposed to work as a hub to view your listening history, but it's a bit confusing. Thanks to iOS 13.2, the app now has a History page that allows you to view all of the songs you've listened to — in order — with just a few taps and swipes.
How To: Make Your Markups Stand Out More on iPhone with a Simple Slider
The screenshot editor in iOS is full of fun and powerful ways to mark up your images to quickly highlight what's important. That said, screenshots are often noisy, and can distract from arrows, circles, and other edits we add. Luckily, there's a simple hidden tool that can help those markups stand out right away.
How To: Re-Enable a Semi-Tethered Jailbreak to Restore Access to Sileo
Compared to fully untethered jailbreaks, semi-untethered methods like Chimera for iOS 12 have one major handicap: you need to re-enable the jailbreak every time your iPhone turns off or restarts. As intimidating as it seems, however, kickstarting the mod and restoring your tweaks is still pretty easy.
How To: You Can Finally Unzip Files on Your iPhone
Gone are the days of needing a specialized app or program to unzip files. In fact, you don't even need a computer. It's 2019 — cars drive themselves, robots take fast food orders, and you can unzip compressed files right on your iPhone.
How To: iOS 13 Made Searching Much Faster in iPhone Apps
Your iPhone is full of search bars. Messages, Notes, Photos, Reminders ... these apps and more allow you to search for specific items to speed up whatever it is you're doing. But the fastest way to search in iOS might not be by typing.
How To: iOS 13 Has Radically Improved Connecting to AirPods & Bluetooth Devices
Not long ago, connecting your iPhone to Bluetooth devices was a true pain in the neck. Control Center's AirPlay button made connecting to certain devices much easier, but it was with iOS 13 that Apple finally made connecting to wireless acceessories like AirPods, speakers, and keyboards so much better.
How To: Trigger iMessage Effects with Just a Keyword
One of the coolest aesthetic features of iMessage is its animated message effects. If you're like many users, you might even have discovered them by accident, where wishing your friend a "Happy Birthday!" or congratulating them on a promotion unexpectedly flooded your screen with balloons or confetti.