Hot iOS & iPhone How-Tos
How To: The Easiest Way to View Your Step Count, Walking Distance & Flights Climbed on iPhone
Your iPhone tracks how many steps you take, how far you walk, and how many stairs you climb each day. That may seem a bit frightening, but it's all for a good reason: the Health app stores this data so you can view your progress in one place. But interestingly, opening the Health app isn't the easiest way to view this info.
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: 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: Hide App & Folder Names on Your iPhone for a Cleaner Home Screen
The iPhone's home screen gets its signature aesthetic from a grid of icons that seamlessly blend in to almost any background. It's a somewhat minimalistic look, but that's interrupted by cluttery text labels for apps and folders. Fortunately, there's a way to remove these labels, but you'll have to be jailbroken to pull it off.
How To: Catch Your iPhone's Hotspot Data Thief Red-Handed
I use my iPhone's personal hotspot all the time. Whether I need a connection on the train, in a coffee shop with no Wi-Fi, or when my friends don't have service, my personal hotspot is a lifesaver. But all that data comes from somewhere, of course, that somewhere being your cellular plan. Luckily, you can see how much data your hotspot has used, as well as who or what used more of it.
How To: Password-Protect Your Pages Documents So Only You & Allowed Collaborators Can Access Them
Your writing is just that — yours — so the work you do in Apple Pages should remain private until you choose to share it. Apple seems to share this sentiment. As another symbol of its dedication to user privacy and security, the company includes a feature in its word-processing app for iOS that allows you to lock documents behind a password, as well as with Face ID or Touch ID.
How To: Create Nested Subtasks in iOS 13's Reminders App for More Organized To-Do Lists
Things are a bit more organized in Apple Reminders, so the cluttered mess that it once was is no more in iOS 13. The slapped-together feel in older iOS versions was the main reason I never used it that much, but the updated version for iPhone has finally got me hooked.
How To: Play Game Boy & Game Boy Color Games on Your iPhone — No Jailbreak Required
Nintendo may be developing cases that'll turn your iPhone into a gaming device like the Game Boy, but until something materializes there, you're stuck with cheap knockoffs on Amazon or a real Game Boy or Game Boy Color. But there's something else you can do to play eight-bit Nintendo games on your iPhone right now.
How To: Download Apps of Any Size Using Cellular Data on Your iPhone in iOS 13 — Without Any Warnings
When there's a new game you want to play or app you need to use, but a Wi-Fi network isn't available, you can always download it over cellular data. If the size of the app is too large, however, you may not be able to on your iPhone. But that changes in iOS 13, which finally gives control over cellular data downloads in the App Store.
How To: Download & Install iOS 13.6 Beta on Your iPhone Right Now
Apple's already gone through iOS 13.0, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, and 13.5 betas, and now it's time for iOS 13.6. If you want to try out new features on your iPhone before the masses, install either the developer or public beta.
How To: Get a Real System-Wide Dark Mode on Your iPhone for Less Battery Drain & More Night-Friendly Views
A universal dark theme has long been one of the most sought-after features we've been urging Apple to introduce for iOS. While this wish went unfulfilled with iOS 12, there's renewed hope that it'll finally touch down with iOS 13's arrival. The jailbreak community, however, has had this functionality available for quite some time, and you can too if you're running the right iOS version.
How To: Use This Shortcut to Turn Any Photo into a Notch-Hiding Wallpaper on Your iPhone
While the notch on Apple's newer iPhones started a wave of notches across the smartphone market, there are still plenty of users who don't like screen-obstructing zone up top, and you may be one of them. While it may soon disappear in future iPhone models, or at least get smaller, there are things you can do to hide the big notch you have right now.
How To: Use Gboard's Haptic Feedback on Your iPhone to Feel Everything You Type
For years, iPhones have had haptic feedback, but Apple didn't incorporate it into the stock iOS keyboard until iOS 16. To use keyboard haptics in iOS 15 and older — or as an alternative to the default keyboard's in iOS 16 — you can take advantage of third-party keyboards like Gboard.
How To: Use Siri with a Third-Party Weather App Instead of Apple's on Your iPhone
If you ask Siri to check the weather on your iPhone right now, you'll get information from the stock Weather app in iOS — even if you have and prefer other weather apps installed. But that doesn't have to be the case. Thanks to Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12 and later, you can set specific phrases that Siri will respond to for any compatible weather app you want.
How To: Add Some Color to Your iPhone's Notification Banners for Easier Sorting
The iPhone's notification system has drastically improved over the years, but it could still use some work. The notifications, while useful, are all monochrome, making it hard to distinguish which app posted each alert, and that's not even mentioning the drab overall look. This is where jailbreak tweaks can come in handy.
How To: Use Face ID with Sunglasses On
The iPhone X introduced the world to Face ID in 2017, and now, every new iPhone uses Apple's biometric security system instead of the old Touch ID. It's more secure than fingerprint scanners and it's even more user-friendly. True, it's not without its faults, but at least one of the biggest problems can be fixed.
How To: Customize the Back & Forward Skip Button Lengths in Apple Podcasts from 10 to 60 Seconds
Apple's stock Podcasts app in iOS remains my go-to for all of my podcast-listening needs, but skipping around during an episode can be frustrating. Scrubbing audio along the timeline is often an imprecise maneuver, which is why the skip buttons can be so useful and efficient. Without customizing skip lengths, however, you may find yourself tapping far more than you need to.
How To: Scan QR Codes More Easily on Your iPhone
Starting in iOS 11, Apple introduced a QR code scanner for iPhone that's baked right into the Camera app, reducing the need for a third-party scanner. However, not everyone knew it existed, so a lot of users were still using third-party QR code scanners. In iOS 12 and later, Apple addressed the issue, making theirs much more visible, as well as improved QR code scanning in general.
How To: Make Siri Show Your Account Passwords to You Quickly in iOS 12
With iOS 12, Apple is offering users more options than ever to create, store, and manage their saved passwords. Not only can iOS 12 make you new passwords via the AutoFill feature, you can quickly and efficiently access your entire iCloud Keychain using Siri. Why go hunting for the passwords yourself when you can ask your iOS assistant to find them for you?
How To: Quickly Turn on 'Do Not Disturb' in iOS 12 for 1 Hour Only
With the arrival of iOS 12, Do Not Disturb has received long-overdue enhancements to make the feature more user-friendly. Among these changes is a subtle but incredibly convenient feature that helps ensure you remain undisturbed for short periods of time to more focus on your task at hand — without having to worry about turning it off manually or messing with complicated settings.
How To: Send Animated Activity Stickers (That You Didn't Earn) in iMessages
If you have an Apple Watch, you might know that the activity awards you earn can be shared with your friends as iMessage stickers on your iPhone. However, you first have to earn achievements in order to use them as stickers. That changes somewhat with iOS 12, as Apple added animated activity stickers for all Apple Watch users, whether they've earned award badges or not.
How To: Keep Data-Thieving USB Accessories from Connecting to Your iPhone in iOS 11.4.1 & Higher
While privacy and security are cornerstones of Apple's ecosystem, your iPhone isn't bulletproof. Creating a strong passcode will protect you from most threats, but there exist tools that can break through even the toughest passcodes via the Lightning port. Luckily, Apple has implemented a new security feature to disable your Lightning port and keep your data safe and secure.
How To: Group Notifications by Apps Instead of Smart Stacks in iOS 12 on Your iPhone
When you first update to iOS 12 on your iPhone, notifications on the lock screen and in the history will be grouped automatically into stacks based on a variety of factors for each app. For example, articles from Apple News will be stacked together based on sites. But you can also change this so that all alerts from a particular app will be grouped in one bundle, not separate ones.
How To: Use FaceTime's Group Chat on Your iPhone to Talk to More Than One Person at a Time
FaceTime has been around since iOS 4, and year after year, things stayed pretty much the same aside from a few small changes. In iOS 6, calls over cellular networks were finally possible, and audio-only calls were officially supported starting in iOS 7. But the one feature most everyone has wanted since FaceTime was a thing — group video calls — didn't show up until iOS 12.1 for iPhone.
How To: Clear the RAM on Your iPhone X to Fix Problem Apps & Boost Performance
When your iPhone is being sluggish, one thing you can do to get performance back up to snuff is clear the device's random access memory. It's not a publicized feature from Apple, but it's there nonetheless. And while it's easy enough to utilize on iPhones with Home buttons, the iPhone X is a little trickier.
Apple Photos 101: How to Hide Images & Videos from Your iPhone's Camera Roll
While it may not be an obvious feature, Apple actually built a way into iOS that lets you hide specific pictures and videos in the Photos app that you want to keep on the down-low, for your eyes only. If you show off your photos a lot or stream slideshows to your TV, this is a great way to keep less appealing content private.
How To: Sync All Your Messages with iCloud in iOS 11.4
One major problem in previous iOS versions is that there was no way to keep messages in sync between an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac. If you deleted a message in the Mac app, it would not be deleted on your iPhone, and vice versa. Apple finally fixed this issue in iOS 11.4 by storing all of the messages in iCloud, not on individual devices.
How To: Reply to Texts with a Selfie GIF on Your iPhone
Most of us have probably used a GIF at least once or twice to respond to a message, and that's why a lot of messaging services and keyboards have GIF search tools readily available to use. Now, Google wants to take GIF responses to a more personal level, by allowing you to create your own selfies GIFs to instantly sent to family and friends.
How To: These iPhone X Wallpapers Can Completely Hide the Notch
The iPhone X is one of the most beautiful phones ever made, but the aesthetics stop just short of perfect due to one thing: That notch. It was a necessary evil since Apple had to incorporate a front-facing camera somewhere, plus it houses all the sensors for Face ID, but that doesn't change the fact that it looks a bit goofy.
How To: Tips to Make Face ID Work Every Time on Your iPhone
Aside from the second-generation iPhone SE, all new iPhone models since the iPhone X have had Face ID instead of Touch ID as the biometric authentication technology. While Touch ID can be touchy, Face ID is not without its own issues. If you can't get Face ID on your iPhone to recognize your face and unlock your iPhone, there are plenty of things you can try to get it working again.
Apple Music 101: How to Share Songs with Nearby Friends Using AirDrop on Your iPhone
Apple Music's name reveals a lot about itself — it's made by Apple, and it has a lot of music. 40 million songs, in fact, if the iPhone-maker is to be believed. With that many songs, you may find a gem before any of your friends or family do. How can you share that song with them?
Cydia 101: How to Re-Enable a Semi-Tethered Jailbreak
Unlike fully untethered jailbreaks such as Yalu's iOS 10.2 method, semi-tethered jailbreaks require users to re-enable the mod each time their device is turned off. Fortunately, the process of kickstarting a jailbreak is easy to do, since it's already embedded in your iPhone's OS and doesn't require reinstallation.
How To: Force-Close Running Apps on the iPhone X, XS, XS Max & XR
While fully closing apps on your iPhone can keep it running at peak efficiency since it frees up memory and stops background refreshing, it's most critical when dealing with unresponsive apps. If you have an issue with a certain app, you can just force-close it instead of rebooting.
How To: Access the Home Screen on the iPhone X, XS, XR, 11 & 11 Pro
Is the Home button the main reason you haven't pulled the trigger on a new iPhone? Are you worried that you'll miss its functionality too much, or that simple things like accessing your home screen will be too hard? Well, don't worry about any of that, because Apple came up with some intuitive gestures that makes the old Home button seem clunky and outdated once you get used to things.
Messages 101: How to Enable & Disable Read Receipts for iMessages
If you've accidentally turned on "Read Receipts" for all of your iMessages, there's an easy way to disable it so that no one knows when you're actually reading their incoming messages. You could also pick and choose which conversations can see that you've read their messages if you don't want to kill the feature entirely.
How To: Create a Strong (Or Stronger) Passcode for Your iPhone
When you first set up an iPhone, you'll be prompted to create a six-digit passcode to unlock your screen and access certain system settings. If you skip this step, you can always go back and create one, which we highly recommend. Without a passcode, everything on your iPhone is accessible by anyone who gets their hands on it — nosey friends, hackers, thieves, local law enforcement, the FBI — and you don't want that, do you?
How To: Turn Off Voice Feedback for Siri (Aka Mute Siri)
Siri can definitely be helpful when you need it, but you may not want the entire world hearing Siri's responses in certain situations. If you're in a library, meeting, class, or another scenario where your iPhone's voice assistant would do more harm than good, there's a way to keep Siri silent ... but it's tricky.
How To: Improve Battery Life on Your iPhone in iOS 11
The new iOS 11 was just released by Apple, and you can install it right now. Overall, it's got some great features, but how does it fare battery-wise on your iPhone? And how can you increase daily battery life for more juice and less charging every day?
How To: Enable One-Handed Typing on Your iPhone's Stock Keyboard
Apple introduced third-party keyboards back in iOS 8, and swipe-input options like Gboard, SwiftKey, and Swype made typing on an iPhone one-handed much easier. Even better, apps like Word Flow moved the keyboard to the side of the iPhone, so there was less thumb-stretching. Well, ever since iOS 11, Apple has had its own option for better one-handed typing in the stock keyboard.