Hot iOS & iPhone How-Tos
How To: View Your Saved Apple News Stories & History in iOS 12 on Your iPhone
One of the best features in the Apple News app is the ability to save stories for later. If you see an interesting or important article but don't have time to read it right away, there's a good chance you'll never find it again unless you save it. Ever since News' birth in iOS 9, accessing these bookmarked stories was as easy as going to the "Saved" tab, but that's no longer the case in iOS 12.
VLC 101: How to Stream Videos from Your Favorite Cloud Storage Services on iPhone
If you have movies and videos stored on Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, you should definitely be using the VLC app for iPhone. After setting a few things up, VLC will let you stream videos directly from any of these services with a proper video player UI, complete with gesture controls.
How To: Sick of Yellow Links in Notes? Make Them Any Color You Want with These Hidden iPhone, iPad, and Mac Settings
If you're tired of the default yellow link colors in your Notes app, which I find hard to look at in light mode, there's a way to change them to another color on your iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac running iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and/or macOS Sonoma 14 and earlier.
How To: Major iPhone Update Finally Lets You Manage Past Wi-Fi Networks and Even View Their Passwords
For years, Android has provided easy ways to view all the Wi-Fi networks you connected to in the past, and you can even see the saved passwords in plain text. With iOS 16, Apple finally gave us a similar way to view saved Wi-Fi hotspots, copy their passwords, and remove old ones without being near their access points.
How To: How & Why You Should Change Your iPhone's Name
You might be giving out your name to every stranger you see, and you don't even know it. That iPhone of yours has a name — generally a combination of your first name and device model — and it broadcasts it to others via AirDrop, Personal Hotspot, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and other connections. Sure, it's useful to keep your device name simple and to the point, but there are upsides to changing it.
How To: Make iPhone Navigation Prompts Play Over Your Car Speakers When Listening to the Radio
Maps is great for making sure you always get to your destination, until you miss that critical turn because you couldn't hear the turn-by-turn directions.
How To: This Hidden Trick Lets You Bold Text in Your iPhone's Status Bar for a Heavier Look System-Wide
There's not much you can customize on your iPhone's status bar beyond showing or hiding the battery percentage icon. You can't choose different icons or pick a vibrant color, but there's a secret trick that lets you bold all the text.
How To: The Easiest Way to Convert Videos to GIFs on Your iPhone
Countless third-party apps and services exist that can convert the videos on your iPhone into GIFs. With so many options available, the problem becomes which one to choose. Do you install something on the App Store that provides good quality but costs money, or should you use a shady online service where you have to jump through hoops to get the GIF? Your best option may be neither.
How To: The Simple Way to Enable Caps Lock on Your iPhone
When you need to type in all caps on a computer, you just press the "caps lock" key. But no such key seems to exist on iOS. The "shift" key appears to work at first but will deactivate once you type one capital letter. Holding down the shift key while you type gets the job done, but it's a pain. While it might not be obvious, enabling caps lock is actually really simple.
How To: Download Images on Your iPhone When a Site on Safari Won't Let You
Some websites block image downloads on their webpages so you can't save them for reuse. That means long-pressing or force-pressing on protected images in Safari on your iPhone will not do anything or will omit the "Save Image" option. Taking a screenshot is the obvious solution to bypass restrictions, but you won't get the best quality. Thankfully, there's another way.
How To: Hide Folder Names on Your iPhone for Good
I hate folder names, especially the one Apple shoves down our digital throats. On a computer, they make total sense, but on my iPhone, it's just more clutter on the home screen. You can tell what folder is what just by looking at the app icons within it, so why are we forced to label them? Technically, we're not, since there is a workaround in iOS 12 and iOS 13 to make those labels disappear for good.
How To: Your iPhone Has 24 New Accessibility Features You Shouldn't Ignore on iOS 17
Apple previewed new cognitive, speech, and vision accessibility tools for the iPhone back in May, and they've finally been realized with the iOS 17 release. But there are more accessibility features than that hiding in Apple's latest software update — and they're not just for users with disabilities.
How To: Your iPhone Has Hidden Tools to Help You Understand Emoji Better
Is the emoji you're using really the one you think it is? While you can use any emoji that looks like it fits what you have to say, it may have been created for a different purpose. On an iPhone, it's easy to find that purpose by retrieving the actual name of the emoji in Apple's operating system.
How To: Stop Your iPhone from Making Irrelevant Suggestions
Siri Suggestions is one way Apple makes your iPhone work better for you. These recommendations offer helpful actions and shortcuts based on how you use iOS. Still, they can frequently get things wrong, suggesting irrelevant shortcuts to apps, contacts, and other items repeatedly. Here's how to stop them.
How To: Add Repos to Sileo So You Can Find More Jailbreak Tweaks to Install
If you're familiar with jailbreaking, you're well aware of the fragmented nature of downloading tweaks. Unlike the iOS App Store, which contains about two million apps of varying categories, installing jailbroken packages often requires you to first install a separate repo into either Cydia or its replacement Sileo, as many of these tweaks aren't available outright.
How To: Customize and Use Control Center on Your iPhone for Quick Access to Your Most-Used Apps, Features, and Settings
If you're not using Control Center on your iPhone, you're missing out on a powerful tool that can streamline how you interact with your device, make certain tasks more efficient, and give you quick access to system tools, switches, and sliders for quick changes no matter where you are or what app you're in.
How To: iOS 17.2 Includes 50 New URL Schemes You Can Use in Shortcuts on Your iPhone
The iOS 17.2 update for iPhone is a big one. Aside from huge new features like the Journal app, Contact Key Verification for iMessage, and a revamped TV app, there are 50 new URL schemes you can use in your self-created shortcuts.
How To: 8 Ways Your iPhone Can Make Emailing More Secure
Privacy is a growing concern in the tech industry, but Apple has fallen behind many of its peers when it comes to email security. Fortunately, iOS 15 changes that. Your email address is the key to a vast amount of personal information, not to mention a stepping stone into your other online accounts, so it's great to see new features for iPhones that protect email accounts and their contents.
How To: See All the People Who Tapbacked on an iMessage
Apple's Tapback is a great way to react to iMessages you find funny, surprising, confusing, and anything in between. However, in group chats, keeping track of who reacted with which Tapback can be difficult; iOS often just shows you how many people reacted but excludes many of the names. Luckily, there is a way around this — it's just a bit hidden.
How To: Stop Your iPhone from Counting Steps & Tracking Fitness Activity
Every iPhone since the 5S has come equipped with a microchip called a motion coprocessor, which collects data from integrated accelerometers, gyroscopes and compasses, and can then transfer that information to fitness apps that track physical activity. Essentially, the chip knows whether you're running, walking, sleeping, or driving — but what if you don't want it to?
How To: Open & Edit Word Docs in Apple Pages on Your iPhone
There's no doubt that Microsoft Word is the go-to for businesses worldwide. As such, you might receive Word documents to open on your iPhone, whether or not you actually have Word for iOS installed. If you prefer editing text documents with Pages, Apple's own word processor, you can import and export Word docs easily.
How To: Download and Install iOS 17.6 Beta on Your iPhone — And Try New Features Before Everyone Else
Apple is still not finished with iOS 17. While the iOS 18 update, due in the fall of 2024, was already revealed, there are still things to be fine-tuned on your iPhone until then. This brings us to iOS 17.6 — now available to try on your iPhone.
How To: Use Your iPhone's New 'Check In' Feature to Let Contacts Know When You Arrive Safely at Your Destination
Check In is a new safety feature built into the Messages app that can automatically notify a family member, friend, another contact, or a group the moment you arrive safely at a destination, giving them peace of mind in knowing you're all right. If you never reach your stopping place, it will also send them clues to help them figure out what went wrong.
How To: The Easiest Way to View Exif Metadata for Photos on Your iPhone
Most of the images in your iPhone's Photos app contain exchangeable image file format data known as Exif or EXIF data, which has several helpful uses. You can use countless apps capable of reading Exif data, many of which are paid or limited. But you already have an app on your iPhone that can give you important details about each image — and I'm not talking about the Photos app.
How To: Get Fast Charging on the iPhone SE (2nd Gen) Without Breaking the Bank
After many years of rumors, the second-generation iPhone SE is here. At $399, it is the most inexpensive iPhone Apple has sold since the original iPhone SE came out. And while the new SE comes with Apple's typical five-watt power adapter, the smartphone supports fast charging — you just need to get a fast charger separately.
How To: iOS 13 Makes Bulk-Deleting Emails in Apple Mail Easier & Faster on Your iPhone
One of my biggest gripes with the Mail app on iOS is that it makes it super hard to select multiple emails quickly in a search. For instance, if you want to delete all emails from one sender, it could take a seriously long time to do it the usual way. A bug in iOS 12 and older helped make the process faster, but it's no longer around in iOS 13, but Apple did include a faster way to select multiple emails.
How To: Your iPhone Has Hidden Indent Tools, Here's How to Find Them
Your computer has a lot of physical keys. Your iPhone has, at most, four hardware buttons, none of which are used for typing. That means the software has to power the same typing tools you'd find on your Mac or PC, only on a touchscreen. As such, some features, such as the indent tools, are buried so deep you may not even know it's possible to "tab" forward and backward.
Cydia 101: How to Respring Your iPhone Without Losing Jailbreak Each Time
When you have minor software issues like an app crashing, restarting your iPhone would usually fix it. But Apple doesn't provide an official "Restart" or "Reboot" option (unless you count this bold text hack), so we typically have to power our devices off and on in these scenarios. Thankfully, there's a great Cydia tweak that lets you "respring" your device, which is even faster than restarting.
iOS Basics: How to Add Widgets to Your iPhone's Lock Screen & Notification Center
Apple definitely wasn't first to the widget game, but any iPhone running iOS 8 or higher can add widgets to their Today View found via a swipe down from the top of the screen when on the home screen or in any app. There's even access to widgets on the lock screen via the same swipe down on iOS 8 and iOS 9 (on iOS 10, iOS 11, and iOS 12, all you have to do is swipe right on the lock screen).
How To: Siri Can Finally Display and Even Log Health Data and Fitness Activity for You on Your iPhone
Apple has finally given Siri the power to tell you things such as your current elevation and the ETA to your destination during navigation in Maps, thanks to the iOS 17.2 software update — but those aren't the biggest Siri improvements. The most significant update to Siri with iOS 17.2 is its enhanced integration with your iPhone's Health app, giving you quick access to your health data.
How To: Your iPhone Finally Has a Feature That Macs Have Had for Almost 40 Years
Apple had a version of this feature on its Mac computers for almost 40 years, so why did it take Apple over 15 years to finally add it to iPhone?
How To: The Big Shortcuts Update for iPhone Is Bursting with New Features You Need to Try Out
Apple made significant improvements to its Shortcuts app in the latest iOS update, so you can do even more with your custom-made macros for iPhone.
How To: The Easiest Way to Resize Photos on Your iPhone in Bulk or Individually
The rear cameras on iPhones have remained at 12 megapixels since the iPhone 6s, but with each new iPhone model, more data is going into photos. That means larger file sizes. If you're running into issues with your pictures being too large, whether you're sharing or uploading them, there's an easy way to resize an image or group of images using a shortcut.
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: Everything You Need to Disable on Your iPhone for Maximum Security
Privacy and security go hand in hand, especially for smartphones. When it comes to privacy, you decide what personal information about yourself is out there to discover. Security, on the other hand, is all about enforcing those privacy decisions.
How To: Change Your FaceTime Caller ID to an Email Address or Phone Number
Whenever you make FaceTime audio or video calls from your iPhone, Apple automatically uses your phone number or Apple ID email address as the caller identification. So when someone that you're calling sees the incoming call, they'll see it's from your phone number or email address. But what if you'd rather it be a different identifier?
How To: iOS 17.2 Has 60 New Features and Changes for iPhone You Won't Want to Miss
Apple just released its biggest update to iOS 17 yet, and there are 60 exciting new changes for your iPhone. With iOS 17.2, you get a brand new app, more Apple Music enhancements, upgrades in Messages, and a new security feature that was announced last year, as well as changes for Weather, notifications, Apple TV, Books, and more.
How To: 20 Features the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro Models Have That Other iPhones Don't
Many of the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro, and 15 Pro Max features were carried over from last year's models. Still, quite a few capabilities are exclusive to the 2023 lineup, and some may be worth the upgrade.
How To: Every iPhone User Should Know These Hidden Moves in Apple's Messages App
The Messages app for iOS and iPadOS has a lot of hidden features, but one in particular can save you time and energy whenever you need to forward or copy and paste messages from within an SMS, MMS, or iMessage conversation.
How To: Update Your iPhone Calculator's Look with These Easy Color Mods
If you're anything like me, you use the Calculator app on your iPhone like fifty times a day, and you're sick of the same user interface it's had since iOS 11 came out. While you can't mod the button shapes and sizes, there is a way to breathe new life into your calculations with some Calculator theming.