Everything Else
How To: 7 Things Hiding in Your iPhone's App Icons You Probably Haven't Noticed Yet
Apple likes hiding things in its software, including secret apps, hidden iMessage effects, status bar customization, nameless icons, and red screen mode, but some of its best Easter eggs are right in front of you on the Home Screen.
How To: FaceTime's Latest Trick Lets You Play Games with Family and Friends on Your iPhone During Calls — Here's How It Works
Whenever you're on a FaceTime call, you can use SharePlay on your iPhone or iPad to screen share, watch TV or movies together, work out with each other, and even listen to the same music at the same time. SharePlay also recently received a new skill that turns FaceTime into a portable gaming platform.
How To: 7 Screenshot Secrets for iPhone You Need to Start Using When Capturing Your Screen
The screenshot tool on your iPhone can come in handy in various ways, but it may be even more helpful than you realize. So if you thought you knew everything there was to know about your iPhone's screenshot tool, it's time to put your knowledge to the test.
How To: If You Wear Headphones with Your iPhone, You Need to Know About This
There's an iOS feature that benefits many users, but it's absolutely vital if you wear AirPods or other headphones models connected to your iPhone. A large number of iPhone users don't even know about it, especially since it's disabled by default and hidden deep in the system settings.
How To: Your iPhone's Phone App Has a Hidden Call Feature That's Useful AF
There are a surprising number of hidden features in your iPhone's Phone app, from secret dialer codes that provide info or perform actions to special characters that dial extensions automatically. However, there's one little-known trick every iPhone owner should know when using the Phone app for calls — and it's the simplest and most useful of them all.
How To: iOS 16.2 Has 39 Huge Changes You Need to Know About Before Updating Your iPhone
Apple's latest big software update includes an entirely new Apple app, a controversial change in the TV app, better Siri control, an improved Shortcuts app, interesting Safari upgrades, Apple Music Sing, and more. Keep reading to see what iOS 16.2 has to offer your iPhone.
How To: All 350+ New iOS 16 Features for Your iPhone
Apple's new iOS 16 software update is finally here, and there are over 350 new features and changes for you to enjoy on your iPhone. There are major lock screen and home screen improvements, a pleasant surprise for the Contacts app, and tons of new upgrades to Safari, Mail, Messages, and more.
How To: Assign Each App on Your iPhone a Background Sound to Set the Mood
You can play background sounds on your iPhone to help you focus, stay calm, or fall asleep, giving you a personal sound machine wherever you go. Even better, there's a way to set each of your apps to play one of Apple's six ambient soundscapes automatically. When you open the app, its assigned sound plays, then it stops when you exit or switch to another app.
How To: Finally! Permanently View Battery Percentage in Your iPhone's Status Bar Instead of Battery Levels
When the first iPhone with Face ID came out, Apple removed a popular feature — the status bar's battery percentage indicator — because of how much space the TrueDepth camera system's notch took. It's been absent on all Face ID models since. Now, almost five years later, it's finally made a comeback.
How To: iOS 15 Gives You More Reasons to Use Your iPhone's Accessibility Shortcut
I use the Accessibility Shortcut on my iPhone practically every day, whether it's to dim the screen below the standard threshold, keep my child confined to a specific app, or open up the simulated magnifying glass. But with iOS 15, there are at least three more things I can use it for, and one of them is really good.
How To: Move Safari's Search Bar to the Top of the Screen in iOS 15
Some of the new features in iOS 15 take some getting used to, and the biggest one of those is Safari's relocated search bar, aka address bar. There are more than a few reasons why it's a jarring change, but the good news is that you can return Safari's search bar to its pre-iOS 15 position at the top of the screen.
How To: Screen Share on FaceTime in iOS 15 Using SharePlay
Apple's hottest new FaceTime feature, SharePlay, comes packed with sharing options, and the biggest one lets you share your device's screen with the people you're FaceTiming. It didn't make it in time for the big iOS 15 release, but it did arrive in iOS 15.1, released Oct. 25, and here's how it works.
How To: Mute Any iPhone App's Notifications for One Hour or All Day with iOS 15
Notifications keep us connected to our apps and contacts, but sometimes, they just get out of hand. While you can make blanket adjustments to your notifications with iOS 15's new Focus modes, you don't have to go that extreme — if there's one app bugging you right now, you can temporarily disable its notifications.
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: Your iPhone Uses a Hidden Tracker to Keep Tabs on Your Recent & Most Visited Locations — But You Can Stop It
Your iPhone keeps track of every single place you go, especially those you frequent most often, and syncs those locations across all your iCloud-connected devices. People who gain access or already have access to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac may be able to view all of these locations to see where you've been and where you might be. If this worries you, there are things you can do.
How To: The Secret iPhone Dialer Trick That Dials Extensions Automatically & Navigates Automated Call Menus for You
Automatic phone menus are the worst. You call the number, listen to prerecorded prompts, press button, listen, press button, listen, press button, listen, until you're routed or connected to the right extension, directory, menu, person, or whatever. But you can bypass these automated attendants to get right to where you need to go by setting up a simple shortcut on your iPhone.
How To: Your iPhone's Display Can Get Brighter Than You Think
When you want to brighten up your iPhone's screen, you likely use Control Center's brightness slider to increase your nits (especially if you've disabled auto-brightness). But once you max it out, it doesn't seem like the display can get any brighter. However, depending on your iPhone model, your display may be capable of getting a lot brighter based on how you use it.
How To: How Fast Can You Really Type on Your iPhone? Take These Tests to Find Out
We use our smartphones every single day. They're a part of our daily routine, and as a result, we've gotten really good at using them — especially when it comes to typing very quickly. But just how fast can you type on your iPhone? Can you match your speed on a physical keyboard for your computer or tablet? You might just surprise yourself.
How To: Get Night Mode on Older iPhone Models to Shoot Low-Light Scenes Like an iPhone 11 or 12
Night mode, which helps you snap great photographs in low-light environments, is a feature available only on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 lineups. It's a useful tool to have in your arsenal, especially if you're fond of nightlife photography. Still, you don't have to purchase a newer iPhone to get Night mode shooting capabilities.
How To: Print Reminders Lists from Your iPhone or Save Them as PDFs
Modern life is almost completely digital ... almost. While you can get by in many cases with just your iPhone, sometimes a situation requires a hard copy. In the past, there was really no convenient way for you to get a Reminders list from your iPhone onto paper, but iOS 14.5 changes that.
How To: Safari for iPhone Lets Advertisers Track Your 'Clicks' — Here's How to Disable It
Apple wants to support the advertising economy, but its primary focus of late has been user privacy and security. In Safari, cross-site tracking, which lets content providers track you across websites and apps to show you more targeted ads, is disabled by default. However, content providers can get around that using less privacy-invasive ad measurements, but you can stop that too in iOS 14.5.
How To: Stop Your iPhone from Automatically Sharing Audio to Your HomePod or HomePod Mini
Pushing music from your iPhone to your HomePod or HomePod mini by just moving the devices close to each other is certainly a great party trick. But if Handoff is too easily triggered, you might not think it's worth the wow factor. Thankfully, there's an easy way to stop your iPhone from sharing audio to your HomePod or HomePod mini (and vice versa) if you're finding it happens way too often.
How To: Stop Websites from Asking to Use Your Location Every Single Time for Uninterrupted Browsing in Safari
If you surf the web on your iPhone, you no doubt run into this problem all the time: a website wants your location. It can happen when performing a location-based task, such as using a store locator, or whenever a web app just wants to deliver better ads or local recommendations. If you're tired of allowing or denying permission each time, there's an easy way to stop the annoying security pop-ups.
How To: Set Ecosia as Your iPhone's Default Search Engine or Web Browser (And Why You Should)
With iOS 14, Apple finally lets us change the default browser on our iPhones. No longer do we need to settle for Safari if we'd prefer another option like Chrome or Firefox. However, we encourage you to consider switching your browser or your search engine — or both — to Ecosia. Here's why.
How To: The Trick to Taking Night Mode Time-Lapses on Your iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, or 12 Pro Max
Good time-lapse videos capture cities, nature, and other long-running events in a way normal photos and videos simply can't. Your iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, or 12 Pro Max can make time-lapses look even better, thanks to Night mode. But it isn't exactly intuitive or even clear on how to enable the feature since, unlike with Video mode, you won't find a Night mode icon to use.
How To: HD & 4K iPhone Videos Play Back in Low Res? Do This to Watch Them in Their Full Original Quality
One of iCloud Photo's biggest perks is its ability to store large video files taken with your iPhone, so you can fill up your iPhone's storage with other items. That said, when you play back those videos, you may not be watching the footage in its original quality. Instead, they may be low-res versions. To view the high-quality originals — or to make sure that's what you see — just follow this trick.
How To: This Shortcut Lets You Easily Download Twitter Videos & GIFs to Your iPhone's Photos App
There are tons of different ways to download videos and GIFs from Twitter onto your iPhone for offline viewing, but frankly, they all kinda suck. You might have to download a third-party app or copy a link and paste it into a random website — and while they work, there are better options. TVDL, a shortcut on iOS, makes the process of downloading Twitter videos and GIFs fast and easy.
How To: All the Video Apps Compatible with Dolby Vision HDR on iPhone 12 & 12 Pro
There's one big drawback when it comes to shooting video in HDR with Dolby Vision on the iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max — it's not compatible with many apps and services. That means your video will be downgraded to SDR when sharing. That said, there are options to shoot, view, and edit iPhone-created Dolby Vision HDR videos that are available to use right now.
How To: 5G Data Won't Work on Your New iPhone 12 or 12 Pro Unless You Do This
One thing you can expect from Apple is that big features work right out of the box. The company designs its products to be easy to use for any experience level, so you might expect the same to be true for 5G, one of the biggest selling points for the iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max. Yet, you might have trouble getting 5G to work on your brand new iPhone. Here's how to avoid that.
How To: Get Back the 'Favorites' Phone Widget on Your iPhone's Home Screen or Today View in iOS 14
There are plenty of reasons to upgrade to iOS 14, home screen widgets chief among them. With that in mind, it's ironic that Apple placed so much emphasis on "widgets" this year when the new update removes a fan-favorite widget of the past — the "Favorites" Phone widget, which was accessible via the Today View or quick actions on the home screen. Here's how to get it back.
How To: Make Perfect Shapes in Notes, Drawings & Annotations with iOS 14's New Shape Recognition Tool
There's a set of drawing tools that have been available for a long time on the iPhone that helps you create handwritten notes and sketches. It's great when you need a free-form way to capture your ideas, and now it's even better. Apple added shape recognition in iOS 14 so that you can now draw geometrically perfect shapes using finger doodles, giving the older shapes tool a run for its money.
How To: Get iOS 14's New Wallpapers on Any iPhone or Android Phone
Wallpapers are always an exciting addition to any major software update. Apple's iOS 14 introduces three fresh wallpapers for your iPhone, each of which has a light and dark version. You can get these awesome wallpapers right now without iOS 14, whether you have an iPhone or an Android device.
How To: Use Picture-in-Picture Mode on Your iPhone to Multitask While You Watch Videos
Have you ever watched a video on your iPhone but wanted to look at something else real quick? Before iOS 14, you had to choose between pausing the video or waiting until it's over — not exactly ideal for a device that's supposed to help you multitask. But with iOS 14 or later, we can use picture-in-picture mode to watch and perform other on-screen tasks at the same time.
How To: Quickly Check if Your iPhone Is Still Covered by Apple's Warranty or AppleCare
Let's say that the screen on your iPhone is showing signs of discoloration, which makes the display annoying to use. You'll need a replacement display or a new iPhone as soon as possible. If you have one of the newer iPhone models, the cost to fix it might be more than your wallet can handle, but a warranty may still cover it, and there are ways to check quickly.
How To: Finally, You Can Hide the 'Hidden' Album from the Photos App on Your iPhone
The "Hidden" album on your iPhone has always had one problem — it was never truly hidden. Since iOS 10, when the feature was introduced in the Photos app, any image or video that you conceal in the private folder could be seen by anyone with access to your unlocked device. Finally, that has changed.
How To: Translate Webpages in Safari to Another Language Using Apple's New Translation Tool
Since iOS 8, it's been possible to use third-party tools such as Bing Translator and Microsoft Translator to translate foreign language webpages in Safari into your primary language. Now, in iOS 14, there's a better way to do it.
How To: Magnify Details in Screenshots & Photos on Your iPhone to Focus Attention on What Matters
Over the last few years, Apple has significantly improved and scaled up your iPhone's ability to edit photos. Using the Markup feature, which was introduced back in iOS 10, you can add doodles, highlights, important text, your signature, and arrows and other objects onto pictures and screenshots. One of the lesser-known tools in Markup lets you zoom into essential details without cropping.
How To: Change the AirDrop Alert Sound on Your iPhone to Anything You Want
These days, AirDrop's distinct "doo-doo-doo-doo" sound is almost as iconic as Apple's classic Marimba ringtone. And just like with ringtones, that AirDrop alert on your iPhone doesn't need to sound like everyone else's. In just a few taps, you can make it sound like anything you want.
How To: For Uninterrupted Screen Recordings, Block Banner Notifications & Incoming Calls on Your iPhone
Since its introduction in iOS 11, the Screen Recording tool has been a great way to show less tech-savvy users how to use their iPhones better. It's never been easier to show your grandmother how to disable Live Photos or lower screen brightness. However, banner notifications can appear during a recording, forcing you to start over. They can even interrupt a screen share during a Zoom or Skype meeting.
How To: Create Custom Netflix Watch Lists for Categories & Genres, Then Say Goodbye to Your Overcrowded 'My List'
One of the biggest bummers about Netflix is the inability to create different lists for your favorite movies and TV shows. Instead, you're only able to lump titles into the single default "My List," and that can be impossible to browse. It doesn't separate titles into categories or genres, and titles are arranged for you automatically, so there's not much room for customization.