Everything Else
How To: The Trick to Managing iCloud Contact Groups Right from Your iPhone (Since Apple's Contacts App Won't Let You)
You can view and hide iCloud contact groups on your iPhone, but Apple won't let you create or delete groups or add or delete contacts from any groups unless you're on a tablet or computer. Why Apple refuses to add a group management tool to Contacts on iOS is anybody's guess, but there is a workaround you can use instead.
How To: Change Safari's Background Image on Your iPhone for a More Customized Start Page
One of the biggest grievances with Safari on iPhone was always its lack of customization, and iOS 15's browser upgrades tackle that problem head-on. Apple added many great features, including Safari extensions, Tab Bar, and Tab Groups, but the most prominent feature caters to those obsessed with finding the perfect Home and Lock Screen look.
How To: Scan Real-World Text with Your iPhone's Camera to Copy, Paste, or Share It Using iOS 15's Live Text Tool
Whenever you need to digitally share large bodies of real-world text, you'd likely show a photo of it or manually type everything into the document or chat. But iOS 15 has a much better way for your iPhone.
How To: Hide Specific Content in iOS 15's New 'Shared with You' Sections Without Disabling the Entire Feature
After updating to iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, you'll notice a new "Shared with You" section in certain Apple apps that contains recent shares from conversations in Messages. If you don't like seeing shared content from specific contacts or groups, there's a way to block them from Shared with You on your iPhone or iPad.
How To: Adjust Accessibility Settings on a Per-App Basis on iOS 15
Accessibility features — such as spoken content, reduced motion, and voice control — help those who might have hearing, vision, learning, or physical and motor disabilities better use their iPhone devices. These features are very welcome, but when enabled they work system-wide, which can be a problem if you need these settings enabled only in certain situations.
How To: Revert Spoofed Photos & Videos in iOS 15 to Their Original Locations & Dates
Apple introduces several new privacy settings with iOS 15, including the ability to better manage the metadata in your photos. With just a few taps, you can effectively spoof a photo's geolocation and change its creation date and time, providing a sort of disguise over your personal information. If you constantly take and share photos, it's a welcomed feature, but its results are not permanent and can be reversed.
How To: Stop Your HomePod from Spying on You
While Apple's reputation for privacy and security is nearly unmatched, it'll never be perfect when Hey Siri is always listening. Aside from iOS devices, Hey Siri always listens for questions and commands on the HomePod and HomePod mini smart speakers. If you rarely use Hey Siri on those speakers, it's worth disabling the feature for some extra privacy.
How To: Easily View & Delete Music That's Taking Up Storage Space on Your iPhone
Apple's two iCloud storage plans have made it easier than ever to free up space on your iPhone to take more pictures, play more mobile games, and download more music. The plan prices range from $0.99 to $9.99, which isn't bad, but not everyone wants to pay for storage. So deleting items becomes a great option to free up storage — especially music and music videos.
How To: This Is Absolutely the Fastest, Most Convenient Way to Toggle Your iPhone's Flashlight On & Off (Hint: It's No Button)
It's easier than ever to toggle your iPhone's flashlight (or torch) on and off. From your lock screen, home screen, or from within any app, most iPhone models will let you enable or disable the flashlight from the Control Center, via the Notification Center, or with Siri. But there's an even faster and more convenient way to trigger the flashlight button, and you don't even have to look at your iPhone to use it.
How To: Stop Incoming Calls from Ignoring Do Not Disturb on Your iPhone
Do Not Disturb is the best way to block out all interruptions on your iPhone without having to power down. All notifications and alerts are silenced, but the same can't be said for phone calls. By default, repeat calls will bypass Do Not Disturb, which can be quite frustrating when you're in a movie, classroom, or board meeting. It's good for emergencies, but not for people who can't take the hint.
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: Use This Trick to Quickly Access Spotlight Search from Anywhere on Your iPhone
Spotlight, Apple's system-wide search feature, lets you search for apps, contacts, messages, webpages, music, notes, and other content that's on and off your iPhone. On iOS, it's known as "Search," and you can access it by swiping your home screen down or swiping open the Today View screen. It's not exactly convenient, but an accessibility feature can unlock Search so you could open it from anywhere.
How To: This Shortcut Translates What You Say to Text in Any Language in Any App on Your iPhone
When iOS 14 came out, Apple released Translate, an app for translating voice and text between several languages (even within Safari). Unfortunately, it's not as comprehensive as some third-party apps or even Siri. That's why Apple uses Microsoft's translation services within Shortcuts. It may sound surprising, but we're not complaining since you can do some pretty awesome things with it.
How To: Turn Off Amber Alerts on Your iPhone, Plus Emergency, Public Safety & Other Government Warnings
Amber, emergency, and public safety alerts on an iPhone are loud — startle-you-to-death loud even. They can happen at any time, day or night, and sometimes back to back when you're in a big city. Those blaring sirens can wake you from sleep, interrupt an important meeting, or disrupt an entire movie theater mid-movie, but you can turn most of them off if you're tired of hearing them.
How To: Blank Squares Filling Up Control Center? Here's How to Remove Them or Fill Them Up on Your iPhone
Your iPhone's Control Center is your main hub for quick access to controls like brightness, volume, Wi-Fi, and Do Not Disturb, but if you're using iOS 14, there may be a bunch of screen real estate taken up by blank squares. If that wasted space is bothering you every time you just want to use your flashlight, there's a quick way to get rid of those empty tiles for good.
How To: Miss When Siri Used to Display On-Screen Transcriptions of Everything Spoken? You Can Get That Back in iOS 14
With iOS 14, Siri no longer takes up the entire display unless you want it to. That may be a good thing, but the update also axed the live feedback when listening to you and responding. Siri used to transcribe your words in on-screen text before answering, and it would transcribe its own answers as well. While it looks like those are gone, you can bring them back to life at any time.
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: 18 MagSafe Accessories That Are a Perfect Match for Your New iPhone 12 or 12 Pro
If you're getting or already have a new iPhone 12 or 12 Pro, its big-ticket feature is MagSafe, something you'll definitely want to explore. While the technology is new to iPhone, Apple used the MagSafe name for its magnetic charging connectors on older MacBook models until USB-C replaced it. Apple's reenvisioning of MagSafe for iPhone is completely different and much more useful.
How To: Your iPhone Can Detect & Alert You to Sounds Around You in iOS 14, Like Alarms, Knocking, Cats, Crying & More
For those that have deafness or are hard of hearing, the iPhone can be a powerful tool to communicate with others. It works with many hearing aids and Bluetooth headphones, Live Listen makes it easier to hear nearby people and sounds, and the Messages app makes it easy to chat with anyone. But iOS 14 takes it to a new level, one that even users with perfect hearing can benefit from.
How To: Use Custom App Icon Images to Modify Your iPhone's Home Screen Look
One of Apple's key features for iOS was always its "what you see is what you get" philosophy. Sure, there were small tweaks and complicated workarounds to customize an iPhone, but, for the most part, all iPhones felt similar. These days, however, changing up your iPhone's look is much easier. In just a few steps, you can change one of the most visual parts about iOS — home screen app icons.
How To: Remove the 'Browse' & 'Listen Now' Tabs for Apple Music on Your iPhone to Keep the Focus on Your Library
The Music app for iPhone underwent a significant update back in iOS 8.4 when the Apple Music subscription service was incorporated into the user interface. It then had another transformation in iOS 10 that improved the UI for everyone. But things can still feel a little cluttered in Music, even in iOS 14, especially if you don't or never will subscribe to Apple Music.
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: Prevent Certain Apps from Using Cellular Data on Your iPhone to Stay Below Data Caps or Avoid Throttling
If you're on a cellular plan with a low data allotment, being thrifty with your data can help you avoid a higher bill. But even if you have an affordable unlimited plan from wireless carriers such as T-Mobile or Verizon, going over a certain amount of data may throttle your connection, leaving you with slow web speeds. One way to prevent hitting these thresholds is to keep certain apps in check.
How To: This Shortcut Automates Sending Birthday Wishes to Your Contacts So You Never Have to Remember Again
You should know the birthday for a parent, sibling, child, or significant other, but there are just too many people in your family and contacts to remember everybody's yearly birth anniversary. Still, everyone expects you to remember their birthday. To stop looking like a jerk, go a step further than putting birthdays in your calendar and make your iPhone help you send birthday wishes when their big day pops up.
How To: The Hidden Way to Delete Numbers on Your iPhone's Calculator
Let's say you're using your iPhone's Calculator app, and you're knee-deep into a complicated calculation with many steps. You type in a large number, for example, "123,466,789," but mess up. You meant to type "5" midway through but accidentally typed "6" instead. The only thing to do now is start over, no matter how far along you are, right? Wrong.
How To: Show Images & Videos in Their Correct Aspect Ratio & Orientation When Viewing a Grid in Photos
Whenever you're browsing a grid of photos and videos in the Photos app, whether you're in the Photos, Albums, or Search tab, all media is cropped within the confines of tiny square thumbnails. But it doesn't have to be that way.
How To: Restore Your iPhone to a Backup or Factory Settings Using iTunes on macOS or Windows
Whenever something goes wrong with your iPhone, or whenever you want to downgrade from an iOS beta back to the regular iOS release, you can restore your iPhone to your last saved state. Restoring to an iCloud backup is great but won't work in all situations. Plus, if you saved a backup on your computer, that may be the best route to take to get back all of your data.
How To: Set a Group Photo for Multi-Person Chats in iOS 14's Messages App
Apple has introduced several new features to its native Messages app with iOS 14. When it comes to group chats, you can now pin those conversations, use inline replies, and receive notifications only when you're tagged. And if that wasn't good enough, you or anyone else in the group can assign a photo for the entire group.
How To: Hide Any App on Your iPhone in Plain Sight
If there's an iOS app you want to hide from your iPhone's home screen, there are a few built-in ways to do so in iOS 14, but there is a clever workaround you can use in older iOS versions. Plus, it also works in iOS 14 as a way to disguise app icons instead of just hiding them, so no app is what it seems.
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: This Secret FaceTime Trick Lets You Zoom with Your iPhone's Camera
With Zoom and Google Meet, you can zoom in using your rear camera on a video call to focus on something far away or to get a closeup view. But in Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Skype, Instagram, and most other video chat apps, zoom functionality is disabled. And it may appear to be blocked in FaceTime too, but that's not the case — the feature is just hiding in plain sight.
How To: Share Your iPhone's Medical ID with First Responders When Placing an Emergency Call or Text
In the event of an emergency where you can't answer for yourself, trained professionals can view your Medical ID on your iPhone to learn about your medical situation, granted that you have created one. But that's not all your Medical ID can do. With a new feature, iOS can share your Medical ID data automatically with first responders when you place an emergency call.
How To: Burst Mode Missing on Your iPhone SE? Here's Where to Find It in the Camera App
If you need to capture a still image of some high-speed action, Burst mode is the way to go. Burst shots take photos in rapid succession, providing a range of pictures to choose from and ensuring that at least one great shot comes out of it. You might notice, however, that your new second-generation iPhone SE doesn't seem to sport Burst mode as your old iPhone did. Is it gone? Not at all.
How To: Disable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications on Your iPhone
In iOS 13.5 and later, developers can create and release contact tracing apps for iPhone, which could help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. With these apps comes COVID-19 exposure notifications, which you may or may not want to receive. If you don't want to get these alerts, you can disable them.
How To: The Hidden Gesture for Switching Between Apps on Home Button iPhones
I love my iPhone 8 Plus, but the allure of modern iPhone gestures is sometimes more tempting than I care to admit. I imagine many of you with a home button iPhone feel the same. What if I told you, however, that your iPhone is capable of iPhone X-like gestures? In fact, you can use a gesture to switch between apps. Welcome to the future.
How To: Block Ads in Games on Your iPhone for Distraction-Free Gameplay
No one likes in-app advertisements, especially in mobile gaming, but they're necessary because they offer developers a way to make revenue without having to charge you to play. In some games, in-app purchases give you the chance to remove ads, but what can you do about apps that don't offer the option to kill ads?
How To: Change Your Default Card for Apple Pay So You Never Have to Choose During Checkout
Using Apple Pay in stores to make purchases is as easy as holding your iPhone near the NFC reader and authenticating with Face ID or Touch ID. That method uses the primary payment card in Apple Wallet automatically, and your primary card may change from week to week based on your spending, so you'll probably need to change it periodically.
How To: 24 Voice Control Features in iOS 13 That Let You Use Your iPhone Totally Hands-Free
There are times when physically interacting with your iPhone is less than ideal, like when you're cooking or driving. Fortunately, iOS 13 has you covered regardless of the circumstance you may find yourself in. With the new Voice Control feature, you can control pretty much everything on your device without even touching it.
How To: Paste Text on Your iPhone with Just One Swipe
Pasting on your iPhone has never been easier. You're familiar with the old way of doing things — long-press in the text field to bring up the "Paste" option, then tap that option to paste your text. It's not necessarily hard, but trust me when I say there's a better way.
How To: Tune in to Your Favorite Radio Station by Just Asking Siri
As much as streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify have dominated the music industry, radio is still alive and well. And why wouldn't it be? Free music, 24/7? It's a great deal. That's why it's so cool that your iPhone can instantly tune in to your favorite radio station, even one across the country.