Everything Else
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: Reduce Background Noise & Echoes for Higher Quality Voice Memos in iOS 14
Your iPhone's Voice Memos app is an easy tool for quickly recording lectures at school, jam sessions at the studio, or just verbal notes to yourself. While it's a straightforward app, there are several hidden features you might not know about that can improve the quality of your recordings.
How To: iOS 14 Monitors Your Passwords to Protect You Against Data Breaches — Here's How It Works
Everything lives online these days, so it's not uncommon to have hundreds of credentials for different accounts on apps and websites. That's why a password manager is a must, and your iPhone has one built right into iOS that you can start using today. In iOS 14, it's gotten even more useful since it can now monitor your passwords regularly to see if any match leaked password lists online.
How To: Hide Any App from Your iPhone's Home Screen in iOS 14
It's not hard to let your iPhone's home screen get cluttered. Apps pile up one after another, and while you don't use every app every single day, you can't quite seem to part ways with even those one-use apps you've collected over the years. But you can apply the KonMari method to your home screen, getting rid of apps you don't love — without actually trashing any of them.
How To: Change Your Default Browser in iOS 14 from Safari to Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Another App
For the longest time, we were simply stuck with Safari on the iPhone. Sure, you could install a third-party browser, but Safari was always the default, so tapping on links would always open Apple's app. Times have changed, however, and now you can set third-party browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge as your iPhone's default choice.
How To: Add Widgets to Your iPhone's Home Screen in iOS 14
We've wanted them for years, and Apple has finally made widgets accessible on the home screen in iOS 14. These are not the same widgets found in past versions of iOS. They're more data-rich, more colorful, and more versatile. And best of all, both the home screen and Today View get access to them.
How To: Apps That Work with iOS 14's New Home Screen Widgets
Chief among iOS 14's excellent new features is the overhauled home screen. Now, you can add customizable widgets that live alongside your traditional apps, and both first-party and third-party apps can take advantage of it. Talk about an upgrade. They even work in the Today View and lock screen, so you can have the reinvented widgets for one or the other — or both.
How To: Add iOS 14's New Smart Stack Widget to Your iPhone's Home Screen
One of iOS 14's best new features is the ability to add and stack widgets on your home screen, which lets you check in with your favorite apps without actually needing to open them. Apple takes the concept one step further with "Smart Stacks," where iOS intelligently stacks widgets together based on how you use your iPhone.
How To: Stop iPhone Calls from Ringing Simultaneously on Your iPad, MacBook & Other Apple Devices
You might be using Zoom on your iMac, playing a Steam game on your MacBook, or completing a work assignment on your iPad, when suddenly you get a phone call on your iPhone. If the same Apple ID is used on all of your Apple devices, the call won't ring on your iPhone only — it'll ring on every damned device.
How To: The Fastest Way to Connect AirPods from Another Device to Your iPhone
Apple's AirPods are convenient because you can easily switch which Apple device is connected to your AirPods with just a few taps. But unless you're using Shortcuts to make the connection, you aren't using the fastest method possible.
How To: Every New Feature iOS 14 Brings to the Home App on Your iPhone
Using your iPhone for a smart home remote just keeps getting better and better. Apple has consistently improved its HomeKit platform since the Home app came out, adding new features, tweaks, and refinements to the system with each update. And iOS 14 continues this trend with a few changes to help make your home even smarter and easier to use.
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: 11 Unique Effects to Make Your iPhone Photos & Videos Less Boring on Social Media
Social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have plenty of editing tools that go beyond the basics, but there are still a lot of things they can't do. So if you want to apply interesting, unique effects to your photos and videos for social media, you'll need to add some other apps to your iPhone's arsenal of tools.
How To: Apple Lets You See All the Ratings & Reviews You've Ever Given Apps, Games, Movies, TV, Music, Podcasts & Books
Voicing your displease with a shoddy third-party app or professing your love for an album you've just bought is normal, which is why we have ratings and reviews. You hate something, you write something. You love something, you rate it. But feelings change over time, so your ratings or reviews may need to be updated.
How To: Share Your iPhone Photos & Videos with a Disappearing Link That Expires Automatically
The way you share a group of photos and videos on your iPhone is pretty simple; just select a few items, then choose a service or platform to send them through. Simplicity isn't always the best option, though, and in this case, there's a better way than letting those files send or upload individually, one by one.
How To: Apps & Services May Have Access to Your Apple Music & Media Library — Here's How to Check & Revoke Their Permissions
Third-party apps on your iPhone must ask for your permission to access your library in the Music app. Some will even want to get access to your Apple Music account. If you no longer use the apps, you shouldn't be letting them have access anymore. It's easy to hunt them down, and doing so might even show some apps you can't even remember giving any permissions to.
How To: iOS 14 Lets Your Memoji Wear Surgical Masks & Cloth Face Coverings of Any Color
Apple's big iOS 14 update includes Memoji improvements such as new hairstyles and headwear to choose from for your personalized Animoji character. Even better, there are now face coverings, so you no longer have to resort to that one masked emoji to get the point across in these times of COVID-19.
How To: Bring Back Full-Screen Incoming Call Alerts for FaceTime, Phone & Other Calling Apps in iOS 14
In iOS 13 and under, whenever you were in an app or on the home screen, and a Phone or FaceTime call came in, the entire screen would be taken over by the incoming call. Apple changed it to a subtle banner notification in iOS 14 so that it doesn't wholly obfuscate what you're doing when the call happens. However, you can get the old design back if that works better for you.
How To: Combine iOS 14 Home Screen Widgets into a Swipeable Stack to Save Space
Home screen widgets might not be a new concept in the Android world, but for iPhones, they're downright revolutionary. A new iOS 14 feature allows you to place small, medium, and large-sized widgets of your favorite apps on the home screen, to see important information without needing to long-press an app's icon, swipe to the Today View, or launch an app directly. Even better — you can stack them!
How To: Turn Your Live Photos into Looping or Bouncing GIF-Like Videos That Anyone Can Watch
Live Photos haven't caught on as much as Apple probably would like, but they're far from the gimmick that critics initially claimed they were — and things are only getting better as time moves on. Some aspects of the feature are somewhat hidden, however, and you need to find them to unlock Live Photos' full potential.
How To: The Fastest Way to Share Your Location via Messages on Your iPhone
Apple makes it simple to share your location with your family and friends using tools built into the "info" page for each conversation thread in Messages. With those tools, you can send your current location or share trackable real-time coordinates. But iOS always has a few hidden tricks to make things easier than they seem, and that's precisely the case if all you need to do is share your current location.
How To: Use the Hidden Quick Scroll to Browse Emojis on Your iPhone Faster
When words aren't enough, emojis are there to help. Your iPhone has almost two thousand of them for you to communicate in a more lively manner or to express indifference, excitement, joy, and other emotional states. However, the more emojis that come out, the more difficult it is to find the one you want — unless you know your way around your keyboard.
How To: Open Your iPhone Camera to Portrait Mode Every Time
Every iPhone Apple currently sells, including the brand new iPhone SE, ships with Portrait mode, injecting DSLR-like depth effects into your Camera app. If that's the shooting mode you use more than any other, it may feel tedious having to switch to "Portrait" from "Photo" every time you open the app. But you can fix that, and there are a few different ways to go about it.
How To: Force Restart Your iPhone SE (2nd Generation) When It's Frozen or Otherwise Acting Up
Your brand new iPhone SE packs the latest A13 Bionic chip into the form factor of the iPhone 8. With all that modern tech, you'd expect your iPhone to be unstoppable. That said, no smartphone is perfect, and sometimes, the iPhone SE will give you trouble. If your device is frozen, bugging out, displaying the wrong data, or won't shut down the usual way, you might want to try a force restart.
How To: 11 Tips for FaceTime Chatting with Friends & Family from Your iPhone
Anything from work or a missed flight to a worldwide pandemic (COVID-19, anyone?) can make it difficult or nearly impossible to see your loved ones. You can make phone calls or send iMessage, text, or email messages, but nothing compares to seeing family and friends right in front of you. That's where FaceTime comes in.
How To: The 4 Best Password Managers for iPhone
Using a strong password is critical to the security of your online accounts. However, according to Dashlane, US users hold an average of 130 different accounts. Memorizing strong passwords for that many accounts is impractical. Fortunately, password managers solve the problem.
How To: Use Spotify Voice Commands to Play Artists, Playlists & More on Your Phone
Spotify launched an experimental feature in early-2018 called Spotify Voice, a voice assistant that lives right in the app. It lets you speak to quickly find and play your favorite songs, albums, artists, videos, and podcasts on the music streaming service. Although the feature was initially only available on iOS, it's been ported over to Android so that anyone can take advantage of it.
How To: Your iPhone's Flashlight Doesn't Have to Be That Bright
Have you ever been to a hip restaurant with horrible lighting? You need your iPhone's flashlight just to read the menu. Of course, sometimes the light comes off too bright, blinding the people next to you. But don't settle for a flashlight that's too bright. You can choose from four different brightness levels instead, to perfectly fit your situation.
How To: Block Apps from Accessing Your iPhone's Camera to Prevent Privacy Invasions
The camera system on the iPhone has never been better. Apple's iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max sport some of the best shooters on the market. But no level of quality makes up for the fact that shady apps can access your cameras for nefarious reasons. You can take control of the situation, however, and block any app you want from using your rear and front-facing cameras.
How To: Record Video with Two Cameras at the Same Time on Your iPhone
The iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max introduced a new rear camera system to the iOS ecosystem. Each model has a new ultra-wide lens in addition to the wide one, and the Pros have a telephoto lens. Both have improved selfie cams too. With so many lenses, it can be challenging to choose which to film with, but why pick when you could shoot with two at once?
How To: Use Apple Health to See if Your Headphones Are Too Loud When Connected to Your iPhone
Although the Health app mostly focuses on fitness, Apple has slowly added features to help with other aspects of well-being, including hearing. In iOS 13, there's now a headphones volume tracker in Health that monitors audio levels and lets you know when your music, podcast, movie, or whatever else is too loud.
How To: Tweet Live Photos by Converting Them to GIFs in Twitter
While Apple's Live Photos feature was introduced back on the iPhone 6S, the rest of the world hasn't entirely caught up. Many apps don't accept the feature, making it difficult to share your fun memories with friends, family, or followers. You can strike Twitter off that list, though, as the app now completely supports Live Photo sharing.
How To: Colorize Black & White Photos on Your iPhone via Shortcuts
We might never truly know all of the colors behind old and classic black-and-white photos, but thanks to technology, we can get a pretty accurate colorization. Although Photoshop is a popular way to colorize these images, you can now use your iPhone, along with a nifty shortcut, to transform and give new life to vintage photos.
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: 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: 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: 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: Force Restart Your iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max When It's Acting Up
The iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max are the most advanced flagships Apple has to offer, but that doesn't mean they're immune to occasional bugs. Anything from an app plagued with issues to a faulty software update still can cause your device to freeze up, so having the ability to force a restart can come in very handy.
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.