Gadget Hacks Shop Compare Phones Productivity Hacks iPhone 11 news & tips Everything iOS 13 Ultimate iPhone Customization Videography Tips Privacy & Security Social Media Tips health & Fitness series Mobile Movies & TV Tweaks & Hacks Week Gaming Jailbreaking Cydia Security Record Calls on iPhone

iOS & iPhone Features

iOS 18 Tips, Tricks, How-Tos, News

How To: If You Keep Valuable Information in Apple Notes, You Need to Read This

Apple's Notes app has an important feature many users overlook, yet it's arguably the most crucial thing you should use for all your notes synced across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and iCloud.com. And Apple makes the feature much easier to use than years before, so there's no reason you shouldn't be using it.

How To: Disable the iMessage Typing Bubble Indicator So Others Don't Know You're Currently Active in the Chat

Apple's iMessage is one of the main reasons to use an iPhone, and there's a lot you can do in chats without being overly complicated. But there's one issue that continues to drive people nuts, and that's the blue typing bubble indicator with the moving ellipsis (•••). Can you stop it? Not officially, but there are workarounds.

How To: Use Google Maps or Waze with Siri Instead of Apple Maps

When driving, you can get directions hands-free by asking Siri. You can also make general map searches, show a location's details, call a query's phone number, and view traffic details. However, Siri defaults to Apple Maps for all those. If you prefer Google Maps, Waze, or another third-party navigation app, the map-based Siri commands won't work. But that doesn't mean you can't still use Siri.

How To: You Can Run Shortcuts Right from Your iPhone's Lock Screen & Here Are 6 Ways to Do It

Shortcuts are meant to make your life easier, and iPhone shortcuts are no exception. They can use different triggers, manual or automated, to perform actions in the background, allowing you to do things like send a prewritten text message during a bad date or change your wallpaper at certain times of the day. However, sometimes it's not only about the shortcut itself but about how fast you can run it.

How To: Remove Unnecessary Profiles & Certificates on Your iPhone to Protect Your Privacy & Security

When you want to install a new tool or game on your iPhone, you go straight to the App Store to do so — but it's not the only place you can get apps from. Some developers use back alleys to get their apps to you, while others can trick you into installing them without giving it much thought. This can lead to malicious software running on your iPhone, software you'll want to get rid of asap.

How To: Can't Find an App on Your iPhone's Home Screen? Its Icon Is Likely Hiding from You

You know that you have the Gmail app on your iPhone. After all, you get Gmail notifications, you see it in the app switcher, it's in the Settings app, and there's an "Open" button in the App Store instead of "Get" or a download icon. But you cannot find the app on your Home Screen. If this situation sounds like something you're dealing with on iOS 14 or iOS 15, there's an easy answer.

How To: Group Texts Split into Separate Conversations on Your iPhone? Here's the Fix

Ah, the dreaded "green bubble" group chat. All it takes is one non-iPhone contact to turn an entire thread from iMessage paradise to SMS slog. Normally, it isn't that bad since the group chat still functions. However, sometimes, you end up getting messages individually instead of in a single group thread. Before you go blaming your Android friends, know that the issue is probably on your end.

How To: Prevent Thieves from Turning On Your iPhone's Airplane Mode, So You Have a Better Chance to Track It Down

When an iPhone is lost or stolen, it's imperative to start tracking it via Find My as soon as possible, whether that's from a computer, tablet, or someone else's phone. However, if it's stolen, there's a good chance the thief or robber turns on Airplane Mode, blocking all communication with the iPhone. If this is a scary thought, you can prevent thieves from accessing Airplane Mode altogether.

How To: See Your iPhone's Actual Signal Strength for Cellular Reception

The signal bars in your iPhone's status bar are great visual indicators for knowing how good your cellular reception is, but they're not very accurate. Instead of showing the actual amount of signal you're receiving, they just give you a general range, and you'll have no idea if three out of four bars is actually a good connection or not. But there is a trick to see the real numbers.

How To: The Simple Way to Stop Your iPhone from Sending Unwanted Audio Messages

Your iPhone's audio messages may get you in trouble if they haven't done so already. It's way too easy for your iPhone to start recording without your knowledge, only to send a friend or family member a conversation you're having about them. (Awkward.) Luckily, protecting yourself takes only the flick of a switch.

How To: Your iPhone Has a Secret Button That Can Run Hundreds, Even Thousands of Actions — But You Have to Unlock It First

An invaluable button on your iPhone can do hundreds, even thousands, of amazing things, but most iPhone users don't even know it exists. You can't push it. You can't click it. You can't press it. But it's the largest button on your iPhone, more powerful than the versatile Side button, and it's hiding in plain sight.

How To: Use Your iPhone to Hear the World Around You Better, Spy on Conversations, Listen to Your Heartbeat, and More

What started as an accessibility setting for hearing aids turned out to be a super helpful tool for anyone with a good set of Bluetooth headphones. The problem is that most iPhone and iPad users still don't know about it. If you're one of them, you need to see what this underrated gem in iOS and iPadOS can offer you.

How To: Find the Version Number for Any App on Your iPhone or iPad — Even Stock Apple Apps

From time to time, you may need to locate the version and build number for a particular app on your iPhone or iPad, but it's not at all obvious where you can find the information. Well, there's more than one place to look on iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, but none are perfect solutions. Knowing each method will ensure you can always find any app's real version number.

How To: Every Hidden Special Character on Your iPhone's Keyboard That You Can Unlock Right Now

Almost 190 secret characters are hiding behind your iPhone's default keyboard, and I'm not talking about what you see after tapping the "123" or "#+=" keys. These special composite characters can include accents, dots, and other diacritics, and you'll even see some strange typographical characters like the section sign, inverted marks, and per mille symbol. Here's how you find them.

How To: Convert Multiple Live Photos into 1 Continuous Video on Your iPhone

Live Photos capture the seconds before and after you take a photo, creating a fuller and also unique moment to share with friends and family. Unfortunately, it has been nearly impossible to share Live Photos with non-iPhone users — until now. Thanks to iOS 13, you can easily convert a Live Photo into a video, and even stitch multiple Live Photos together to create one long video.

How To: Apple's Weather App Just Got 13 New Features and Changes in the Latest iPhone Software Update

Apple's Weather app keeps getting better and more refined with each new software update. For example, 2023's big update gave us yesterday's weather, averages, and wind maps, while 2022's unleashes Lock Screen widgets, severe weather alerts, and an iPad version. Now, we have significant changes to feels-like details, an update to measurement units, more pollutant statistics, and more.

How To: Everything You Need to Know About Your iPhone's Focus Feature — From Creating and Editing Focuses to Automating Them

In iOS 15, Apple unveiled a new feature called Focus, an extension of Do Not Disturb that lets you focus on the one thing that's important at any particular moment. It does so by minimizing distractions from your iPhone and other Apple devices, but there's a lot you should know about setting up and using Focus on your iPhone or iPad before you dig in.

How To: Always Use Dark Mode or Light Mode for Any App on Your iPhone

Some apps look great with Dark Mode, and some do not. So when you have system-wide Dark Mode enabled on your iPhone and are using an app that only looks good in Light Mode, you'd normally have to turn the dark appearance off manually, then switch it back on when you leave. But there's a workaround that can automate the process for you.

How To: Change Your iPhone's Default Text Responses for Incoming Phone Calls to Quick Reply in Style

Since iOS 6, "Respond with Text" has allowed us to quickly respond to a call we can't (or don't want to) answer. But Apple only gives you three options to choose from, and if you don't have time to type out your own response, those three might not cut it. Luckily, you can customize these three replies to whatever you want.

How To: Scroll Hands-Free Through Long Webpages on Your iPhone to Read Articles at the Perfect Pace

You can't always have your hands on your iPhone, which is why Apple developed Siri. When Siri can't do your hands-free bidding, there's Apple's newer Voice Control feature. But if you don't like barking commands at your iPhone, there's another option — at least, when it comes to scrolling through webpages in Safari.

How To: Take a Screenshot on Your iPhone Without the Annoying Thumbnail Preview Showing Up

Since iOS 11, a thumbnail preview appears on your iPhone whenever you take a screenshot. It's useful for access to quick sharing options and editing tools, but you can't disable the preview image. You can wait for it to disappear or swipe it off-screen, but that's as good as it gets — until now. In an iOS 14 update, there's an option to disable the screenshot preview — only you won't find it in Settings.

How To: Set or Change Your Home & Work Addresses on Apple Maps

Having your home and work addresses set in Apple Maps makes them incredibly easy to navigate to no matter where you're located. If you move to a new house, stay in a hotel or resort while vacationing, report to a different office, or have multiple job sites to visit regularly, updating these addresses isn't only straightforward — there's more than one way to do it.

How To: Install Facebook Lite on Your iPhone

In an ongoing effort to improve its services and become more accessible to users from all regions, Facebook has released a streamlined version of its social media app. Though the leaner Facebook Lite is only officially available in Turkey for now, there's a simple workaround you can use to get the app in any country.

How To: Everything You Can Do with the Camera Control Button on Your iPhone 16 or 16 Pro

The devices in the new iPhone 16 series lineup have one feature no other iPhone models have: a physical Camera Control button. If you use your iPhone to take photos or record videos, the Camera Control speeds up the process and gives you immediate control over adjusting settings and values using intuitive gestures. But what exactly can you do with it?

How To: This iPhone Setting Instantly Improves Video Quality When Shooting in Low Light

If you shoot videos with your iPhone in low-light situations, you may not always get the results you want. And that applies when recording video in 720p, 1080p, and even 4K resolutions. But there's an easy way to maximize your video's quality when filming in dark environments.

How To: Save Your GarageBand Songs as Custom iPhone Ringtones & Alert Tones

When you make an awesome song or beat that you're proud of in GarageBand for iOS, one way to show it off is to turn it into a ringtone or alert tone for your iPhone. That way, anytime you get a phone call or a notification, your musical creation will sound off, and everyone around you will hear it in all its glory. Plus, it's way cheaper to make your tones than to buy them off of iTunes.