Tech & Telecoms

iPhone Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

From signing documents, hiding unused apps, erasing text with the shake of your hand, and taking a photo when your storage is full: Here are a few iPhone hacks you didn't know

According to fresh data, iPhone remains one of the most-sold mobile devices in the world, with 240 million iPhone units shipped in 2021 alone. Part of its attraction is its sleek design and quick functionality. But other than that, it has so many more uses that make its experience even more immersive.

From signing documents, hiding unused apps, erasing text with the shake of your hand, and taking a photo when your storage is already full: Here are a few iPhone hacks you didn’t know.

1. Screenshot a long webpage in one go

If you are struggling with multiple screenshots of the same webpage, this hack is for you.

When you screenshot on your iPhone, a thumbnail will appear on the bottom left of your screen for annotation. Tap this to bring it to full screen and you will see a ‘full page option’. You can then select the entire webpage with a sliding tool on the right-hand side. 

2. Sign Documents

You can now sign documents without a pen or printer digitally on your iPhone. 

Take a screenshot of the document and tap the thumbnail on the bottom left of your screen for annotation. On the lower right, click the plus sign and you will see the option for ‘signature’. Tap it to create a signature and add it to the document by dragging, resizing and saving.

3. Silence unknown callers

Unknown numbers calling you at awkward times? This handy trick will silence them forever

Open settings on your iPhone, go to ‘Phone’ and turn on ‘silence unknown callers’. Once this has been turned on, any number that isn’t in your contacts will go directly to voicemail. A silent notification will let you know the call has been silenced and you can review the number in your recent calls list.

4. Create an emergency contact 

This iPhone trick allows you to contact the right person if you were in danger.

First, make sure your most important people are saved in your contacts. Go to the ‘Health’ app, tap your user profile and go to ‘Medical ID’, ‘Edit’, and ‘Add Emergency Contacts’. This will allow you to add an emergency contact and a red asterisk will appear next to their name in your contacts.

You can send them an SOS by holding down the power button and one of the volume button, and an alert will be sent to emergency services as well as your emergency contacts. 

5. Quickly switch a WiFi or Bluetooth connection

This handy shortcut will make changing your WiFi or Bluetooth connection easier without unlocking your phone

Swipe down from the top of your iPhone screen to open the control centre. The top left section has the connection buttons for Airplane mode, mobile data, WiFi and Bluetooth. Hold down on the group and a menu will pop up showing each button in more detail. 

Hold down on WiFi for a quick menu of all available networks; do the same to Bluetooth for a list of possible connections.

6. Share your Wi-Fi password automatically 

Make sure you and your friends have Bluetooth turned on. If they’re saved to your contacts list, they can navigate to their WiFi settings and a pop-up will appear on your screen asking for authorisation to share your password with them. 

7. Tag your contacts in group messages

You can tag contacts in an iMessage group chat by typing the @ symbol followed by the name you have them saved as. The person mentioned will receive a direct notification once you have sent them a message.

8. Add captions to your camera roll’s photos and videos

You can keep track of all of your photos and videos by easily captioning them. Just swipe up on an image or video and tap the ‘add a caption’ field and enter a caption. Once you’ve done this, you can search for the images with keywords with the iPhone’s search bar.

9. Change your default web and email to a preferred app 

Do you have a preferred email and web browser? This easy trick will automatically open these options and not its standard iOS apps.

To do this, open settings and scroll down to find your preferred web browser or email app. It will give you the option of tapping ‘Default Mail App’ or ‘Default Browser App’. Select this and tick your preferred option.

10. Hide your unused apps

Unused apps clogging up your screen space? Hide them without removing them from your phone completely. 

To do this, hold down on the app and tap ‘remove app’ and select ‘move to app library’.

11. Respond to single messages in iMessage

If you ever see a specific message in a group iMessage thread, you can easily reply to it by tapping and holding the message you want to respond to by selecting ‘reply’ in the drop down menu of options. This will start a new thread in the chat.

12. Add widgets to your home screen

You can add ‘Widgets’ to your Today View by tapping and holding on your favourite apps. Press the plus symbol in the top-left of your screen and add it to the widget page.

13. Search the web without your browser 

This hack can come in handy when looking for a shop or cafe on a busy street. Simply swipe right to your widgets page and a search bar will appear. Enter your search terms and press the top option. This will bring back search results to your default browser.

14. Speed up your phone charging time

Turn on Airplane Mode as your phone charges. This will help maximise your phone charge if you only have a short amount of time to plug in.

15. Maximise your storage space 

To do this on an older iPhone, hold down the power button and then hold down the home button. This will clean out junk files on your phone’s RAM. 

If you have a newer iPhone, turn on ‘Assistive Touch’ in your settings by going to Accessibility, Touch, Assistive Touch. Once this is turned on, hold down your power button and the volume up button. Then tap the ‘Assistive Touch’ and hold the home button.

16. Make your screen smaller 

Reduce the size of your screen and make it more one-hand-friendly. 

First, reduce the size of your keyboard by shifting it left or right. You can do this by holding down the world icon at the bottom of the keyboard. A right and left keyboard option will appear. Press one of these and you will have a smaller, one-hand-friendly keyboard at your disposal. 

To make it even smaller, drag downwards at the bottom of your screen.

17. Find out what location data your phone has saved and how to remove it

By enabling location services, your phone can store a cache of locations. To view this, go to Settings, Privacy, and Location Services. Tap on system services and scroll down to ‘Significant Locations’ to see the places your phone has saved.

You can clear your location history by tapping ‘Clear History’ and you can turn the feature off by toggling the service to ‘off’.

18. Customise your notifications 

With this trick, you can make every text notification unique by selecting a person in your contacts and tapping ‘Edit’. From here, go to ‘Vibration’ and tap ‘Create New Vibration’ to select a custom notification for that contact.

19. Set a timer for your music

Click the Timer icon in the Clock app and select ‘When Timer Ends’ at the bottom of the screen. Scroll past the alarm tones to the bottom and tap the ‘Stop Playing’ option and press ‘set’.

You can then select the amount of time you want your music to play and press ‘Start’. Your phone will then stop playing music on both Apple Music and Spotify when the timer finishes.

20. Use your phone for DIY

iPhone’s ‘Measure’ app can give you a digital spirit level and a tape measure. It uses augmented reality to measure the size and dimensions of objects and can take measurements through your iPhone’s camera.

21. Take a hands free photo

Turn on your iPhone’s voice command function in settings by going to Accessibility, Voice Control. From here, you can ask Siri to open your camera and turn the volume down, which will take a picture for you.

22. Use the backspace on your calculator app

You can swipe left or right to delete what you just typed, so you don’t have to delete the entire sum and start again.

23. Erase text with a shake of your hand

To erase text you’ve written on notes or messages, give your phone a shake and tap ‘undo’. This will remove the text for you. If you decide you want the text back, shake your phone again and select ‘redo’ to make the text reappear.

24. Speed up your texting pace

If you’re in a rush, you can speed up your texting pace by stopping jumping back and forth between keyboards to type numbers or symbols. Instead, just tap and hold the ‘123’ button and drag it over the number or symbol you want.

25. Lock your camera’s focus and exposure settings

To do this, open your iPhone’s camera app. Tap and hold the screen until the ‘AE/AF Locked’ box appears at the top. The camera won’t lose its focus or exposure settings. Remember to unlock the settings after use.

26. Use one button to make a phone call

To do this, simply open your keypad and tap the green phone icon. This will input the last number you called.

27. Take a picture while recording video 

This is an easy trick which allows you to take pictures while recording a video. Simply tap the shutter icon next to the red recording button.

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Daily Mail
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