Ultimate iPhone Hacks
Photo by Tyler Lastovich on Unsplash
Smartphones are fantastic. We practically run our lives on them. Email, calendar, social media, photos, music, banking, the list goes on.
It’s the same all over the world. It was estimated that in 2018, there were over 725 million iPhones in use across the world (Source: CNN). That’s a lot of iPhones. As fantastic as they are, they aren’t cheap, and how many of us can say we use all of the features?
There are hundreds of features hidden away in Apple’s iOS, it’s no wonder we don’t know about them all.
We’re all for making life easier, so we’ve put together a list of the best hacks to help you get the very best out of your iPhone.
Battery & Signal
WiFi is great, especially if you’re streaming a lot of data, but when you’re out and about, your 4g signal is vital. When choosing a mobile provider, look at the speed and coverage of the network. Half cooked compares fastest 4g networks to help make the decision easier.
Heavy use is also hard on your battery, and once your iPhone is over six months old, you might find yourself charging it more often.
Charge Your iPhone’s Battery Faster
If you only have a few minutes to charge your phone, either switch it off entirely when charging or switch it into Airplane Mode. This stops all apps and features using battery power, allowing it to charge quickly. Just remember to switch your phone out of Airplane Mode when you’re done to be able to make calls or access the internet.
Don’t Bother Closing Your Apps
It’s a bit of a myth that closing all of your unused apps saves battery life. Closing a bunch of apps suddenly can actually use more battery power than just leaving them on in the background.
Taking Photos
Take Photos With Siri
Siri is great for a number of things but many people don’t know that you can command Siri to use the camera.
You simply need to activate Siri in the usual way by holding down the home button or by voice activation. Then you just need to say ‘Hey Siri, take a photo’ or ‘Hey Siri, take a selfie’. Voila, hands free photography.
Use The Volume Button To Take A Photo
It can sometimes be a bit tricky to take a photo with one hand if you’re using one of the bigger iPhone models or have small hands.
Once you’re opened the camera app, you can use the volume up button to take a photo too.
Your Apple Earphones Can Take Photos Too
This works with the older Apple EarPods rather than the new Airpods. Just open the camera app as usual and use the volume button on your earphones to snap a pic. Simple.
Hide Sensitive Photos
Have you ever shown someone a photo on your phone and been nervous that they’re going to swipe in the wrong direction and see a photo you’d rather they didn’t?
Luckily, there is a way to hide your photos that you want to keep private.
- Open photos
- Tap the album that the photo is in
- Tap Select in the top right corner
- Select all of the photos that you want to hide and tap share on the bottom left
- Tap the hide button in the bottom right corner
Apps
Free Up Storage Space By Offloading Apps
If you’re constantly deleting messages, photos and apps because your iPhone storage is full then you can offload apps. This allows you to remove them from your phone while still keeping the icons and their data settings. If you do need the apps again, you simply activate them to download with all of your original logins and settings intact.
- Open settings
- Tap iTunes & App Store
- Activate the Offload Unused Apps setting
Make Icons Easier To Access
If you have one of the larger iPhones, or smaller hands, it can be difficult to access icons in the top corners of the screens without needing your other hand. That’s where the Reachability feature comes in. It allows you to pull the top icons towards the lower part of the screen so you can reach them easily.
- Double tap the Home Button (don’t click it)
- Swipe down from the line that shows up at the bottom of the screen, the top part of the screen will then move down
- Tap the app that you want and the screen will return to normal
This tip will work on iPhone 6 and later models.
Prevent Apps Asking For Feedback
How often are you using your phone when those annoying pop ups asking for feedback keep interrupting. To stop these Rate & Review messages popping up every five minutes:
- Open Settings
- Tap iTunes & App Store
- Select Switch Off App Ratings & Reviews
Siri
We’ve already shown you that you use Siri to take a photo, but there are many other great Siri hacks.
Type Your Commands
Sometimes you can’t speak out loud to Siri either because you’re in a quiet space (library) or you don’t want to wake up the kids. In this instance, you can type commands directly into Siri.
- Open Settings
- Tap General
- Tap Accessibility
- Tap Siri
- Switch on Type to Siri
Activate Siri Without Touching Your Phone
For a completely hands free Siri experience, enable the ‘Hey Siri’ feature.
- Tap Settings
- Tap Siri and Search
- Switch on Listen for Hey Siri
Now you simply have to say Hey Siri to activate it. This is great if you lose your iPhone, you can just say ‘Hey Siri, where are you’ and listen.
Help Siri Learn To Pronounce Your Name
Sometimes Siri isn’t great at pronouncing names but you can teach it to.
- Activate Siri
- Say ‘that’s not how to pronounce…’
- Say the name
- Siri will make various ways to pronounce
- Select the right pronounce
They won’t get it right every time, but should be able to deal with most names.
Keyboard
Use The Spacebar To Move The Cursor
Have you ever tried to change a word in an email you’ve written, only for the cursor to end up anywhere but where you need it? You tend to end up deleting multiple words just to get back to the right place to start again. To move the cursor properly, just let your thumb rest on the space bar and move the cursor to where you need it. One of the simplest and most useful tricks on this list.
Undo Typing By Shaking Your Phone
If you’ve written an email or message you decide you don’t need you can activate the shake setting to get rid of it without having to keep your finger on the delete button.
- Tap Settings
- Tap Accessibility
- Tap Touch
- Tap Shake to Undo
Turn Your Keyboard Into A Trackpad
If you’re sick of trying to move your little cursor around the screen you can turn your keyboard into a trackpad that’s more like a laptop.
- Open something that needs editing
- Hold down any key on the keyboard
- The letters will disappear and you can use your finger to drag the cursor
- Lift up your finger when the cursor is where you want it.
Best Of The Rest
Limit Screen Time
It’s easy to spend all day on our phones looking at social media, emails or watching movies. If you think you’re spending a little too much time looking at your screen there are things you can do to limit this.
- Tap Settings
- Tap Screen Time
- Tap App Limits
- Tap Add Limit
- Tap Category
- Select a time limit
- Save
Equalize Music Volume On All Of Your Music
If you listen to a lot of music, you might notice that you have to turn up the volume to hear some of the older songs properly, only to have your ears blasted when a newer track comes on at an ear splitting volume. Apple has the nifty little Sound Check feature. Once you switch it on, it will check all of the music on your phone for volume then work out the average, it is then used to play all of your music.
- Tap Settings
- Tap Music
- Tap Playback
- Switch on Sound Check
Protect Your Data By Deleting It
We store so much important, sensitive information on our phones, it’s dangerous for it to fall into the wrong hands. Most people have more than enough information on their phones for people to be able to commit identity fraud with.
You can set a feature on your phone to delete all of your data if the passcode it input incorrectly 10 times in a row.
If you activate this feature, make sure that you have cloud backup for your phone and also, it might not be useful for parents with little kids who like to play with their phones.
- Tap Settings
- Enter your phone passcode
- Tap Face ID & Passcode
- Switch on Erase Data setting
