35+ Little-Know iPhone Hacks That Will Make Your Phone So Much More Useful

If you own an iPhone, chances are you have a good idea of the features on the phone. If you are like many iPhone owners, you use your phone to make calls to friends and family, access GPS for driving directions, and take photos to put up on your favorite social media sites.

It is almost a guarantee, though, that there are some features you are completely unaware of on your iPhone. As a matter of fact, these features can help you save your battery, take photos when your storage is full, and find the best Wi-Fi signal in your immediate area.

There are literally dozens of hidden features that increase the functionality of your phone and make it easier to do a variety of simple things with your phone. By taking advantage of these hacks, you can get much more use out of your iPhone, getting more value for your money.

1) Get More Storage Space

Getting more storage on your iPhone is a simple process. First, hold down the “Power” button until the option to turn off the phone pops up. Then, hold down the “Home” button to clean out your phone’s RAM. This can reduce the amount of space that your apps are taking up.

2) Identify Family Members for Siri

This hack is designed to help you match up your contacts with who they are to you, such as your mom, dad, or wife. Once you ask Siri to contact someone, such as your dad, then the program should ask you who that is in your contacts. Once you tell Siri, she will assign the contact that moniker.

3) Backspace on the Calculator

You might think you might have to input your numbers all over again if you make a mistake on the calculator app on your iPhone, but that is not the case. If you make a mistake, all you need to do is swipe left or right to delete the last numbers you typed.

YouTube Screenshot
Source:

YouTube Screenshot

4) Use Wi-Fi Assist

Using a Wi-Fi connection helps save you on your monthly data use with your iPhone, but sometimes it’s hard to find the best signal. The Wi-Fi Assist feature on your iPhone allows you to ignore slower networks while looking for more stable, faster networks that are available in your area. This feature is only available on iPhones with iOS 9 or later.

5) Have Your Phone Read to You

If you find yourself driving a lot or on a long walk, you can have your iPhone read to you. To do this, go to “General,” tap “Accessibility,” tap “Speech,” and then tap “Speak Screen.” Then, all you have to do is swipe down with two fingers on the article you want your iPhone to read.

6) Choose Your Phone Vibration

A simple way to know when a particular person is messaging you is to assign them a specific vibration. To do this, look for the person in your contacts and tap “Vibrations.” From there, tap “Create New Vibration” to assign them a custom vibration.

7) Save Your Phone’s Battery Life

Changing a few settings on your iPhone can help you improve the battery life on your phone when you use features such as Apple’s Spotlight. To do this, go to “Settings,” tap on “General,” and then tap “Spotlight Search.” From there, limit what Spotlight accesses to cut power consumption.

8) Easily Erase Text

Quickly erasing text on your phone is easy with this simple hack. If you need to erase any text on your phone, shake it and tap “Undo Typing.” If you change your mind and want to bring the text back, shake the phone again, and tap “Redo Typing.”

9) Order an Uber or Lyft Using Siri

Siri allows you to order an Uber or Lyft ride with only the sound of your voice. First, you need to have the appropriate app downloaded and have it connected to a valid credit card. Then, if you need a ride, simply tell Siri to get you an Uber or Lyft or to take you home via one or the other.

10) Set Unique Ringtones for Contacts

Just as you can set specific vibrations for different contacts, you can set ringtones specific to those contacts as well. Simply go to the contact in question and tap “Ringtones.” From there, tap “Create New Ringtone” to assign the contact a custom ringtone.

11) Use One-Button Calling

You can easily recall the last person you called on your phone using this hack. To do so, tap the green call button and your phone will automatically call the last person you contacted. This can save you the time of having to dig around in your contacts if the last person you called happens to be who you need to get in touch with.

12) Utilize the Built-in Signal Finder

Believe it or not, your iPhone has a built-in signal finder. To use this feature, enter in *3001#12345#* into the phone dialer and hit call. This activates your phone’s Field Model tool, allowing you to find the best signal using your phones bar chart-based signal indicator.

13) Take Pictures and Record Video at the Same Time

Follow this simple trick to take photos while you are recording video with your iPhone. You can tap the shutter icon next to the video button while you are recording video to also take a picture. Keep in mind that the phone will use the camera’s sensors, so the quality will suffer.

Reader's Digest
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Reader's Digest

14) Control Your Phone Using Only Your Head

You can use your iPhones facial recognition programming to control your phone using just your head. To set this up, go to “Settings,” tap “General,” tap “Accessibility,” and tap “Switch Control.” Slide the bar to the On position. Then tap “Switches,” tap “Add New Switch,” and then tap “Camera.” Using this feature, you can control your phone’s volume, switch apps, and access Siri.

15) Use “Do Not Disturb” Mode

To do away with unwanted calls and interruptions, you can set your phone to “Do Not Disturb” mode between certain hours or even overnight. Luckily, in an emergency, someone can circumvent this mode by calling your phone twice within a three-minute period.

16) New Use for the Compass App

You can use your iPhone’s compass app to help keep objects, such as pictures, level. Swipe left while in the compass app to activate a digital level, which should tell you if that picture frame is straight or not.

17) Find Out Your Message Times

If you need to determine when you received a particular text, use this handy iPhone feature. Open the message thread and swipe in from the right side of the screen. This should pull up the exact time that every message in the thread was sent.

18) Take Hands-Free Photos

The iPhone even allows you to take a picture without having to tap the phone. All you need to do is connect a pair of compatible headphones. Then, when you are ready to take a photo with your phone’s camera, hit the volume button on the headphones to snap the picture.

19) Find Apps Quicker on Your Phone

This hack helps if you are in a hurry and quickly need to find an app. Simply swipe down the center of your iPhone screen to bring up a search box. Enter the name of the app you need to find, and it should take you to it.

20) Undo Text Formatting

Undoing text formatting from copying and pasting in emails you send from your iPhone is pretty simple. Start by copying and pasting the text into the email you want to send. Then, shake your iPhone to undo the formatting.

21) Linking Your Phone With Evernote

You can even set up your iPhone to send screenshots to programs, such as Evernote, and create a note based on that screenshot. This allows you to create an easy reminder about locations and anything else you encounter during your day that you want to remember later.

22) Close 3 Apps at Once

Normally, you have to close apps one at a time when you are finished with them on a smartphone, which takes time. The iPhone allows you to close multiple applications at once by dragging three fingers up on the multitasking menu.

23) Set a Timer for Your Music

Listening to music on your iPhone is great, especially when you are in bed for the night. One way to turn off the music and save some battery charge without waking up is to set a timer. Go to “Clock” and then “Timer.” Tap “When Timer Ends” and then the “Stop Playing” option. Select how long you want the music to play and then when that time is up, your phone should turn off the music app.

24) Send Your Location to a Contact

The iPhone has a function that allows you to send where you are located to someone else. To use it, click on one of your contacts and hit the “Info” button. This sends that contact your current location. You can also set up the amount of time that you want to share this information.

25) Tap to Scroll to the Top of a List

If you are new to the iPhone, then this next hack might not seem obvious to you. If you need to scroll quickly back to the top of an app or list, tap the top of the screen. This should quickly scroll back to the top of the page.

26) Take a Photo When Storage Is Full

If you find that you need to take a photo but your storage is full, you do have an option. Simply start a new tweet or Facebook post and click the camera icon. After you take your picture, it should be saved to your Camera Roll, a storage area separate from your photo stream.

27) Swipe Right to Go Back

One of the biggest differences between an iPhone and an Android device is the lack of a dedicated back button. To easily back out of an app, you can swipe from left to right to go back to the previous page you were on.

28) Find Out What Your Phone Knows About you

Believe it or not, your iPhone tracks where you’ve been and how many times you have been there. To turn off the tracking feature on your phone, tap “Clear History.” Then, swipe left on the Frequent Location tab to turn it off.

29) Create a Secondary Number

One cool way that the iPhone lets you protect your primary phone number is through a secondary number. To implement the use of a second number on your iPhone, you can use an app, such as GetShuffle, to allow your SIM card to use two numbers.

30) Find the Siri Manual

To find out more about what Siri can do on your iPhone, hold down the “Home” button and ask Siri, “What can you do?” This pulls up a manual that tells you about everything the voice program can do, including schedule appointments, create reminders, and a wide variety of other features.

31) Focus Your Phone’s Camera Without Touching the Screen

If you need to lock the focus on your camera’s phone, hold your finger on the screen when using the camera until the “AF Locked” box appears at the top of the screen. The camera should stay in focus while you take pictures without you having to touch the screen.

32) Hard Reset Your Phone

Another difference between an iPhone and Android device is the absence of a real Home button. Using haptic feedback, the iPhone Home button serves as nothing more than a decoration, making it useless for a hard-reset. To reset your iPhone, hold down the power and volume buttons at the same time.

33) Correct Siri’s Pronunciation

If you notice Siri mispronouncing a word, you have the option to correct the voice app. Simply say, “That’s not how you pronounce ‘the mispronounced word.'” Siri should then ask for the correct pronunciation. Siri will then confirm the pronunciation with you.

34) Use the “Remind Me” Feature

If you find that you frequently forget appointments or to call someone back, use the iPhone’s “Remind Me” feature. While you could set a reminder using the menus, it’s even easier to hold down the “Home” button and tell Siri to remind you.

35) Turn on Guided Access (For Kids)

Guided Access is a feature on your iPhone that keeps phone users, more specifically your kids, from ending up somewhere they don’t need to be. To activate it, go to “Settings,” tap “General,” tap “Accesibility,” and tap “Guided Access.” Once there, turn the feature on. Finally, triple click within the app you want to limit access in and set up the specific buttons within the app that you don’t want clicked.

Support.Apple.com
Source:

Support.Apple.com

36) Learn to Type Faster

To make typing faster on your phone, you have an option available when you need to add numbers to your text. Simply hold down the “123” button and drag your finger over the number or symbol you want before letting go. This allows you to add numbers to your text without having to switch back and forth between screens manually.

37) Customize the Feedback Level of Your Phone’s Home Button

While the haptic feedback feature of your iPhone allows you to turn your device on and off without difficulty, its sensitivity might need some adjustment. Luckily, you can easily adjust the feedback level of the haptic feedback feature of your iPhone. To do this go to “Settings,” tap “General,” tap “Home,” and then adjust it from there.

38) Save Time on Searches

To speed up your searches online using your phone, hold down the period icon on your phone’s keyboard. This brings up a list of URL suffixes, such as .com, .net, or .org, allowing you to quickly choose the one you need instead of having to type it in.

Take Control Books
Source:

Take Control Books

39) Create Custom Replies for Missed Calls

You might know about the stock responses that your iPhone offers when someone calls and you can’t respond immediately, but did you know you can also customize these responses? To do this, go to “Settings,” tap “Phone,” and then tap “Respond With Text” to create a customized text response.

40) Charge Your Phone Faster

If you need your phone to charge faster, turn on Airplane Mode. Airplane Mode turns off notifications and your phone’s GPS tracking, which reduces the amount of drain on the battery. While not increasing the charge too much, doing this allows your phone to charge slightly faster.

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By taking advantage of these simple iPhone hacks, you can get extended use out of your iPhone. In addition to making many of the tasks you perform with your iPhone every day easier, these hacks can also give your phone increased functionality when used with a variety of separate programs.