The iPhone has come an insanely long way since its initial release in 2007. Most Apple owners are aware of the basic short cuts and tricks, but there’s a lot more that your handy iPhone can do than just screenshot and record calls. After digging through the internet and finding a few things out for ourselves, here are 20 tricks you may or may not know your iPhone can do.
LOCATION TRICKS
- Do you know the difference between “Share My Location” and “Send My Location”? Sharing your location allows the receiver to track where you’re going where as sending your location only sends one pinned address. Basically, be creeped out by your friends following you or meet up at one address.
- Get reminders by location. This works best for your most visited places, i.e. “Call Grandpa when I get back home”. iPhone location services notes the most visited places within it’s map and will register to remind you when you arrive home.
- If you’ve ever wanted to mark everywhere you’ve visited, iPhone’s already pinned it. Oh, and the amount of time you were there, too.
SIRI TRICKS
4. Most iPhone owners are aware of the “Hey Siri” option, but in case you didn’t, it’s game changing. Go to Settings > Siri > Allow “Hey Siri” to get yourself set up with the on-command assistant. A word to the wise, verbally speaking anything that even sounds like “Siri” (more specifically saying “seriously”) will activate the sound sensitive feature.
5. Too lazy to read? Siri can be your story teller for just about any text on your phone. This is especially handy when you’re driving or in an instance when reading can be difficult. This can be done pressing down on the home button with the command “Siri, read my email” or whatever it is you need assistance with.
6. Overhead planes can completely disrupt a conversation, but have you ever wondered where they were going? Now, you can! Activate Siri and ask “What planes are flying over head?”
TYPING AND MESSAGING SHORTCUTS
7. Got a personal catch phrase? Create a short cut for the sentences you use the most to save time while texting. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement to enter the shortcut and desired phrase.
8. Double tapping the space bar on your keyboard adds a period to your sentence! It’s a simple trick that shaves off a tiny amount of time, but it’s handy nonetheless.
9. If you’re still scrolling through novel-sized text and messaging threads to find images and locations sent, you’re doing it wrong. Go to the thread, hit “Details” and an album will appear of all the images and videos shared within that conversation.
10. You can send video and audio messages that self destruct after a designated amount of time. Visit Settings > Messages > Expire and choose between 2 minutes or never!
OTHER HACKS
11. The 3D feature is one that most know about but rarely use. To activate, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch to adjust the sensitivity and activate. This feature allows you to tap and hold on a picture to bring it into focus for better clarity.
12. Long line at the office scanner? Use the flatbed scanning tool with the Office Lens app. It allows you to hover and focus over any document, picture or even whiteboard to scan and save for editing. Pretty neat.
13. Another nifty tool is the leveling tool found in the Compass app. Go to your pre-installed Compass app and swipe right to make hanging pictures and installing shelves a total breeze.
14. Did you know that the Clock app icon is the current time in analog?
15. You can determine the actual signal strength that your iPhone currently holds by dialing “*3001#12345#*“. A nice little info screen will pop up as a Field Test with tech specifics on your network.
16. Take control over your battery with Airplane mode, Low Battery mode, and Background App Refresh.
17. Control your phone with your MIND! Well, your head. If you go into Settings > General Settings > Accessibility > Switch Control, you can set commands based on head tilt movement facing the camera.
18. Turn any eBook into an audio book with VoiceOver. Choose your preferred VoiceOver settings by going to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver to set speech speed and style. Then, open your eBook of choice and ask Siri to “Turn on VoiceOver”. Viola!
19. Waiting for a specific text to take out your phone? Set customized vibrations to desired contexts by going to Settings > Sounds > Ringtone > Vibration > Create New Vibration.
20. The ultimate trick to your iPhone? Knowing what it’s worth and where to get the most trade-in value. Visit our trade-in store to get started.