So, you’ve had an iPhone for a while now. You love it and you enjoy the great apps and things it can do. But what if I told you, you’ve been missing half of the coolest stuff your iPhone can do? Here’s a list of 23 iPhone tricks. Go ahead and dazzle your friends with your knowledge.
You don’t have to unlock your phone or leave your app to reply to a text.
Just pull down your notification area and then swipe left. You’ll see an option to “Reply.” And to reply to a text without leaving your current app, swipe down from the top to the notification area and swipe left to reply.
Access medical information without unlocking your phone.
When you set up your Medical ID within the health app, (iOS 8) you can access that information from the lock screen as well. tap on the “Emergency” option that shows up on the keypad and you’ll see the Medical ID button on the bottom left corner.
Make your home screen come to your finger tips — iPhone 6 and above.
With the bigger screen phones, if you’re using your iPhone with one hand, it can be difficult to reach the apps on the top. Just double tap (don’t press) the home button and the whole screen will drop down to the bottom of the screen. This is the Reachability Mode.
Go grayscale and save battery life.
You’ve probably heard of the Low Battery mode. That stops refreshing all your apps in the background so that your battery lasts a little longer when you’re running low. The grayscale mode is another such feature that saves you power. Go to Accessibility setting and select “Grayscale.” Tip: The iOs 9 update has a search bar integrated into the Settings menu to find things easily.
Catch the culprit that drains your battery.
If you want to know which of your apps are making you recharge every two hours, check it out under Settings -> Battery. You’ll see the whole list.
Forward texts to others.
If you’ve loved this feature on your old Nokia phone but missed it on your iPhone, you’ll love this. Double tap on the message you want to forward, and select the “More” option. The text will appear in a new message and you can fill in the “To” field to forward to your chosen contacts.
See photos and videos that you received ages ago.
Sometimes you’re so jobless you just want to look at old photos. Head over to your Messages app and find the “Details” button on the top right corner. Revel in the good old times.
Send videos and photos that delete automatically.
Ok, so sometimes you don’t want your videos and photos to linger. You can send self-destructing messages. Go to Settings -> Message and scroll right to the bottom. You’ll see an option to let your media expire after two minutes.
Share your location with friends or let them track you.
If you’re out late and you know your family and friends are worried sick about you, just send your location. No phone calls or explanations necessary, Just tap on the Details button on your message thread and hit “Send my Location.”
Likewise, you can let your friends track your movements as well. It’s the same procedure as “Send my Location,” except that you have to select “Share My Location.” You can, of course, choose to share your location for a day or forever.
Follow yourself, wherever you go.
The iPhone will automatically track you where ever you go. You just need to know how to find it. From your Settings menu, go to Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services. Scroll to the bottom and select “Frequent Locations” and you can look through the history of places you’ve been to.
Mute messages from select contacts.
I know you’ll love this one. Open up your message thread and switch the “Do Not Disturb” option. It’s the simplest thing, but you’ll be happy you know this trick.
Identify (most) unknown callers.
iOS 9 has a feature that displays the possible name of an unknown number. If you’ve had email collaborations with someone who’s not in your contacts, when that person calls you, your phone will pop up the name.
Get out of that annoying group.
When you’re in a group conversation you’d rather not be in, just tap on the “Details” button on the upper right corner and select to “Leave Conversation.”
Give your group a name.
You have a group of buddies that you always text. No one else can get inside your gang and you want to give your group a name. It’s understandable. That’s why iOS has this option under the “Details” button in your messages thread. Just enter a name of your choice under the “Group Name” field.
Do two things at once — in Mail.
This is helpful; you’re composing a new mail and you have this sudden urge to check your inbox or another folder. Instead of trashing the mail you’re composing, just tap the top part of your message where it says “New Message” and drag it down to the bottom of the screen. So now your message will come to the bottom and you can access your inbox. Once you’re ready to continue your email, just tap on it again.
Talk to Siri, hands-free.
The iPhone 6s has a cool feature where you can just say “Hey Siri” to launch the personal assistant. Go to Settings -> General -> Siri and turn on “Enable Hey Siri.” So no more holding down the home button to talk to your favorite person. If you have an older phone, you’ll need to plug into power for the feature to work.
Get Siri to read out to you.
Whether its articles, ebooks, messages, or mails, Siri can read it out aloud for you. Go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Speech. Turn on “Speak Screen” and “Speak Selection.” And now, just swipe down from the top of your screen and Siri will read out the text on the screen.
Teach Siri to get your name right.
Every iPhone user has complained at least once that Siri doesn’t get their name right. Well, now, you can teach Siri. First. ask Siri what your name is. Once Siri responds say that it doesn’t say it right. (Use Siri’s exact pronunciation so that it understands which word you mean.) And then Siri will ask you to teach it to say the name. Say your name the right way, and Siri wil display three options of saying it. Choose the one that’s closest or perfect and Siri will use it from then onwards.
Ask Siri to filter your photos.
If you want to see only the photos you took on your trip to Bali three years ago, just say “Show me photos from 2013 in Bali.” It works, and it works when you’re using iOS 9.
Ask Siri to remind you to read your emails.
We all need this. You can ask Siri to either remind you to read your emails or your texts. When you get the notification, just ask Siri to remind you later. As long as you’re using iOS 9, this trick works with Safari, Messages, Notes, and Mail.
Control your iPhone with your head.
This is fun. Go to Accessibility settings and scroll down to the Interaction section. Tap “Switch Control.” Once in, tap on the “Switches” option and then the “Add New Switch” option. Then select “Camera” and choose either “Left Head Movement” or “Right Head Movement.” Once done, choose any action under the menu called “System.” The action you choose will be triggered whenever you tilt your head — either right or left depending on what you chose earlier.
Find your real signal strength.
If you’ve always been relying on the bars on the top left corner of your phone to tell you how much signal you’ve got, here’s a trick to learn the actual signal. According to Steven Tweedie from Business Insider, you have to first access the Field Test Mode app on your phone. This is a hidden app. Open the Phone app and dial, *3001#12345#* and call. That’s how you open the Field Test Mode application. Now you’ll see that a number has replaced the signal bars on the top of your screen. It’ll always be negative and will range from -40 to -130. The best signal strength being -40 and the worst being -130.
Launch music as soon as you’re plugged in.
If you’ve got a routine time for your music, like during your workout every morning at 9, your iPhone will launch the mucis app as soon as you plug in your ear pods. Works with iOS 9.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go try these stuff out. Oh, and remember, all these tricks work only if you’re using iOS 8 or above.
