The 27 iPhone hacks to make your life easier: From signing documents, to hiding unused apps to erasing text with the shake of your hand to taking a photo when your storage is already full
There are over 1.2billion of them around the world. Part of its attraction is the sleek design and quick functionality.
But the iPhone has so many more uses that make its experience even more immersive.
Here, the MailOnline details 27 tricks to improve your iPhone experience.
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1. Screenshot a long webpage in one go
If you’ve ever been doing research on your phone and have found yourself tediously screenshotting multiple parts of a webpage, this is the trick for you.
When screenshotting 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’. Tap this and you can select the entire webpage with a sliding tool on the right hand side.
When screenshotting on your iPhone, a thumbnail will appear on the bottom left of your screen for annotation
2. Sign documents
If you’ve ever found yourself in a hurry with the urgent need to sign something without access to a pen or printer, don’t worry. This trick provides an easy way to digitally sign a document on your iPhone.
To do this, 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 and signature and add it to the document by dragging, resizing and saving.
3. Silence unknown callers
Getting frustrated by a deluge of unknown numbers calling your phone 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, Siri suggestions or recently called list 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 recents list.
A silent notification will let you know the call has been silenced and you can review the number in your recents list
4. Create an emergency contact
You might be travelling with a partner or just want peace of mind that the right people are contacted if you were ever in danger. This iPhone trick allows you to do just this.
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’, ‘Emergency Contacts’. This will allow you to add an emergency contact and a red asterisk will appear next to their name in your contacts.
If you were to ever send a SOS by holding down the power button and one of the volume buttons, 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 less cumbersome and you can even do it without unlocking your phone.
To do this, 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
Can’t find the scrap of paper you thought you’d stuck to your fridge? Can’t be bothered reaching down the side of your sofa to find the password on the back of your WiFi box? This iPhone trick will make sharing your password with friends much easier.
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.
You can tag contacts in an iMessage group chat by typing the @ symbol followed by the name you have them saved as
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.
Just swipe up on an image or video and tap the ‘add a caption’ field and enter a caption
9. Change your default web and email to a preferred app
Do you have a preferred email and web browser to the iPhone’s standard Safari and Mail? This easy trick lets you set your preferred choice as your phone’s default, which means your phone 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
Are you tired of unused apps clogging up valuable screen space on your phone? This trick allows you to 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’.
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.
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’
12. Add widgets to your home screen
This trick will put a stop to your endless and frantic searching for some of your favourite apps.
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 is a crafty shortcut which saves loading up your web browser and can come in handy when looking for a shop or cafe on a busy street.
To do this, 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 on your default browser.
14. Speed up your phone charging time
This is an invaluable tip which will help you maximise your phone charge if you only have a short amount of time to plug in.
To do this, turn on Airplane Mode as your phone charges. This will switch off your phone’s background operations like GPS roaming and data which tend to drain your battery.
15. Maximise your storage space
Have you felt your phone slowing down recently? This trick will clean out junk files and speed it up.
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
Lay in bed using your phone with one hand and beginning to feel it ache? This tip reduces the size of your screen and makes 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 you 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.
You can do this by holding down the world icon at the bottom of you keyboard. A right and left keyboard option will appear
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 popular to you.
To view this, go to Settings, Privacy, Location Services. Tap on system services and scroll down to ‘Significant Locations’ to see the places your phone has saved you as visiting, as well as how much time you spent there.
If this is too dystopian for you, 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
How many times have you been lay in bed for your phone to go off on the other side of the room? Is it a text from your data provider, or might it be a loved one?
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 person.
19. Set a timer for your music
To do this, 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
Maybe you’ve just moved into a new house or started renting a new flat. You want to put up a framed poster but you’ve forgotten your toolbox and your Dad isn’t around.
There is even an ‘app for that’ and opening your 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.
iPhone’s ‘Measure’ app can give you a digital spirit level and a tape measure
21. Take a hands free photo
To do this, 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
If you’ve ever entered the wrong number on your iPhone’s calculator app, don’t fret. 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 rang.
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.
Simply tap the shutter icon next to the red recording button to take an in-video picture
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