18 Things You Didn’t Know Your iPhone Could Do
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: krishna • 4 days ago • 3 commentsBy: By Wirecutter Staff
No matter how long you’ve used an iPhone, there are always new (or new-to-you) features to discover.
Photo credit: Apple
This article list 18 items in all, but I've only posted the first ten-- to see all 18 go to the original article. What useful features of the iPhone have you discovered?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
No matter how long you’ve used an iPhone, there are always new (or new-to-you) features to discover. And stumbling upon a time-saving trick after so many years is, quite frankly, a delight.
Here are 15 tips and tricks that Wirecutter staffers rely on all the time. If you don’t already know about them, we hope they make your life a lot easier.
- Identify plants or animals. If you take a photo of a plant, flower, tree, or animal, you can find out exactly what it is by tapping the Info button on the bottom of the screen; if your iPhone knows what it is, a symbol with stars will appear at the bottom of the photo. The metadata details will tell you what the plant or animal is and will also give you an option to look up more information about it.
- Transform your phone into a portable white noise machine. In Settings, go to Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds and choose from sounds such as Ocean, Rain, and Stream. We’ve tested this ourselves and with babies, and the sounds are soothing for all.
- Ask Siri to read things to you. Open the Safari app and then command Siri to “read this” or say “I want to listen to this page.” You can also tap the Page Settings button on the left of the address bar and tap Listen to Page. You have the option to adjust the speaking speed as well as pause.
- Schedule a text to send later. If you don't want people to know you're awake at all hours of the night, schedule your messages to send at more, uh, normal hours. Open a chat, type your text, and then tap the + on the left side of the message field. Select Send Later, then choose a day and time for your scheduled message to be delivered.
- Keep people out of your private tabs. If you’ve been away from Safari for 15 minutes, your iPhone can require authentication before displaying your private tabs. That’s handy if you often let other people use your phone and would like to keep some browsing habits private. To enable the feature, go to Settings, tap Safari, scroll down, and switch on the toggle for Require Face ID to Unlock Private Browsing.
- Create gestures that you can trigger with your voice. The iOS accessibility features can replay any series of touch actions when you give a voice command. Imagine mapping out an entire, tedious action that you do frequently in an app, such as manually entering information to move through screens, or having a command that scrawls your signature or draws a picture. Go to Settings, tap Accessibility, and then tap Voice Control. Toggle it on, and then tap Commands > Create New Command. Enter your desired command phrase, tap Action, and then tap Run Custom Gesture. Use your finger to create the gesture on your home screen, and your phone will replay it when you say the trigger phrase. Note: We found that Voice Control would respond to anyone using the commands, so maybe turn this one off when you aren’t using it.
- Quickly remove the background from photos. Tap and hold any picture stored in the Files app, and then tap Quick Actions > Remove Background. iOS creates a duplicate of your original photo with no background—perfect for further editing in another app. You can use the same trick with several photos, too.
- Use two fingers to select all. Just swipe down to select all to mark every item as read or mass-delete items within apps like Messages, Mail, Notes, and Reminders. This action also works in some third-party apps, such as Telegram, but there is no support yet in others, like Gmail.
- Copy or translate text with the camera. Open the camera app and point your phone lens at a block of text. An icon with three lines in an outlined square appears at the bottom-right corner. Tap the icon, and it captures the text with the option to copy, select all, look up, translate, or share.
- Look up laundry-care icons. After you take a photo of a laundry-care label, tap the Info button at the bottom of the page and tap Look Up Laundry Care. The results will show you what each specific label means.
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Identify plants or animals. If you take a photo of a plant, flower, tree, or animal, you can find out exactly what it is by tapping the Info button on the bottom of the screen; if your iPhone knows what it is, a symbol with stars will appear at the bottom of the photo. The metadata details will tell you what the plant or animal is and will also give you an option to look up more information about it.
Ask Siri to read things to you. Open the Safari app and then command Siri to “read this” or say “I want to listen to this page.” You can also tap the Page Settings button on the left of the address bar and tap Listen to Page. You have the option to adjust the speaking speed as well as pause.
Record calls without downloading an app. After collectively spending a small fortune on call recording apps, we’re pleased that iPhones now have a native call recording feature. After placing a call in the Phone app, look in the top left corner of the screen and tap the Start Call Recording symbol, which looks like a series of vertical lines. A voice will announce the call is being recorded. When you’re done recording, touch the red Stop button located in the middle of the screen or hang up the call.
That call you just recorded? You can now access a transcribed version of it in the Call Recordings folder in the Notes app. Your phone will also transcribe voice recordings you make in the Voice Memos and Notes apps.