10 Tips and Tricks for More Effective iPhone Use

General Tips and Tricks

1.Use your phone as a bubble level – Using the built-in gyroscope, your iPhone can function as a level. Simply launch the compass app, and swipe right to reveal the level function. Perfect for hanging pictures around the house.
2. ‘Go back’ – Although the iPhone doesn’t have a “back” button, swiping right from the left edge of the screen functions as a back button in most apps. This works in Safari, Messages, Settings, and even some third-party apps like Instagram and Strava.
3. Custom vibration alerts – The iPhone allows you to create custom alerts for different contacts. If you want to know who’s calling without even taking the phone out of your pocket, you can set custom vibration patterns for frequently used contacts. Choose a contact, tap edit, then scroll down to Vibration > Create New Vibration. Using this tool, you can tap out a custom pattern for each contact.

Safari

4.      Find in page – If you’d like to search for a specific word or phrase within a webpage, the iPhone allows you to do this through the search bar. Type the word or phrase into the search bar, and look at the bottom of the results menu for “on this page.” Tapping it allows you to go through the results, highlighted in yellow, throughout the page.

Messages

5. Search messages – Instead of scrolling through hundreds of old text messages for a sentence, address, phone number, etc. one of your friends sent you, search for it. The Messages app features a much-underutilized search bar located at the top of your messages list.
6. Show message timestamps – Want to know the exact time you sent or received a message? Swiping left from the right edge of the screen reveals the timestamps for each message in your conversation.
7. Quick symbols while typing – This quick tip should save you some time while typing. If you’d like to quickly add a symbol or piece of punctuation while typing, there’s a faster way than tapping the “123” icon, then the desired symbol, and the “ABC” icon to head back to the keyboard. Simply holding the “123” icon brings up the symbols keyboard, which allows you to quickly slide to the symbol you’d like to insert, and let go. You never have to leave the “ABC” keyboard. Although this seems pretty simple, it’s quite the time-saver.
8.Quickly undo typing – Made a mistake typing, deleting, or cutting and pasting while editing text or sending a message? Give your iPhone a quick shake and an “undo” option pops up. This has helped me more than once when I have accidentally replaced or deleted a large selection of highlighted text.

Photos

9.Use the volume button to snap photos – This feature has been around since iOS 5, but not many people know about it. While in the camera app, you can use the volume up button to snap a photo. What’s really cool about this feature is that it works with the volume up button on your headphones, as well. This feature allows for steadier photos, and the option to take photos remotely while your camera is propped up or mounted on a tripod. This tip even works with Bluetooth headphones!

10.Quickly set focus and exposure – Oftentimes our pictures don’t end up the way we’d like them to. The subject is too blurry, or brilliant colors are muted due to improper exposure. The new camera app in iOS 8 has a nifty little feature that allows you to quickly set the focus and exposure. Tapping (or tapping and holding) on an object on the screen sets the focus and exposure on that object. If the exposure results in too light or too dark a photo, you can swipe up or down to change the exposure. This simple trick alone will result in much better photos.