Even Pro iPhone Users Might Not Know These 7 Hidden Tricks
Credit: TapSmart
It's easy to think that you know everything there is to know about your iPhone. iOS is intuitive and simple-to-use, and there are tons of resources online highlighting various tips and tricks. But there's somehow always some useful and hidden feature that you probably missed.
Whether you're new to the iPhone or you're an iOS expert, here are some quick tricks you might not have known about. Continue reading to learn more about 7 of our favorite hidden iPhone tricks.
Make Calendar Times Specific
The iOS Calendar is a handy way to keep track of your events, appointments and meetings, as well as add time-based reminders and notes. But, for some reason, Calendar seemingly only lets you set the time by hours and five minute increments. Well, you can be more specific, but Apple just didn’t let us know..
There’s actually an extremely well-hidden way to change the time increments. When creating a calendar entry, just double tap the time when creating a calendar entry.
It’s easy-to-miss, but you should now see the minute section change to single minutes, rather than five-minute intervals.
Music Shutoff Timer
Many audio receivers and stereos have a built-in “sleep timer” that automatically disables playback after a certain amount of time. The iPhone does, too. It’s just hidden in the Clock app.
Just open the Clock app and tap on Timer. Then set a time, tap on When Timer Ends, and scroll all the way to the bottom of the display. You should see Stop Playing — select it. Once the timer ends, it’ll disable all audio playback. That includes music, movies, or podcasts.
Backspace in Calculator
Having a calculator (app) easily accessible in your pocket is something we take for granted these days. But there’s an annoying quirk with the iOS Calculator. If you mistype a digit during a calculation, you have to hit Clear and start all over again, right?
In fact, there’s actually a hidden “backspace” function in the calculator app. Try it out for yourself. Just tap out some numbers and swipe left or right where the digits are displayed. This will delete the last digit that you typed.
On a related note, you can also rotate your iPhone to bring up additional scientific keys.
Do Not Disturb (Until I Leave)
Do Not Disturb is a great feature, whether you enable it for digital wellbeing or just to silence your iPhone during movies. But, of course, it can get in the way of receiving important calls if you forget to disable it. That’s probably why this clever feature exists.
Just open up the iOS Control Center. Then, tap and hold on the Do Not Disturb icon. It’ll bring up a new menu with a When I leave this location setting.
If you select it, the iPhone will use Location Services to seamlessly disable DND after you leave your current location. Great for work meetings and movie theaters alike.
Easily Request Desktop Sites
If you’re a long-time iPhone owner, you probably know that you can force Safari to display the desktop version of a website. That comes in handy for a wide variety of reasons. But there’s a hidden Safari trick that can save you a few taps.
When you have Safari open, all you need to do is tap and hold on the Refresh icon. Then, tap Request Desktop Site from the small menu that pops up. Unfortunately, there isn’t an analog in Chrome for iOS, so you’ll have to use the pop-up menu to request a desktop site.
Select and Pinpoint Text Easier
This tip got a bit of attention last year thanks to a food blogger, but it still warrants a place on this list because of how life-changing it is. Seriously. All you need to do is tap and hold on the space bar to turn the entire iOS keyboard into a trackpad.
That lets you easily edit any text that you’ve typed — including pinpointing specific letter within words. While you may think that this is a 3D Touch-enabled feature, it’s actually not. As long as you have iOS 12, it’ll work on any iPhone. That’s great for iPhone XR and iPhone SE owners alike.
Handy Folder Tips
iOS folders are a great way to keep your app grid less cluttered. But it can be a bit annoying to dig through all of your folders and find the apps that have active notifications.
Luckily, you can actually view all the apps with new notifications in a folder at once by pressing firmly on any folder using a 3D Touch-capable iPhone.
Speaking of Folders, it can be a bit of a pain to actually get an app into one when you’re rearranging your Home screen. That’s because the folder will sometimes move around instead of open when you hold an app over it.
But, when moving an app, you can just tap a folder with another finger to instantly open it. (Tapping an app in the same way will also let you move multiple ones at once.)