How to Use Hidden iPhone Features
Send lower-quality images., Choose who receives your Read Receipts., Set a more secure passcode., Save energy with Low Battery Mode., Save PDF's to read later., Schedule a Do Not Disturb time., Respond to texts without opening them., Shake your...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Send lower-quality images.
Photos and images from the web are ravenous data munchers, and if you're on a phone plan with a data limit, they can really jack up your phone bill.
Moreover, they take a long time to spend and use precious storage space on your phone.
In iOS 10, however, you can limit the amount of data you use while sending and receiving images in your messages.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Messages." Tap the slider next to "Low Quality Image Mode." Now, when you send images, their size will be scaled down, preventing them from gobbling as much data as before. -
Step 2: Choose who receives your Read Receipts.
Ever wanted to have certain friends know when you've seen your messages, but not everyone? Well, in iOS 10, you can selectively send read receipts.
Open Messages and tap on a thread with someone you'd like to edit your Read Receipts settings for.
Tap the "i" icon in the top-right corner of the conversation window.
Tap the slider next to "Send Read Receipts" to allow or prevent this contact from knowing when you've seen their message. , By default, when setting a passcode on your iPhone you're asked to enter four numerical digits.
But if you want to set a longer password or have a hard time remembering numbers, you can set a longer or alphanumeric (read: with letters) passcode on your phone.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Passcode," or on an iPhone 5s or later, "Touch ID and Passcode." Enter your passcode, if you have one set already.
Tap "Change Passcode" and enter your current passcode once again.
Tap "Passcode Options" at the bottom of the "Enter your new passcode" screen.
Tap "Custom Numeric Code" for a longer numeric passcode, or "Custom Alphanumeric Code" to enter a passcode that can use letters! , When your battery level drops to 20%, you may be automatically asked if you'd like to enter Low Battery Mode, which will limit some of your phone's settings to extend the amount of time it can stay alive.
You can enable Low Battery Mode at any time, however, and reap the benefits of a more robust battery life even when your iPhone's battery level is full.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Battery." Slide the button "Low Power Mode" to on. , If you find PDFs of articles that you'd like to have long-term access to, you can save them to iBooks to be opened later (or sent to your computer, if you'd like to).
Open a PDF in your mobile web browser.
Tap anywhere on the screen to reveal the menu at the top of the window.
Tap the "Open in iBooks" button.
The PDF will automatically be saved to the iBooks app. , If there's a certain time of day or of the week that you regularly want to be free of messages and calls (some might say that 1-7AM every night is a time they'd rather not be disturbed) you can program Do Not Disturb to automatically turn on during that block of the day.
You can also schedule your Do Not Disturb time for everybody other than a specific contact, if you still want to receive messages from somebody that you think might be important.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Do Not Disturb." Tap the slider next to "Scheduled." Tap the "From/To" banner to set your Do Not Disturb time.
Tap the back button at the top-left corner of your screen.
Tap "Allow Calls From" and select a division of contacts that you would like to receive calls from during Do Not Disturb time. , If you have your message settings set so that a banner appears at the top of your screen when you receive a text, you can respond to it without having to leave the app you're currently on.
Wait until you see a message appear.
Swipe downwards from where the text notification displays.
Type your message into the text field that appears.
Tap the "Send" button on the right side of the screen. , Unlike most computers, there's no keyboard shortcut or button to undo typing that you've made on an iPhone.
However, you can revert text that you've typed to a previous version very easily.
Type text into any text field.
Shake your phone forward and backwards once, being careful not to shake so vigorously that you lose grip with it.
Tap "Undo Typing" to erase what you'd just written.
Repeat this procedure to either undo more typing or to redo typing you've just erased. , When you've just scrolled through an incredibly long article, blog, or feed on an app and want to return to the top of the window, you don't have to tire your thumb out by scrolling furiously.
Tap the top of the screen, where your battery, the time, and your network display and you'll jump to the top of the page you're currently on. , If you're looking for a particular section of a webpage and know what the words contained in that section are, you can search the phrase and be shown a list of all of the locations in a document where that phrase is mentioned.
Open any webpage or PDF in Safari.
Tap the address bar at the top of the screen.
Type your search into the address bar.
You're more likely to get results if this search is a single word.
At the bottom of the window, tap on the "In this document"/"On this page" banner, which displays how many instances (if any) of your search term exist on the page you're looking at.
Tap the up and down arrows at the bottom-left corner of the screen to navigate through search results. , Your iPhone is equipped with motion sensor that allow it to tell when it's pointing upwards or downwards.
If you've ever wanted to know how flat a surface is, you can do so with the phone's Compass app.
Open the "Compass" app.
Swipe left on the screen to reveal the level function.
Place the phone flat on a surface.
If the screen reads "0°," this means the surface it's on is perfectly level.
If it does not, move the phone until the two white circles sit perfectly within one another.
For more accurate results, make sure your camera lens isn't propping your phone up slightly, changing the reading that the level gives. -
Step 3: Set a more secure passcode.
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Step 4: Save energy with Low Battery Mode.
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Step 5: Save PDF's to read later.
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Step 6: Schedule a Do Not Disturb time.
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Step 7: Respond to texts without opening them.
-
Step 8: Shake your phone to undo recent typing.
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Step 9: Quickly move to the top of a page.
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Step 10: Search for a phrase on a page.
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Step 11: Use the compass as a level.
Detailed Guide
Photos and images from the web are ravenous data munchers, and if you're on a phone plan with a data limit, they can really jack up your phone bill.
Moreover, they take a long time to spend and use precious storage space on your phone.
In iOS 10, however, you can limit the amount of data you use while sending and receiving images in your messages.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Messages." Tap the slider next to "Low Quality Image Mode." Now, when you send images, their size will be scaled down, preventing them from gobbling as much data as before.
Ever wanted to have certain friends know when you've seen your messages, but not everyone? Well, in iOS 10, you can selectively send read receipts.
Open Messages and tap on a thread with someone you'd like to edit your Read Receipts settings for.
Tap the "i" icon in the top-right corner of the conversation window.
Tap the slider next to "Send Read Receipts" to allow or prevent this contact from knowing when you've seen their message. , By default, when setting a passcode on your iPhone you're asked to enter four numerical digits.
But if you want to set a longer password or have a hard time remembering numbers, you can set a longer or alphanumeric (read: with letters) passcode on your phone.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Passcode," or on an iPhone 5s or later, "Touch ID and Passcode." Enter your passcode, if you have one set already.
Tap "Change Passcode" and enter your current passcode once again.
Tap "Passcode Options" at the bottom of the "Enter your new passcode" screen.
Tap "Custom Numeric Code" for a longer numeric passcode, or "Custom Alphanumeric Code" to enter a passcode that can use letters! , When your battery level drops to 20%, you may be automatically asked if you'd like to enter Low Battery Mode, which will limit some of your phone's settings to extend the amount of time it can stay alive.
You can enable Low Battery Mode at any time, however, and reap the benefits of a more robust battery life even when your iPhone's battery level is full.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Battery." Slide the button "Low Power Mode" to on. , If you find PDFs of articles that you'd like to have long-term access to, you can save them to iBooks to be opened later (or sent to your computer, if you'd like to).
Open a PDF in your mobile web browser.
Tap anywhere on the screen to reveal the menu at the top of the window.
Tap the "Open in iBooks" button.
The PDF will automatically be saved to the iBooks app. , If there's a certain time of day or of the week that you regularly want to be free of messages and calls (some might say that 1-7AM every night is a time they'd rather not be disturbed) you can program Do Not Disturb to automatically turn on during that block of the day.
You can also schedule your Do Not Disturb time for everybody other than a specific contact, if you still want to receive messages from somebody that you think might be important.
Tap "Settings." Tap "Do Not Disturb." Tap the slider next to "Scheduled." Tap the "From/To" banner to set your Do Not Disturb time.
Tap the back button at the top-left corner of your screen.
Tap "Allow Calls From" and select a division of contacts that you would like to receive calls from during Do Not Disturb time. , If you have your message settings set so that a banner appears at the top of your screen when you receive a text, you can respond to it without having to leave the app you're currently on.
Wait until you see a message appear.
Swipe downwards from where the text notification displays.
Type your message into the text field that appears.
Tap the "Send" button on the right side of the screen. , Unlike most computers, there's no keyboard shortcut or button to undo typing that you've made on an iPhone.
However, you can revert text that you've typed to a previous version very easily.
Type text into any text field.
Shake your phone forward and backwards once, being careful not to shake so vigorously that you lose grip with it.
Tap "Undo Typing" to erase what you'd just written.
Repeat this procedure to either undo more typing or to redo typing you've just erased. , When you've just scrolled through an incredibly long article, blog, or feed on an app and want to return to the top of the window, you don't have to tire your thumb out by scrolling furiously.
Tap the top of the screen, where your battery, the time, and your network display and you'll jump to the top of the page you're currently on. , If you're looking for a particular section of a webpage and know what the words contained in that section are, you can search the phrase and be shown a list of all of the locations in a document where that phrase is mentioned.
Open any webpage or PDF in Safari.
Tap the address bar at the top of the screen.
Type your search into the address bar.
You're more likely to get results if this search is a single word.
At the bottom of the window, tap on the "In this document"/"On this page" banner, which displays how many instances (if any) of your search term exist on the page you're looking at.
Tap the up and down arrows at the bottom-left corner of the screen to navigate through search results. , Your iPhone is equipped with motion sensor that allow it to tell when it's pointing upwards or downwards.
If you've ever wanted to know how flat a surface is, you can do so with the phone's Compass app.
Open the "Compass" app.
Swipe left on the screen to reveal the level function.
Place the phone flat on a surface.
If the screen reads "0°," this means the surface it's on is perfectly level.
If it does not, move the phone until the two white circles sit perfectly within one another.
For more accurate results, make sure your camera lens isn't propping your phone up slightly, changing the reading that the level gives.
About the Author
Jose Lee
Specializes in breaking down complex crafts topics into simple steps.
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