5 Tips to Make Your iPhone More Useful
Apple touts iOS as the most advanced mobile operating system in the world. And there’s actually a lot of truth in that claim. Apple’s iOS is home to a multitude of impressive features and capabilities. In fact, a great many of these go beyond the requisite messaging, calling, browsing, picture-taking and social networking functions of iOS devices to make your iPhone more useful.
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Let Siri read to you Siri has a voice; you just have to make her use it
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Don't forget the milk Get a reminder when you visit a certain location
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Your iPhone's vibrations don't have to be boring Customize your device's vibrations
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Location, location, location Oh, the places you've frequently been to
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How much storage am I using? Don't let your iPhone be a storage hog
In this AppAdvice guide, we highlight five of our favorite “unsung” iOS features — so little known that you’ve probably never heard about them, let alone used them.
Apple's iOS is home to a multitude of impressive features and capabilities, many of which you've probably never heard about, let alone used
Be prepared for an amazing treat.
Let Siri read to you
Siri has a voice; you just have to make her use it
Siri, Apple’s digital voice assistant, can do a lot more than give you directions or the weather forecast. It can also read to you.
You just need to enable the Speech tool and its two main features, Speak Selection and Speak Screen, to take advantage of Siri’s text-to-speech capability.
How to enable Siri text-to-speech
Launch the Settings app from the home screen of your iOS device.
Find and tap the option labeled General.
Find and tap the option labeled Accessibility.
Tap the option for Speech.
Toggle the switches for Speak Selection and Speak Screen to turn these features on.
You can also switch on Highlight Content in the same settings menu so that text is automatically highlighted while Speech is in progress, thereby letting you easily follow or know at a glance what’s being spoken.
When enabled, Speak Selection offers a Speak button in the contextual menu whenever text is selected, regardless of the app. After selecting Speak, Siri will read the selected text.
Speak Screen is even more impressive. When enabled, a swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen will have Siri read all of the text on the screen. A menu overlay will also be provided allowing you to change Siri’s speaking pace and move the reading of text forward or back.
Don't forget the milk
Get a reminder when you visit a certain location
The Reminders app is a nice tool for those of us who have a hard time remembering things. It’s even better when paired with the location-based properties of iOS.
Imagine this scenario: You need to be reminded to call your mother when you get home. Siri can do this. Simply tell Siri, “Remind me to call mom when I get home.” Then, the moment you arrive home, the Reminders app’s geofencing wizardry will kick in to alert you with a reminder to call your mother!
This nifty tool works only when a location is in your Contacts app. For example, telling Siri to “Remind me to pick up milk at Target” will work as a location reminder only if the store’s address has been duly entered in your Contacts app.
The associated location services need to have been enabled for Siri to be able to create location-based reminders. If not, Siri will prompt you to adjust your device’s settings. In any case, just follow the following steps to make sure that they’re enabled.
How to enable location services for location-based reminders
Launch the Settings app from the home screen of your iOS device.
Scroll down to the option labeled Privacy and tap it.
Tap the option labeled Location Services.
Find Reminders in the list of apps and then tap it.
Under the heading Allow Location Access, tap While Using the App (as opposed to Never).
Tap the Location Services button to go back to the previous settings menu.
Scroll down to the option labeled System Services and then tap it.
Toggle the switch for Location-Based Alerts to turn it on.
Your iPhone's vibrations don't have to be boring
Customize your device's vibrations
Apple’s iOS includes a series of default vibration patterns, but these may not be working out for you.
Perhaps you’re missing some notifications because the vibrations configured on your iPhone aren’t prominent enough. Perhaps you’re often feeling so-called “phantom alerts” (which trick users into thinking a message has reached their device) when your iPhone is resting in your pocket. Or perhaps you don’t find each default vibration pattern to be unique enough, making it tricky to distinguish between alerts for calls, texts, email, and social media based on your iPhone’s vibration notification alone.
Fortunately, these problems can be solved using a hidden feature in iOS, which allows you to configure custom vibration patterns for various incoming notifications.
How to create a custom vibration pattern
Launch the Settings app from the home screen of your iOS device.
Scroll down and tap the option labeled Sounds.
Scroll down and, under the heading Sounds and Vibration Patterns, tap the alert type you’d like to create a custom vibration for.
For this example, we’ll create a custom vibration for Tweet. By default, vibrations for tweets are turned off in iOS, although Apple does offer seven standard choices, including alert, heartbeat, and symphony.
Tap Create New Vibration.
Tap to start creating a vibration pattern, which is playable and recordable.
Once you’re satisfied with your creation, tap Save.
Enter a name for your newly created vibration pattern, then tap Save.
Once it’s saved, a custom vibration pattern may be selected and used for alert types other than the one it was originally created for. This means that the custom vibration pattern created for Tweet in the example may be selected and used for, say, Ringtone, Text tone, New Mail, or Facebook Post.
What’s more, you can set custom vibration patterns for a particular person in your Contacts app, enabling you to immediately know that that person is the one calling or texting you just by the way your iPhone vibrates.
How to set custom vibration patterns for a specific contact
Launch the Contacts app from the home screen of your iOS device.
Find the contact you’d like to set custom vibration patterns for and tap it.
On the contact’s details page, tap Edit.
Tap the option labeled Ringtone or the option labeled Text Tone.
Tap Vibration.
Under the heading Custom, tap to select one of the available custom vibration patterns.
Alternatively, tap Create New Vibration to set a new custom vibration pattern from scratch.
Tap Ringtone or Text Tone at the upper right corner to go back to the previous screen.
Tap Done.
Location, location, location
Oh, the places you've frequently been to
Overall, enabling location services on your iOS device can be a positive experience. After all, they help you find nearby coffee shops or theaters, or tell you how to get from one location to another. What you probably don’t know about location services is that it tracks the places you most frequent.
Your iPhone knows where you've frequently been, but only if you let it
By default, tracking of frequent locations is turned on. If not, you can turn it on yourself by following these steps.
How to enable tracking of frequent locations
Launch the Settings app from the home screen of your iOS device.
Scroll down to the option labeled Privacy and tap it.
Tap the option labeled Location Services.
Scroll down to the option labeled System Services and then tap it.
Find the option labeled Frequent Locations and then tap it.
Toggle the switch to turn on Frequent Locations.
Know where you've been.
In the Frequent Locations section (the same section where you can toggle the tool), over time you’ll see a listing of your most frequently visited locations by city and state. Drill further down and you’ll see these locations on a map. One final click will indicate the specific time you were at a location — and for how long.
How much storage am I using?
Don't let your iPhone be a storage hog
If you own an iPhone 7 with 32GB of available data storage — or an older iPhone with even less capacity, for that matter — this tool may be for you.
Some apps use a lot of storage, especially those that include images and videos. To see the apps taking up the most storage on your device, and to delete unwanted apps hogging precious space, follow these steps.
How to manage storage on your iOS device
Launch the Settings app from the home screen of your iOS device.
Find the option labeled General and tap it.
Find the option labeled Storage & iCloud Usage and tap it.
Under the heading Storage, tap the option for Manage Storage.
On the Manage Storage screen, you’ll be able to see the total amount of used storage and what remains available. You can also view the amount of storage being used by each app. If you’re so inclined, you can also …
Scroll down to a particular app, tap it, select the Delete App option, and confirm that you want to Delete App to, well, delete the app and free up the space it previously occupied.