30+ iPhone tricks that will make things so much easier

Your iPhone is jam-packed with features that make your life easier. Steve Jobs planned it that way by emphasising “rationality and functionality” from the very beginning, according to Smithsonian Magazine. But its cool features go far beyond the obvious, and chances are, you’re not even scratching the surface of all the amazing and totally unexpected things your trusty little companion can do. We’re about to change that with this comprehensive list of iPhone tricks you won’t know how you ever lived without. You’re welcome!

You can find even more hidden iPhone hacks here.

The Measure app isn’t just for measuring things. It also has a spirit level feature that will come in handy for DIY projects at home. Since a spirit level measures how parallel or perpendicular something is to the ground, it can help you hang shelves or place works of art evenly over your mantel. Simply open the app and choose the Level option to the right to activate it.

This is what the ‘i’ in iPhone stands for.

Having trouble remembering when you did something? Have no fear—your iPhone has been tracking your movements since you first activated the phone. If you need to pinpoint the day you went somewhere special or even remember the date of a trip to the hospital, this information can be useful. Go to Settings, then choose Privacy. Within the Privacy section, go to Location Settings. Scroll to the bottom, select System Services, and then find your Frequent Locations. Prepare to be amazed to see the list of all the places you have visited and how frequently you’ve been to them. While this is super useful, it is also a little disconcerting when you really think about it.

Learn what hackers can do with just your phone number.

If you’ve ever tried to move your cursor in a text only to find yourself stabbing at your phone’s screen with your finger, you need a trackpad on your phone. Here’s an iPhone trick that will come as a surprise to most people: You can turn your iPhone into a trackpad as long as it has iOS 12 or a more recent update. Just start typing in an email or text message, then press and hold a finger on the space bar on your iPhone’s keyboard. When you do this, the other keys will fade to grey, and you can use the area as a trackpad.

If you always have your phone with you, you don’t really need to buy a separate fitness tracker. Your iPhone automatically tracks your steps, just like a Fitbit does. Open the Health app that came installed on your iPhone to look at how many steps you’ve taken with your phone each day since you got it. If you have an Apple watch or iPad, the app will send the data to those connected devices, too. The Health app counts your steps and how far you’ve walked or run each day.

Did you know that flipping a coin to make a decision can actually make you smarter? It can also, at the very least, help you wade through your pros and cons to get to the decision you truly want to make. “When we see the result of the coin toss and react with either pleasure or disappointment, we realise that we actually did have a preference for one option over another whether we knew it or not,” writes Hal McDonald, PhD, for Psychology Today. However, not everyone carries around cash and coins these days. Your iPhone can be a convenient substitute. Simply talk to your Apple virtual assistant, saying, “Hey, Siri, flip a coin!” She will then give you the result of the virtual coin toss.

As long as you have an iPhone that’s at least as recent as the 6s, you can use your device as a tape measure. Go to the Measure app, which will give you instructions to move your device. Hold up the iPhone and move it around the room, allowing it to acquire a frame of reference for what you’ll be measuring. Continue to move the phone until a circle appears; a dot will be in the middle of the circle. Now frame your iPhone’s screen so that the dot is pointed directly at the point where your measurement should start. Tap the Add option. Now, slowly move your iPhone until the dot within the circle is over the point where you want the measurement to end. Tap the Add option once again. Your measurement should now appear. Just be warned that while this is a pretty handy iPhone trick, it isn’t quite as accurate as a manual tape measure.

Have you ever been reading a magazine only to find that certain passages were teeny-tiny and impossible to read? If that happens to you again, you don’t have to rummage through junk drawers to find an old magnifying glass. Your iPhone will act as a magnifying class with a few clicks on the screen. To access this iPhone trick, go to the main Settings of your iPhone, then click on Accessibility. Tap on Magnifier, then switch it to on. Now it will magnify anything you point the phone at. Open Magnifier on any screen by triple-clicking the side button if you have an iPhone 10 or later model. To adjust the magnification, move the slider that should then appear on the screen.

Transforming your iPhone into a recording device is extremely simple. Open the Voice Memos app and press the red Record button. It will then record the audio of what is going on, much like a tape recorder does. Tap the red button to finish the recording, then title it and save it as desired.

If you’ve ever accidentally pressed the flashlight button on a sleeping iPhone screen, you may well also know the humiliation of sending its blinding light into a room as you try to turn it off. Well, you don’t have to worry about a disruption being so severe in the future since you can customise exactly how bright you want your flashlight to be. Just swipe down from the top of the screen (or swipe up, depending on your model) to open the control centre. Now press and hold down the Flashlight button on the screen. A slider will appear on your screen that you can move up and down to adjust your flashlight to be the exact level of brightness you want.