After 12 years of the iPhone, it's no longer a novelty—and neither are most of the "hacks" that you'll find online. You probably already know that you should close out your background apps for faster performance or that you can put the device into Airplane Mode to charge it up more quickly.
Here's something you may not have considered,
though: with every operating system update comes new hidden tricks. Last
September, iOS 13, the latest software, introduced some fancy new features
like Dark Mode on all devices, but as with previous software rollouts, there
are some covert Easter eggs to discover.
Send Spam Calls to Voicemail
Sick of robocalls? You can now direct unknown callers
directly to your voicemail. Of course, some robocalls may spoof a friend or
relative's phone number so that it looks like they're calling you—and iOS can't
help you there—but otherwise, if the phone number isn't saved in your contacts,
you won't have to deal with it until later. Exceptions include phone numbers
that you've recently made an outgoing call to or phone numbers that Siri finds
in your email, for instance.
Settings > Phone >
Switch on Silence Unknown Callers.
Turn on Dark Mode Only at Night
If you already use a third-party keyboard app
like SwiftKey, this isn't new for you. However, if you don't, you can skip
paying for one of these apps.
QuickPath is turned on by
default when you download iOS 13. To turn it off, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Slide
to Type.
Pair Two Sets of AirPods to One iPhone
There's something romantic about sharing one of
your AirPods with someone so that you can both
hear the same song, but I've been handed my fair share of grimy, waxy AirPods
that I'd love to decline. If that sounds familiar, ask your friends to pair
their grody AirPods to your device.
This also works with wireless Beats headphones.
The following are all of the supported models that you can use with this
setting:
- AirPods Pro
- AirPods (1st generation) or later
- Solo Pro
- Powerbeats Pro
- Powerbeats3
- Beats Solo3 Wireless
- Beats Studio3 Wireless
- BeatsX
Connect your AirPods to
your iPhone > Tap the AirPlay icon in the Control
Center or from your lock screen or the app you're listening to
> Share Audio > Hold your friend's AirPods or Beats
headphones near your device (keep the AirPods in their case, but with the lid
open, but all others into pairing mode) > When your friend's headphones
appear on-screen, tap Share Audio.
Customize Your 'Do Not Disturb' Gates
With a parent who's been loyal Do Not Disturb
user for years, I've had several minor emergencies where I couldn't reach her.
No, she still hasn't turned off Do Not Disturb, but she has added me to a list
of contacts that can breach its ironclad gates. If you'd consider them an emergency
contact, you should consider adding them to that list.
Find the desired person
in Contacts > Tap Edit in the top right
corner > On the edit page, click either Ringtone or Text Tone >
At the top, you'll find Emergency Bypass, which will allow sounds
and vibrations from that person even when Do Not Disturb is enabled. You may
want to select a quiet ringtone if you choose to do this—after all, not every
text and call after bedtime is a dire emergency.
Charge Smarter, Not Harder
No reason to rehash #BatteryGate, but the
company's new "Optimized Battery Charging" feature is certainly a
response to the controversy.
"A battery’s lifespan is related to its
chemical age, which is more than just the length of time since the battery was
assembled," Apple writes on its website. "As lithium-ion
batteries chemically age, the amount of charge they can hold diminishes,
resulting in reduced battery life and reduced peak performance."
Optimized Battery Charging was introduced last
fall with the debut of iOS 13. It supposedly reduces wear-and-tear on the
battery by delaying charging past 80 percent. On-device machine learning
algorithms learn your charging habits so that the feature only kicks on when
your iPhone thinks it'll be plugged in for an extended period, like overnight.
The aim is to give you a full battery when you
do finally unplug, so if you typically wake up at 8 a.m., Optimized Battery
Charging will juice up that last 20 percent of the battery just before you
wake.
This setting is turned on
by default when you update to iOS 13. To turn it off, go
to Settings > Battery > Battery
Health > Optimized Battery Charging.
Play Radio Stations Through Siri
This feature isn't exclusive to iOS 13—a limited
number of iOS 12 users can enable it–but this is the first time that all iPhone
users can ask Siri to play a given radio station, from your local pop FM
channel to NPR.
Say "Hey Siri,"
and follow with "play [name of radio station] radio station."
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