How To Take Hands-Free Photos And Other IPhone Hacks You May Not Know

Did you know there are tons of iPhone hacks out there designed to make life simpler? Often these slicker features aren’t even publicized, but knowing these hidden tricks and settings will help you complete tasks on your phone in a snap, even when it comes to features and apps you use regularly.

We’ve rounded up 10 of the most useful ways to tap and swipe quickly. Not only will these iPhone hacks shave time off short tasks, like scrolling up on a webpage, but they’ll also make capturing hands-free photos a breeze.

Keep Photos Private

There’s a way to keep sensitive images from appearing in your general photo library, your albums or in the Photos widget on your Home Screen.

Go into Photos. Tap on the image, select a group, and then tap the Share icon. (This is the box with an arrow pointing up.) Scroll down and tap Hide.

To find photos after you’ve marked them hidden, go to Albums and scroll down to your Hidden folder, which is accessible by entering your passcode. If you want to go one step further and hide your Hidden folder, go to Settings, tap Photos, and toggle the Show Hidden Album button to off.

Change Your Default Browser

Tired of your phone asking you which browser to use to open a link? As long as your phone is running the fastest iOS, you can change your default browser. Make sure you have the third party app, such as Google Chrome or Firefox, downloaded on your phone. Open Settings and scroll down to find the browser app. Tap the app, then hit Default Browser. A checkmark will appear to confirm your decision.

Take A Hands-free Photo

To snap a picture without using your hands, you can use your phone’s voice control to “hit” the manual buttons you’re normally use to take a photo. Start by going to Settings and then to Accessibility. Tap Voice Control to set it up. Since you can use your side volume buttons to manually snap an image, say, “Hey, Siri, open camera.” Then say, “Turn down volume.” (“Turn up volume” will work too.)

Access The Back Tap Feature

Did you know the back of your iPhone is actually one big button? Once set up, you can use this feature to execute many actions. Go to Settings, then Accessibility and Touch. Scroll down to Back Tap. Choose between Double Tap and Triple Tap. To use the back tap feature to take pictures, allow Double Tap to access your Camera and set Triple Tap to activate the Volume Down button. Then when you double-tap the back of your iPhone, your camera will open. A triple-tap will snap the picture.

Scroll Up Instantly

If you’re down at the bottom of a webpage and want to return to the top, you don’t need to scroll all the way up. Use this handy hack to jump back to the top in one tap. Simply tap the top center of your screen, directly below the front-facing camera, where the clock is. You can use this feature on web pages and inside apps. On a newer iPhone, which has a notch at the top, you can tap either side of the notch to do the same thing.

Measure Anything

Did you known your phone uses augmented reality to gauge the size and dimension of objects? Open the pre-installed Measure app. Start at one end of what you’d like to measure and click the “+” button. Move the camera to the other side and click “+” again. The measurement will automatically appear.

This tool can come in handy if you’re shopping for furniture and need to know if the item you’re buying will fit in the space you’ve allotted for it. You can also figure out how wide your door is for deliveries, or measure an area of your house for home improvement projects.

Make A Call With One Button

If you talk to the same person regularly or simply want to redial the last number you called, you can. Open your phone app, then Keypad and tap the green phone button. It’ll show you the last number you called. Then tap the green button again to make the call. It’s always nice to save a few clicks.

Set Your Music To Stop Playing

You probably already know you can set a timer with your Clock app and have an alarm play when your time is up. But did you know if you’re listening to music, you can set it to make Spotify or Apple Music stop? This is helpful if you like to fall asleep to music but don’t want it playing all night long.

Hit Clock then Timer and scroll all the way down to the bottom, where you’ll see the When Timer Ends button. Scroll to the Stop Playing option. Click it and hit Set in the upper right. The phone will stop playing music once the timer is finished. Then set your timer and start it. Just remember to change this setting back to a sound if you actually need it to alert you — like when you’re cooking something in the oven.

Clean Up Your Home Screen

If you have to swipe through several Home Screen pages to find an app, you’ll love this trick. Press and hold an app you don’t use very frequently and select Remove App. A few options will appear, such as Delete App or Remove from Home Screen. If you choose the latter, it will remove the icon but not the app entirely. (It’ll still be accessible from your App Library. Plus you can add it back later if you’d like.) If you don’t want the app at all, click Delete App.

Erase Text By Shaking Your Phone

If you’re in the middle of a text and realize you are writing to the wrong recipient, give your phone a quick shake and click Undo. This works whenever you’re using the iPhone keyboard on apps like Notes or writing enamils. You can also bring your text back by shaking your phone again and clicking the Redo button.

Setting and using these 10 iPhone hacks will make your digital life a bit easier. With new features being added to each iOS release, it’s worth taking the time to stay current on how to make your phone work for you.

By Emily O’Brien, for Newsy. 

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