25 Useful iPhone Tips

1. How to Make the iPhone’s LED Light Blink When You Receive a Call, Text Message, or Notification

The iPhone’s LED light can be more than just a flashlight or a flash for photos. It can blink when you receive text messages or other notifications. This is similar to the Blackberry’s popular red blinking light (but not quite as good because it’s on the iPhone’s back). Here are step-by-step instructions on setting it up.

2. Video Tip: A Better Way to Organize Lots of Apps at a Time

Do you cringe at the thought of organizing all of the apps on your iPhone into folders? Here’s a method that can make it a little easier:

3. How to Make an iPhone Ringtone From Your Own Music Using iTunes

Want to make your own ringtones from your own music and put it on the iPhone? We’ll walk you through it. Click here for our detailed step-by-step instructions. All it requires is iTunes! One of our most popular posts (it’s easier than it looks).

4. Quickly Add All Holidays to the iPhone’s Calendar

There’s no need to painstakingly add holidays into the iPhone’s Calendar one by one. Add them all at once! You can do it via the Subscribe feature in the iPhone’s Calendar app. Click here for step-by-instructions (you can also use this tip to pull down calendars for other events, foreign holidays, and even schedules of your favorite sports teams).

5. How to Sort Photos Into Albums on the iPhone

Do the photos on your iPhone need organizing? The built-in Photos app now lets you create albums. You can also do cool things with the albums like play them as an instant slide show and add music from your iPhone’s music library. Click here for the full tip.

6. How to Childproof Your iPhone

Childprooding iPad with Binder Clip

Image via Make.

What’s the simplest, cheapest way to childproof your iPhone? Launch an app, then put a binder clip over the home button. This will keep kids from quitting out of apps. There are also many accessories and even Settings on the iPhone to help childproof your iPhone. Check out the full tip here.

7. How to Quickly Share All of a Contact’s Details Using the iPhone’s Built-in vCard Feature

Sometimes you want to share more than a contact’s phone number. With the iPhone’s built-in vCard feature, you can share an entire iPhone contact’s details like email, postal address, etc, at the same time. The feature is built into the iPhone’s Contacts app, and the vCard can be sent via email or text message. All the recipient has to do is tap on the vCard and then add the contact. Easy! Here’s the fully illustrated details and instructions.

8. How to Quickly Launch Your Favorite Website Using the iPhone’s Spotlight Search

Is there a website that you go to several times a day? You can add it to your home screen via a web clip, then search for and launch it just like an app using the iPhone’s Spotlight Search. Check out our instructions.

9. How to Activate Emoji on the iPhone

You know about emoji, right? Whaat?! You need to activate them right now. They are cute little graphics you can send in text messages and emails. Everyone loves emoji. And they’re now easier than ever to activate. Here’s how to activate emoji.

10. Use Text Shortcuts to Quickly Insert Your Favorite Emoji

Now that you’ve activated your emoji, you may notice it’s no small chore to insert them into text. Well, here’s a sweet little tip, just use one of the iPhone’s powerful Text Shortcuts to quickly insert your favorite emoji. For example, you could assign the heart emoji to the letters “hrt”. When you type those three letters, they will instantly be replaced by the heart emoji. Here’s the full tip.

11. Label Your Folders With Emoji

Why reserve those cute little emoji for only SMS or email. Use them to label folders as well.

12. How to Add Words to the iPhone’s Dictionary (To Prevent Autocorrect From Annoying You!)

Auto-correction spells out a word

We all have words we use on a daily basis that aren’t found in any English dictionary. And it can be really annoying when the iPhone’s Autocorrect feature “fixes” them. To prevent this, simply add the word to the iPhone’s “dictionary” (ok, not really the dictionary, but it works just the same). Check out the full tip for more info.

13. How to Add a Pause to Telephone Numbers

It’s annoying having to maneuver your way through an automated telephone system. “For customer service, press 1 now.” Hate it. The iPhone can help you out by allowing you to add pauses in between numbers. This makes it possible to automatically type in pin codes after you dial the main number. To add a pause, simply hold your finger on the asterisk key, and it will place a comma into the number.

14. Tips for Combatting Text Message Spam

The amount of text message spam sent every day seems to be growing. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely stop it short of turning off text messages all together. But there is a way where you don’t have to pay for each spam message and at the same time report spammers to the carriers. Click here for step-by-step instructions and full article.

15. How to Make the iPhone Beep More Than Once, Every Two Minutes, for Text Messages, In Case You Missed the First One

Have you ever missed an important text message because the iPhone was out of hearing? Well, the iPhone can repeat that text-message alert every two minutes up to ten times! Check out our step-by-step instructions for setting it up.

16. Turn on the iPhone’s Private Browsing Mode to Cover Your Tracks

We all visit websites that we don’t want other people to know we’ve visited, from medical sites to more, er, salacious content. The iPhone’s Private Browsing Mode leaves no trace on your iPhone of your web browsing activities. So go ahead, spend an hour looking at Anne Hathaway photos. Here’s how to turn on Private Browsing mode.

17. Clean Up the iPhone’s Spotlight Search So It Shows Only Apps (or Contacts, Songs, Etc)

Spotlight Search iPhone

Spotlight Search is one the iPhone’s most useful features. It can help sort through everything on your iPhone to help you quickly launch apps (or make a call, find an email, etc). But you may notice that, by default, Spotlight Search is cluttered with stuff you may not be searching for. You can tweak Spotlight Search to show whatever type of content you want, like just apps. Here’s how.

18. How to Turn Off the Unread Badge on the iPhone’s Mail App

If you’re like me, you probably have lots of unread email, mostly because it’s spam (or ham, as some people call the type of spam we voluntarily sign up for). And a red badge on the iPhone’s Mail app serves as an annoying constant reminder of all that unread email. Is it really useful to tell me 200+ unread messages are waiting? Here are instructions on how to turn it off.

19. How to Show Battery Percentage on the iPhone

It’s tough to tell how much of the iPhone’s battery is left using only the little green battery icon in the upper righthand corner, especially when the battery starts to get low. Having a number is way more accurate and useful. Click here for instructions on how to turn on the percentage battery indicator.

20. Need a Louder Ringtone? Try This One.

iPhone ringtone icon

Is your iPhone ringtone not loud enough? Well, try this one. It sounds like a normal ringing cell phone, but trust me, once on the iPhone, it will be louder than your other ringtones:

Right click to save then drag it into Ringtones in the left sidebar of iTunes:

Loud iPhone Ringtone

21. How to Remove the “Sent From My iPhone” Email Signature

The “Sent From My iPhone” signature that, by default, appears at the end of iPhone emails annoys many people. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to get rid of. Personally, I don’t mind it, as I think it gives email context, like saying, I sent this email while on the go so that’s why it’s short and to the point. But if you want to remove it, click here for step-by-step instructions for getting rid of that annoying signature.

22. Tip: What Does the iPhone’s Ringer Switch Mute and Not Mute? An Explanation

Did you know that if the iPhone’s ringer/mute switch is set to off, the iPhone will still make noise for certain functions? Save yourself some embarrassment and check out this tip.

23. How to Quickly Save Photos From the Web on the iPhone

If you see a picture on the web you’d like to save on your iPhone, maybe as a wallpaper or for something else, you can quickly and easily save it to your iPhone’s Photo Roll. Simply hold your finger on it until a pop-up menu appears, and tap Save Image. It’s that easy. Click here for the full explanation.

24. Get a Full Song Title By Holding Your Finger On It

Do you hate it when a long song title is truncated because of the iPhone’s small screen? Simply hold your finger on it and it will show the entire title.

25. How to Control the Volume for Ringtones and the iPhone’s General Audio Separately

The iPhone’s separate volume levels for ringtones and general audio is a little confusing. Basically, the iPhone’s volume buttons can change both the iPhone’s ringtone volume (for calls, text messages, etc) and general audio (music, video, etc) at different times. What? Exactly. Click here for an explanation of the whole confusing mess.

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6 Responses

  1. OR says:

    Great tips!! Just switched from HTC Evo to iPhone5. I used to have an app that would auto save pictures I received in texts. I’m a business owner and sometimes too busy to check phone, much less remember to save the pic at the time I receive it. Later it’s time consuming and I have to remember which ones I saved, etc. I really miss the auto save app and can’t find one for iPhone. Do you know of one?

  2. Ajh says:

    I found these tips by accident and I’m glad I did. I actually didn’t know some of these. The calendar one is particularly useful, and I never really thought of using emoji for my folder labels but it makes sense. Thank you!

  3. sarah says:

    Awesome site!! Thanks a lot for the tips :)

  4. judy says:

    LOVE IT. Thanks

  5. Greg H. says:

    Some EXCELLENT tips.

    A few minor things have changed with iOS 7, so hopefully you’ll be able to update for that at some point, but there’s lots of stuff here for folks to learn. Thanks.

  6. Fred says:

    The simplest, cheapest way to child proof your iPhone is to just keep it away from them. Like putting it on a table or something

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