Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Can't Send Photo Messages on Google Fi? Fix This Setting on Your iPhone
There's a serious issue with Google Fi's service for iPhone that prevents sending any MMS pictures via the Messages app. The problem doesn't affect all iPhone users on Google Fi, but if you're like me and keep getting that frustrating "Not Delivered" alert, there's a fix.
How To: Stop Your iPhone from Turning on Every Time You Pick It Up
When you pick up your iPhone, the display turns on. Often, that's convenient since you want to use your iPhone anyway. But think about those times you're simply picking it up to take it with you somewhere. The display turns on anyway, and now you're accidentally responding to messages, turning on your flashlight, opening your camera — you get the gist.
How To: Fix the Wizards Unite 'Device Incompatible' Error for Rooted Android Phones
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has gained quite the fan base since its launch, but not without a few bumps along the way. Niantic, the game's developer, has a long-running history with trying to block all root users on Android. The methods will vary for each game, but this time around with Wizards Unite, they appear to have a new detection feature at play from the recent 2.9.0 update. Let's find out what's going on.
How To: Open Instagram Straight to the Story Camera to Bypass Your Feed & Start Capturing Right Away
When it comes to shooting a great Instagram story, spontaneity is often key. Who doesn't love seeing something unexpected pop up on their feed? That said, to catch those moments, you need to be quick, and the standard method for opening Instagram's Story camera isn't that. Instead, try this method the next time you need to document something in a flash.
How To: Enable Dark Mode on Your OnePlus with Android 10
OnePlus often introduces unique features that receive praise from the smartphone community. But they can sometimes change things up and confuse their users as well. Take dark mode, for example, which became a huge hit thanks to Android 10. Both Google and Samsung offer their dark mode settings in the same general location, but OnePlus took a slightly different approach here.
How To: There's a Fun Way to Switch Apps with Samsung's Gesture Controls
While Samsung's three-tabbed gesture controls are pretty intuitive, there's still a learning curve. By removing the buttons, you seemingly lose the ability to jump between apps with the quick switch gesture. I say seemingly since there's still a way, it's just not very obvious.
How To: There's a Faster Way to Open Recent Files on Your iPhone
With the updated Files app in iOS 13, iPhone users finally have decent file browser. But, as with any file browser, it can easily become crowded, making it hard to find the files you want.
How To: Samsung's New Lock Screen Shortcut Makes Your Galaxy's Flashlight Ridiculously Fast
Your Galaxy's built-in flashlight is handy, but if it takes you more than a split second to turn it on, it's not as useful as it could be. Thanks to One UI 2, you're now just a swipe away from instantly lighting up the room.
How To: The Fastest Way to Select Multiple Photos on Your iPhone
Whether it's to delete a few photos or share a bunch with another app, there are times when you need to select several pictures at once. This would usually be annoying since you'd have to tap every picture you wanted to select, but there's a much faster way to batch select.
How To: Save Both a Home & Work Address on Google Maps When You Work from Home
Google Maps lets you set home and work locations for quick access to navigation. In fact, these two locations are so central to the Maps experience that if you don't have both saved, the app can be a little naggy about it. But if you work from home, there's just one address to use, so what are you supposed to do?
How To: Add a Dark Mode Toggle to Android 10's Quick Settings on Your OnePlus
The biggest new feature in Android 10 is the system-wide dark mode. Both Samsung and Google phones have it, so third-party support is everywhere. The only problem is OnePlus forgot to include a way to quickly toggle dark mode on and off.
How To: Record Video with Two Cameras at the Same Time on Your iPhone
The iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max introduced a new rear camera system to the iOS ecosystem. Each model has a new ultra-wide lens in addition to the wide one, and the Pros have a telephoto lens. Both have improved selfie cams too. With so many lenses, it can be challenging to choose which to film with, but why pick when you could shoot with two at once?
How To: Become a Better Reader Using Apple Books' Reading Goals
Whether you've made a resolution to try and read more books this year or are just looking to set time aside to listen to an audiobook a little bit each day, building good reading habits can be tough with a busy life. However, with iOS 13, Apple Books includes reading goals, which might give you that little extra bit of encouragement and accountability to help you reach your goals.
How To: Dance TikTok's Footshake Challenge in 3 Different Ways
Whether you call it the foot shake or foot dance, videos of people tapping their feet together have been and still are blowing up all over TikTok. If you want to get in on the action but can't follow along with all of the fast-paced TikToks, we'll slow it down a bit for you and a friend.
How To: Add & Use More Accounts on Instagram for Easy Profile Switching
When you have a personal Instagram account but also manage other profiles — like ones for work, your entrepreneurial startup, an alter ego, or your famous pet, to name just a few examples — how do you manage them all from the same device?
How To: Switch To Your Finsta In Just One Tap
If you have two or more accounts logged into Instagram at any given time, you likely know how confusing it can get. You could like content, post pics, and share stories from the wrong account, as well as perform embarrassing searches that show up in the history of a shared work profile. Switching accounts is easy to forget once you open the app, so do it beforehand instead.
How To: Purge Your 'Following' List with Instagram's New Sorting Features
Is your Instagram feed a bit cluttered? Maybe you're seeing posts from people you don't even recognize. Perhaps the content isn't interesting. Whatever the case, it's common after years of having an account to follow too many users whose posts just aren't doing it anymore. Luckily, Instagram has an easy way for you to purge unwanted accounts from your following list.
How To: Apps & Websites Send Your Activity to Facebook — Here's How to View, Manage & Delete It
It's pretty much a given at this point that Facebook has a lot of data on us. While you might be conscious of the data you share with Facebook when you post, upload photos, or chat with friends on Messenger, you might not be thinking about all the data it receives from websites and apps you use outside the social media giant. Now, you can actually do something about it.
iOS 13: You Can Still Delete & Rearrange Apps by Long-Pressing — You Just Have to Do It Right
The new gestures in iOS seem, at first, to replace the old way of doing things. Rearranging and deleting apps from your home screen is totally different now, right? Well, not really. You can still do it the old way, if you know how.
How To: Find a Friend's TikTok in Seconds & Share Your Own with TikCodes
Like other popular social media apps, TikTok features a tagging system — dubbed TikCode — to follow people in your immediate vicinity. Instead of searching for their username, you can scan their TikCode, and TikTok will launch their page immediately. Of course, you have a TikCode of your own, so you can share yours with others in the same way.
How To: Make Text Pop in Instagram Stories with 3D-Like Drop Shadow Effects for Any Font
There are tons of apps to help you create unique and compelling posts and stories on Instagram, but you already have the tools you need to make something eye-catching. You can insert line breaks in captions, create translucent overlays for photos, rainbow-up your story font, and even add a 3D text effect to your stories.
How To: 7 Tips to Improve Your Privacy & Safety on Twitter
As fun as Twitter is, it can also quickly turn scary. Anonymous, aggressive, and troll accounts can attack you for your tweets and stalk your every move. While you could make your profile private and block users, there are lesser-known privacy and security features that you can switch to improve your safety online.
How To: Stay Updated on Anyone's Tweets Without Following Them
Following someone on Twitter is an investment. You virtually agree to have their opinions, tirades, and hot takes spewed across your timeline. It can get annoying real quick if they're known to post controversial comments periodically. However, there are other ways to stay updated on someone's tweets without you having to hit the follow button and go all in.
How To: Add Invisible Hashtags in Your Instagram Story to Show Up in Search Without Uglifying Your Content
Spreading your reach to new audiences on Instagram takes time and effort. It's not only about taking unique photos and curating an exciting feed. You should choose the time of day wisely, connect with popular brands, and take advantage of hashtags. Unfortunately, hashtags can make it seem like you're trying too hard, but you can make them invisible — in stories, at least.
How To: Make Twitter Less Awful by Muting Words & Usernames from Your Feed
Twitter can be a wonderful place for people to express their emotions and chat with each other in brief. However, it can also be a breeding ground for hateful comments, foul language, and a whole lot of political talk.
How To: Steal Your Friends' Cool Instagram Stories Effects
When watching stories in your Instagram feed, there's a high probability that you'll come across an AR filter that you'll want to try out for yourself. A quick browse and search in the Effect Gallery will bring up nothing in most cases. But all of that unproductive work isn't necessary because there's a faster and simpler way to get the AR effect in Instagram Stories, and it works all of the time.
How To: Start Shooting a New TikTok in a Split Second with This Trick
If you have a great idea for a TikTok, you probably need to take your time to execute it perfectly. But what if something crazy and unexpected is happening in front of you, perfect for an impromptu video? You don't want to miss the action, but getting all the way to TikTok's camera might take too long — that is, if you don't know this trick.
How To: The Quickest Way to Start a New Instagram Post
Time is money, so there's profit to be had in tricks and shortcuts that make daily tasks faster on your iPhone. Take Instagram, for example. You can cut out a whole step in the posting process using this one, simple trick.
How To: The 5 Best Phones for Social Media Addicts & Influencers in 2020
The top five apps of the 2010s were all social media apps of some kind, and the fact that's not surprising to you says a lot. We may use them for other reasons here and there, but our phones are social media machines at their cores. The thing is, some make better machines than others.
How To: Remove & Disable Photo Tags on Twitter for Better Account Privacy
If you don't want to be found on Twitter, there are several ways to do that without making your account private. For instance, you can choose an obscure username, omit your real name, or pick a random avatar. But there are lesser-known features deep in your settings that can also protect your privacy online, including preventing photo tags.
How To: Hide Facebook Messenger Groups Without Letting Other People Know You Left
Group chats in Facebook Messenger can devolve into outright noise pollution as people chit chat randomly and bombard you with distracting notifications. Unfortunately, leaving the group outright alerts everyone inside, so if you want to get out of the thread unnoticed, what exactly can you do?
How To: The Genius Way to Track Down the TikTok Song Stuck in Your Head
Songs new and old are given a fresh purpose through the TikTok meme machine, but it can be tricky to figure out where a track originally comes from. Sure, you can tap the name of the song to see the source on TikTok, but if it were a snippet uploaded by someone other than the track's creator, the song title likely wouldn't be listed. Luckily, there is an easy way to figure it out.
How To: Lock Down Your Social Media Accounts with These 7 Useful Security Tips
As long as you're on the internet, you can be hacked. With an estimated 2.65 billion social media users, these apps are prime targets for hackers.
How To: Unroll a Twitter Thread for Easier Reading
While tweetstorms were a part of Twitter since the beginning, threads, which makes tweetstorms more viable, didn't show up until late-2017. Still, threading multiple tweets at once to create long-form stories, opinions, tirades, and other lengthy Twitter posts, can be hard to digest. However, you can make reading them easier with just a single message.
How To: Unblock People & Websites on Facebook for iPhone or Android
It's easy to block a person or a website from appearing in your Facebook feed, but it isn't as easy to undo that. Thankfully, there are still ways to unblock people directly from your phone.
How To: See View Counts for Your TikTok Videos
A huge part of the fun that comes with TikTok is watching your videos go viral. To that end, the popular social media app has a simple way to let you instantly see how many people viewed your videos and photos
How To: Find Everyone Who Quoted a Specific Tweet Using the Twitter App
If there's an influential tweet, you can see what people are saying about it by reading its comment thread. But what about quote tweets, aka tweets someone posted on their own timeline that quote the initial tweet? These don't show up in comment threads, but there is a way to find them.
How To: Everything You Need to Know About Pinning a Tweet
Pinning a tweet is a great way to get the point across because it's the first post people see when they visit your Twitter profile. When you pin a tweet, reply, or retweet, it sticks to the top of your profile, whether you create new tweets or not. It's the perfect spot to place one of your more popular tweets, a fantastic blog you wrote, or even just a joke that shows your personality.
How To: Use Incognito Mode in Google Maps to Keep Your Search & Location History Private
Google just recently added an incognito mode feature to Google Maps for iPhone and Android. With that, you can now use Maps in private at any time, which means you can browse and search with peace of mind.
How To: Leave a Facebook Group You're Not Interested in Anymore
Whatever it is you're into, Facebook Groups are a great way to connect with others that share your interests. And beyond matching you up with like-minded people, Groups also give you access to deals on items, help you organize play dates with families in the same area, and so much more.