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How To: If 'Messages' Consumes Too Much iPhone or iCloud Storage, Don't Delete Your Conversations Just Yet

When iOS starts barking at you that you've run out of iCloud or iPhone storage, a quick trip to your settings to see what the culprit is may show that Messages is one of the worst offenders. But if deleting message after message doesn't free up your storage much, it's likely because "Messages" doesn't really mean messages.

How To: Trigger iMessage Effects with Just a Keyword

One of the coolest aesthetic features of iMessage is its animated message effects. If you're like many users, you might even have discovered them by accident, where wishing your friend a "Happy Birthday!" or congratulating them on a promotion unexpectedly flooded your screen with balloons or confetti.

How To: Disable the iMessage Typing Bubble Indicator So Others Don't Know You're Currently Active in the Chat

Apple's iMessage is one of the main reasons to use an iPhone, and there's a lot you can do in chats without being overly complicated. But there's one issue that continues to drive people nuts, and that's the blue typing bubble indicator with the moving ellipsis (•••). Can you stop it? Not officially, but there are workarounds.

How To: You Can Run Shortcuts Right from Your iPhone's Lock Screen & Here Are 6 Ways to Do It

Shortcuts are meant to make your life easier, and iPhone shortcuts are no exception. They can use different triggers, manual or automated, to perform actions in the background, allowing you to do things like send a prewritten text message during a bad date or change your wallpaper at certain times of the day. However, sometimes it's not only about the shortcut itself but about how fast you can run it.

How To: Turn Your Samsung Galaxy Smartphone or Tablet into a Second Display for Your Computer

An iPad can serve as a second screen for a Mac via Sidecar, available since iPadOS 13, but Apple isn't the only manufacturer to support such a feature. Samsung has had a similar tool since One UI 3.1 that lets you turn certain Samsung Galaxy tablets into second displays for your PC — and there's a hidden feature that expands it to more tablets and even Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

How To: Apple's Weather App Just Got 13 New Features and Changes in the Latest iPhone Software Update

Apple's Weather app keeps getting better and more refined with each new software update. For example, 2023's big update gave us yesterday's weather, averages, and wind maps, while 2022's unleashes Lock Screen widgets, severe weather alerts, and an iPad version. Now, we have significant changes to feels-like details, an update to measurement units, more pollutant statistics, and more.

How To: Prevent Thieves from Turning On Your iPhone's Airplane Mode, So You Have a Better Chance to Track It Down

When an iPhone is lost or stolen, it's imperative to start tracking it via Find My as soon as possible, whether that's from a computer, tablet, or someone else's phone. However, if it's stolen, there's a good chance the thief or robber turns on Airplane Mode, blocking all communication with the iPhone. If this is a scary thought, you can prevent thieves from accessing Airplane Mode altogether.

How To: Use a Different Apple ID for Apple Music Without Using Family Sharing

Your Apple Music subscription is tied to the Apple ID that subscribed, so you can stream content from any iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or watchOS device that your Apple ID is signed in to. However, things get slightly more complicated when you want to listen to Apple Music on another device you use with a different Apple ID, such as a work iPhone. Complicated, but not impossible.

How To: Unlock the Apple Logo Emoji on Your iPhone, iPad, or Mac

Thousands of emoji are available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and you can use these in many of the apps you have installed on your Apple devices. But there's one emoji you'll likely never see on any of Apple's official emoji keyboards, and its absence may surprise you at first, considering it's embedded in virtually every Apple product. That emoji is, of course, the Apple logo icon.

How To: Find the Version Number for Any App on Your iPhone or iPad — Even Stock Apple Apps

From time to time, you may need to locate the version and build number for a particular app on your iPhone or iPad, but it's not at all obvious where you can find the information. Well, there's more than one place to look on iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, but none are perfect solutions. Knowing each method will ensure you can always find any app's real version number.

How To: This iPhone Setting Instantly Improves Video Quality When Shooting in Low Light

If you shoot videos with your iPhone in low-light situations, you may not always get the results you want. And that applies when recording video in 720p, 1080p, and even 4K resolutions. But there's an easy way to maximize your video's quality when filming in dark environments.

How To: The Trick That Lets You Link to Specific Start Times in YouTube Videos Right from Your Phone

You can add a timestamp to any YouTube video in just a few clicks from the desktop website on your computer but not from YouTube's iOS or Android app. Until YouTube adds a "start time" when sharing videos from the mobile app, you'll have to use one of these workarounds on your phone or tablet.

How To: Safari's New Summary Feature Boils Webpages Down to Key Highlights for You — Here's How It Works

Safari has a new feature that helps you discover the most beneficial aspects of a webpage without having to dig through the page or read the entire thing — and it works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It can make web browsing more efficient and websites easier to navigate while ensuring the visibility of important details.

How To: 15 Hidden iMessage Features for iPhone You Probably Didn't Know About

There are many things Apple doesn't tell you about its products, and that's definitely the case when it comes to its Messages app. Hidden features lurk in your SMS and iMessage conversations just waiting to be found, and we've unearthed some of the most secret ones.

How To: Prevent People Who Have Your Contact Information from Finding Your Instagram Account

Sharing your personal information can come up for any number of reasons: you may want to get in touch with a colleague after work or you've been involved in a car accident and need to stay in contact with the other driver. Unfortunately, giving out information can be the key for others to find your social media accounts, such as Instagram, whether you want it to happen or not.

How To: Set Up Wireless Debugging on Android 11 to Send ADB Commands Without a USB Cable

From booting into Fastboot mode with a single command to installing mods without root access, there's no shortage of reasons to use ADB. The catch, though, you had to be tied to a computer with a USB connection. However, a new feature in Android 11 finally allows you to run ADB commands over Wi-Fi instead of being tethered.

How To: Redial Busy Phone Lines Automatically on Your iPhone or Android Phone

Whether you're calling the unemployment office, a popular radio contest, or any other phone line that gets super busy, having to recall the number manually is a pain. Whatever you do, however, don't punch in the same digits over again and again — our smartphones can help do it for us, saving our time (and sanity).

How To: Use Google Maps or Waze with Siri Instead of Apple Maps

When driving, you can get directions hands-free by asking Siri. You can also make general map searches, show a location's details, call a query's phone number, and view traffic details. However, Siri defaults to Apple Maps for all those. If you prefer Google Maps, Waze, or another third-party navigation app, the map-based Siri commands won't work. But that doesn't mean you can't still use Siri.

How To: Make Typing Text Easier to Read on iPhone, iPad, or Mac with Apple's Hover Typing Tool

If you can't always see what you're typing very well on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you no longer have to adjust the font size for the app or entire system just to read your writing more easily. One of Apple's newer Accessibility features gives you a customizable, magnified view in a floating window so you can see every character with crystal-clear clarity in real time.

How To: Bypass School Internet Filters to Unblock Websites

School internet filters serve a valid purpose—they keep students from wandering off into the deep corners of the web while still allowing at least some internet access. But a lot of these restrictions are completely ridiculous, to the point where some school districts block access to the educational material in National Geographic or forbid searching terms like "China," "Iran," or "Russia"—because, you know, breasts and commies.

How To: Manually Switch to a Different LTE Band on Any Samsung Galaxy Phone

Your Galaxy uses information from your SIM card to communicate with nearby towers and facilitate a connection. Which LTE bands you are assigned depends on a number of factors, including available bandwidth and your device's supported signals. But if speeds aren't great on your auto-selected tower, you can improve things by manually choosing a band.