16+ Ways to Get the Most out of Your iPhone

In 2007, iPhone changed the phone industry and put a tiny, connected computer in pockets around the world. You could surf the web, send and receive email, watch movies, listen to music, and more all on your phone. It was revolutionary and inspired the modern smartphone.

Fast forward 10 years and the iPhone retains its devilishly good looks and has learned many new tricks. Continue reading to learn 16+ ways to get the most out of your iPhone.

16 Get a Second Line

Four letters: VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is becoming more and more popular. Especially in businesses. Many consumers think of services like Microsoft’s Skype or Google Voice; but, VoIP is also used for office phones and many consumer apps.

There are times when a second line can come in handy. Like when you’re selling something on Craigslist or if you need a another line for your freelance graphic design business. Luckily, there are many solutions on the App Store.

Burner, Line 2, and Second Line are great examples of consumer solutions that let you get a second phone number. Find the one that works best for you.

15 Control Your Home

If you have a connected home that supports HomeKit, your iPhone and Siri can help you control various aspects of it. You can check that your front door is locked, change lighting settings, get the status of your security system, and more.

HomeKit-supported devices can be controlled via the Home app, from the control center, or by using Siri on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or HomePod.

You can also setup scenes in the Home app, so you can tell Siri to “get ready for bed” and trigger a scene that turns off the light, closes the blinds, locks the doors, and arms the security system. Or maybe you could say “red alert” and have the lights turn red if you’re feeling Star Treky.

14 Delete Unused Stock Apps

With iOS 10, Apple gave users the ability to delete many of the included apps. And iOS 11 expands on this by letting users keep data for deleted stock apps.

Maybe you don’t use Stocks or Tips, or maybe you want to use your a third-party calendar app. Whatever the reason, you can delete many stock apps and rest assured their data will be retained should you want to go back.

iOS 11 can even offload unused apps automatically when your device’s storage is low. Doing so will not delete the app’s data. You can enable this space-saving feature in the Settings app (General > iPhone Storage).

13 Become an iPhoneographer

It’s often said the best camera is the one you have with you. While it’s true that better camera will take better pictures, they don’t do you much good if there at home. By all means, if you have a great camera with you, use it. But it’s a good idea to fully understand your iPhone so you can take great photos in a moments notice if needed.

With iPhone X and iOS 11 you can take fantastic portraits, capture 4K videos, and more. Even better yet, there are thousands of camera accessories available for iPhone to take your shots to the next level.

12 Unwind and Read a Book

When people think of reading an eBook, they usually think of Amazon’s Kindle. But if you don’t care about an  eInk display, the iPad, iPhone, and even your Mac are great tools for reading.

iBooks is Apple’s solution to purchasing and reading books on your Apple devices. If you’re like most people, your phone is your go-to device. It’s with you everywhere you go. Because iBooks syncs your purchases across devices, you can read on-the-go using your iPhone and come home and relax with your iPad.

iBooks lets you sort books into “Collections,” highlight sentences and create notes, add bookmarks, and share passages.

If you’re familiar with iTunes or the App Store, you already know how to buy books. Just launch iBooks when you find the book you want, tap to purchase.

If you already own a Kindle and have a few books, you can also download the Kindle iOS app to access your purchases on your iPhone.

 11 Go off the Grid

Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth. Oh my! Your iPhone is constantly connected. Whether it’s to GPS/GLONASS satellites, the closest cellular tower, or your local Wi-Fi, packets of data are being sent and received. Sometimes you just need a break.

In iOS 11 you can pick and choose which connections you make (or don’t make). Want to disconnect Bluetooth devices without losing your connection to your AirPods, Apple Pencil, or your ability to AirDrop? Open Control Center and tap the Bluetooth icon. Bluetooth will remain on, but your iPhone will disconnect from most paired devices.

Is your Wi-Fi being problematic again? Tap the Wi-Fi icon in Control Center to disable connections to Wi-Fi networks for 24 hours or until you change locations. You can also disable cellular data from Control Center.

3D Touch any of the above icons in Control Center to expand your options. You’ll be able to disable AirDrop or enable personal hotspot.

But What If You Want to Go Truly Dark?

You can fully disable wireless radios and connections within Settings. Airplane Mode will disable all connections. Or you can select the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Cellular menus for more granular control.

10 Watch Live TV

Watching live TV from your cell phone isn’t a new concept. I remember having AT&T’s TV service on my Palm Tr?o in 2007. What’s really changed is the quality of the service and quantity of available channels.

Right now, I use Hulu with live TV. You can check out our Cord Cutting Guide to find a service that’s best for you. Whether you use a cord cutting service or traditional cable or satellite TV, you may be able to login with your provider.

Go to Settings > TV Provider to get started.

Once you’re logged in, supported apps will automatically have access to your TV provider and you’ll be able to watch live TV or access on-demand content within them.

Additionally, you’ll want to check out the built-in iOS TV app. Here you’ll find most of your entertainment in one place. Apps like Hulu, CBS, Prime Video, and HBO all support the TV app.

When you search for a movie or show you don’t have, it will tell you if it’s available to watch in another app or to purchase from iTunes.

9 Do More with iMessage

Ever notice how some messages are blue and others are green in the iOS Messaging app? You’re probably aware that blue messages are iMessages and green are standard texts. But, do you use all the features of iMessage?

Besides being able to send messages, you can also see the time a message was sent by sliding the message to the left.

Want to dictate a message or use an emoji? The smiley face icon on the keyboard will let you choose from hundreds of unicode emojis; or, you can press the microphone to tell your phone what you want to say.

But what about all the other fun stuff? Continue on to the next slide, or check out out these nine iMessage features to learn about stickers, iMessage apps, Tapback, message effects, Emojify, location sharing, and more.

8 Don't Forget About 3D Touch

When iPhone debuted over a decade ago, many were shocked to see that Apple had ditched physical keyboards in favor of touch-sensitive display. But now, capacitive touchscreens are the standard.

The iPhone supports multitouch and 3D touch. So be touchy. In addition to pinch to zoom, multitouch lets you close multiple apps at once and some apps allow you to touch multiple points of the screen at once while interacting. When Apple introduced the Apple Watch it had Force Touch. Force Touch allows users to press harder on the display to display other options.

Newer iPhones have a supercharged version of Force Touch known as 3D Touch. 3D Touch works much like Force Touch, but it also recognizes how hard you press the display. When pressing on some app icons you’ll be presented with other options or a widget. Other apps support what Apple calls “peek” and “pop.”

Lets say your looking through your inbox in the Mail app and you see two emails from Eli. One of them has information about an upcoming event, but you can’t remember which. You can lightly press each message to “peek” and get a quick look at the contents of the message. When you’re “peeking” at the one you want, press a little harder to “pop” into the full message.

3D Touch has been called gimmicky by some users, but the iPhone is quickly becoming more powerful and it’s always in our pockets. The ability to interact with the display in new ways can expand our ability to work productively. Additionally, some games—such as GRID Autosport—can use 3D Touch as a replacement for analog triggers. GRID (a racing game) uses 3D Touch to allow players to adjust the amount of throttle or braking that’s applied to their car.

7 Enable Find My iPhone

So you just paid $1,000 or more for your shiny new iPhone X? Odds are you don’t want to lose it. To help combat theft and lost devices, Apple has Find My iPhone (which also works with iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and AirPods).

Find My iPhone lets users locate their devices and family members’ devices (if using Family Sharing). In addition to location services users can play a sound on the device, get directions, enable “Lost Mode,” or erase the device remotely.

Find My iPhone can be enabled under your Apple ID settings.

Just choose iCloud and select Find My iPhone to get started. Once enabled, you can use Find My iPhone from the Web or by downloading the Find My iPhone app to your iPhone or iPad.

6 Have a Pocket-Sized Movie Night

Grab the popcorn