iOS 10 tips and tricks
Get more from your iPhone and iPad
3D Touch in Control Center
We’ve mentioned in a previous iOS feature that you can 3D Touch on the flashlight icon in Control Center to choose different light levels, but that’s not the only option. You can hard press on the timer icon to choose preset countdown times, or on the camera icon to open the app straight to different photo modes.
Spotlight in iCloud Drive
iOS 10’s Spotlight search, which is accessed either by opening the Today view, or swiping down on a Home screen (or in any app by slowing pulling from the top of the screen), can now search files in iCloud Drive, so it’s easy to find even wellhidden documents and open them from anywhere on your iOS device.
In-line video playback
When you’re browsing in Safari on iPhone, and you play a video, it used to always take over the screen. Now, you can play videos in-line in the web page. If a video opens fullscreen, tap the arrow in the corner to reduce its size with the video still playing, then keep browsing the page. You might also find some videos play in-line automatically – this now an option for web developers to implement.
Announce Calls
Make it easier to know who’s trying to get hold of you without looking at the screen using the Announce Calls feature, which states the name of whoever’s calling you when the phone rings. You can find the option in Settings > Phone > Announce Calls. It comes with several options: Always, so it does this every time the phone rings; Headphones, so you don’t need to get your phone out of your pocket to see who’s calling before you hit the in-line remote to answer; Headphones & Car, which can help avoid distraction when driving; and Never.
Avoid tolls and highways in Maps
Like to avoid toll roads or highways when driving? Go to Settings > Maps > Driving & Navigation and you can choose to have your device find routes that don’t feature them. Each of these options has an individual switch in the Avoid section at the top, so just turn on whichever you want, or both.
Find my Apple Watch
After updating your devices to iOS 10 and your Apple Watch to watchOS 3, the Find My iPhone app gets a new feature: it can now tell you where your Apple Watch is if you’ve misplaced it, provided it’s connected to the internet. Open the app and your Watch will appear as a device in the list at the bottom, and will display its location, if known. You can also perform the usual actions, including making it play a sound so you can find it, activating Lost Mode, or even erasing it remotely.
Activate Maps extensions
They haven’t had as much fanfare as iMessage apps, but many apps now support extensions in the Maps app, adding new options when you’re looking at locations. These range from the likes of OpenTable giving you a bigger set of restaurant reviews, to the ability to instantly call up a ridesharing service such as Uber to take you to the destination at which you’re looking. To activate extensions, you must have the main app for the service installed. Then, go to the Settings app, and open the Maps section. Scroll down and you’ll see the Extensions category. Just turn on any that you want to use with the switches. If you don’t have any suitable apps installed, this setting simply doesn’t appear at all.
Unlock your device the old way
Because of changes to the Lock screen, you now need to press the Home button to open your phone. If you prefer to just rest your finger on the Touch ID sensor, as you could before, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button, and turn on the Rest Finger to Open option.
Press and Hold to Speak
In iOS 10.2, in the same settings location as the previous tip is an extra option for controlling your device with your voice. Press and Hold to Speak changes what your device does when you hold the Home button: Siri activates Siri, Voice Control offers the old-style Voice Control feature, and Off stops it doing anything.
Suggestions for Siri corrections
If Siri thinks it got a word wrong, it will underline it in blue. Tap it and Siri can bring up a list of alternatives you might have meant instead. You can also tap and hold on the underlined word, bringing up the pop-up text menu. Tap Replace… to see possible correction options.
Revealed Music options
In iOS 10.2, the Music app now points you to where the repeat and shuffle options are in the Now Playing screen (just off the bottom), and these buttons are larger.
Screen recording
Apps (mostly games) have the ability to record what’s happening on screen. They’ll ask for permission before
doing this. How you start recording will depend on how each app implements it. When you stop recording, you’ll have the option to view the video, trim it, save it to the Camera Roll, or share it right away.
New emoji
iOS 10 added a bunch of new emoji characters, and iOS 10.2 adds even more. Finally, we have a bacon emoji!
Apple TV keyboard
When you activate a textentry field on Apple TV, you get a notification on your iPhone, if you have the Apple TV Remote app installed. Interact with this to type in the text on your phone!