Apple Apps

Do you swipe on emails to trash them only to see they've been archived instead of deleted? Here's how to delete emails on your iPhone, by changing the default swipe action from archive to delete. Below I'll show you how to change these settings for two different email apps. The Apple Mail app will need to have its settings changed from your iPhone's Settings app, while the Gmail app settings will be adjusted from within the Gmail app. If you use another third-party email app like Yahoo! and your emails are archived by default, try opening its settings within the app similar to the instructions below for Gmail.

While wearing your Apple Watch, you'll notice arm movements during activities like knitting, playing games, or even just waving will register as steps. Here's how to delete steps from your Apple Watch, which will erase the data and reset your step count closer to the correct number. You can't do this from your Apple Watch; you'll have to use the Health app on your iPhone.

The Apple Pencil is seen by many iPad users as a stylus (much to Jony Ive's annoyance), but its main use is as a tool for markups and creative projects in apps like Procreate or something more simple like Notes. Here are some quick tips for drawing with the Apple Pencil including adjusting opacity and line thickness, shading with the side of the Pencil's nib, erasing, and using the Apple Pencil 2's double tap feature to switch between tools. While there is some overlap with the basics functions of both a regular pencil and an Apple Pencil, you'll find the Apple Pencil has potential to unlock a digital flood of creative possibilties and may help with an artist block or two.

During today's WWDC keynote Apple announced a lot of new watchOS 6 features that will give Apple Watch users more ability to leave their iPhones at home and options to further customize their watch'spotential and appearance. Expect new watch faces, improved fitness tracking, hearing health features, and much needed apps like Audiobooks, Voice Memos, and Calculator to be added to Apple Watch. The watch will also get its own App Store when watchOS 6 is released.

The Photos app stores all the photos you take with your device, and if you're like me, you have hundreds of photos to scroll through to find the ones you want to share. Here's a general guide to navigating the Photos app, so you'll be able to find, organize, and share your photos with ease. In this article, I'll simply show you the different tabs and their uses in the Photos app. If you have location services enabled on your iPhone, your photos will have a location tag. This will help identify photos you took on vacation, for example, and can also help you find certain photos as you'll be able to search by location in the Photos app. 

If you're trying to find a better way to keep in touch, FaceTime is a great option! FaceTime has features you can use like call waiting, and we have a FaceTime guide you can browse to learn more about this helpful video and audio calling app. Below, I show the first thing you need to know about FaceTime: how to make a FaceTime audio or video call. The person you call will also have to have FaceTime enabled on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

You can add money to your Apple ID account for App Store purchases without buying an iTunes gift card. Here's how to directly add funds to your Apple ID. If you budget your app or iTunes purchases, you can load the balance you want to spend and make purchases accordingly.

Have a song stuck in your head but can't figure out what it is? Starting with iOS 12, you can search for songs in Apple Music by lyrics. Even if the words replaying in your head don't include the title, there's still a good chance you'll find what you're looking for in the search results. Here's how to search with lyrics in Apple Music.

When you're planning a trip, in town or further afield, it can be a good idea to check the hourly weather forecast for your destination. You can do this in Apple Maps, which is especially useful if you already have the app open for navigation purposes.

There are lots of picture apps and photo apps available for the iPhone and iPad, and lots of them are even free, but one of my favorite photography apps for my iPhone is Apple's Photos app. Not only are Apple's native Camera and Photos app free, but they keep on improving with every new operating system. With iOS 12, for example, we can now use multiple search terms to find the photo we're looking for in the Photos app. This feature is a real time saver, and I'll show you how to use it right now so you can search your pictures faster and more accurately than ever before. 

One of my favorite new features in iOS 12 is the handy Measure app. Apple's new measurement app uses augmented reality (AR) to function as a tape measure and level all in one. You'll be able to use this app once you update to the latest operating system as long as you have an iPhone SE or iPhone 6S or later. In this tip we'll go over how to use the Measure app on iPhone and iPad to take measurements; we'll cover how to use the level feature in another tip. Let's get started learning how to use Apple's new, free Measure app. 

Apple's iBooks app has gotten some major renovations with iOS 12 and is now just called Books. In addition to a new look and updated interfaces, there are lots of new features to explore including the ability to save books to a Wish List for later purchase. Let's get started learning how to save audiobooks and e-books to purchase later in the Books app on your iPhone or iPad. 

If you have a child who uses your iPad or iPhone, you'll love this tip. Keeping our kids from seeing inappropriate content online can be a struggle, but with iOS 12, Apple makes it even easier to set content restrictions on your personal devices (we will cover how to use Parental Controls to set restrictions on a child's personal device in a future tip.) If you ever hand your iPhone to the back seat to keep your kids occupied on a long car ride or let them watch a movie on your iPad while you get dinner together, you'll want to read this tip to make sure they're only accessing age-appropriate material. 

One of the iOS 12 features I've been eagerly awaiting is Apple's new Shortcuts app. This new app allows you to instruct Siri to accomplish a task or series of tasks with native and third-party apps, all triggered by a phrase of your own choosing. In addition to creating your own Shortcut, Apple's latest help app also lets you choose from a Gallery of pre-designed shortcuts. Let's get started learning how to find the Shortcuts app on iPhone and iPad, and then use the Gallery to install a Shortcut we all need from time to time: finding directions home. Once you've installed the driving directions Shortcut, you can choose and configure as many other Gallery Shortcuts as you need. We'll go over how to create your own Shortcut in a future tip.

Apple's new operating system, iOS 12, has a set of Screen Time features that can be used to combat smartphone and device addiction by setting app limits. There are some apps, though, that you may want to have constantly available; luckily you can choose some apps that will always be allowed in your Screen Time settings. Let's get started learning how to set Always Allowed apps on iPhone and iPad. 

Apple's Photos app lets you do location-based searches. Now, instead of trying scrolling through vacation pictures looking for the photos you took in a specific place, you can just search for that area, and all the pictures from that location will pop right up! Let's get started learning how to use this Photos search feature right now. 

FaceTime, the Apple live video chat app, is a fun way to connect with friends and family when hearing their voice just isn't enough. Now FaceTime is getting even better with a new filter feature in iOS 12. There are lots of filters to choose from, so you'll always find something to fit your mood: a cartoon filter, a few black and white choices, and much more. Let's get started learning how to use FaceTime filters on iPhone or iPad. 

Apple's new operating system, iOS 12, introduces a new, useful measurement app that also includes a level (the Compass app no longer has a level feature). Third-party developers have long offered a level app, a tape measure app, or both, so it's great that owners of the iPhone 8 and later can now enjoy this Apple app for free. I've written about how to use the augmented reality (AR) tape measure portion of the Measure app in a previous tip, so now it's time to go over how to use the level feature; let's get started! 

If you've been frustrated with your inability to stop wasting time on your iPhone, iOS 12 has just the features you need to combat technology addiction. The new iOS update comes with Screen Time, a set of tools that track how much time you spend on your device in general, as well as on particular activities, sites, and apps. If you've been wanting to spend less time on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or any other addictive app, read on to learn how to use Screen Time to set an amount of time per day that you'd like to limit yourself to for specific applications on your iPhone. 

iOS 12 has added tons of helpful and fun new features to your iPhone's software, one of my favorite new ones is the ability to add cool effects and Animojis (and Memojis!) while taking a picture or video in the Messages app.