Phone

Dial Assist on iPhone is meant to automatically add international and local prefixes to numbers you call. This is designed to be helpful, particularly when calling internationally since using the correct prefix is important. But people who travel often may simply save the full number with prefix in their contacts, making Dial Assist redundant. Our web editor, Sarah Kingsbury has had her own issue with the feature working, which inspired this tip. Here’s how to turn dial assist off on iPhone.

A couple years back, Apple decided to give U2’s album, Songs of Innocence to all iPhone users. To which iPhone users replied, “how do I remove this damn thing?” If you’ve recently discovered this album on your iPhone, you may have wondered how it got there. Well if you want to remove that U2 album, we’ll cover how to delete the U2 album on iPhone and from your iTunes library. Deleting U2’s Songs of Innocence album from your iPhone is easy, but there’s a special trick for deleting the U2 album from iTunes. No worries, we’ll cover everything you need to know. Here’s how to remove U2 album Songs of Innocence from iPhone and iTunes.

Removing a song from your Apple Music library is as easy as adding a song. If the song you’re deleting is downloaded on your iPhone, you’ll have two options when removing it: Remove Download and Delete from Library. We’ll go over what each of those mean and how to delete songs from your Apple Music library below.

3D Touch on iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 6s, and 6s Plus allows you to jump into a specific place within an app using Quick Actions. This is done from Home screen by 3D Touching an app icon. Options for jumping into the app will pop up and you can select one. For example, the Settings app has Quick Actions for jumping to the settings for Wi-Fi, Battery, Bluetooth, and Cellular Data. Here’s how to jump into apps with 3D Touch on iPhone.

iCloud Music Library on iPhone with Apple Music allows you to amass a huge collection of songs without those songs taking up download space on your iPhone. But our iPhones (especially the iPhone 7) have enough storage for most music listeners to keep it local, if desired. Apple Music doesn’t currently offer a one-step solution to downloading all your songs for offline listening on your iPhone. But I have a workaround you can use with iTunes on your computer. If you’re trying to make all your music available offline in Apple Music, this will be the easiest way to do it—at least until Apple hears our cries for an easy way to download all songs at once. In the meantime, here’s how to make all your music available offline in Apple Music.

You can personalize ringtones on iPhone by assigning different sounds and songs to individual contacts. That way when a friend calls, you’ll immediately know which friend it is based on the sound. You can set a personalized ringtone for each individual contact on iPhone if your heart so desires. This ringtone customization has been around for awhile, so your iOS should have no problem even if it’s a little older. Here’s how to assign personalized ringtones to individual contacts on iPhone.

Do you ever find a number you want to call that isn’t automatically highlighted on iPhone? Don’t go back and forth trying to remember that seven-digit code, just copy and paste it into the Phone keypad. Some numbers you find when going through apps on iPhone are highlighted blue. Those numbers allow you to simply tap the number and select call. But I’ve also come across numbers I needed to call that weren’t highlighted. When that happens, here’s the easiest way to call that number on iPhone: copy and paste a number into phone keypad.

If you have multiple numbers and email addresses associated with FaceTime, you can set which one will appear as your caller ID. Setting your caller ID will allow the person receiving your call to always see the same contact and know it’s you. Your caller ID can be your phone number or linked email account, depending on your preference. We'll cover how to change your Facetime caller ID in a just a few easy steps. 

Like Photos, when voicemails are deleted they move to a Recently Deleted folder, which allows you to recover a voicemail you didn’t mean to delete or need to listen to again. How long voicemail messages remain in your Deleted Messages folder depends on your carrier. I have Verizon and the oldest deleted voicemail in my folder is from ten months ago. You can also clear the deleted messages, permanently deleting them from your iPhone. Here’s how to recover a recently deleted voicemail on iPhone.

With iOS 10, Siri can announce incoming calls. When the iPhone has an incoming call, Siri will let you know who is calling out loud. This iOS 10 feature is an accessibility feature but it’s also helpful when you’re running, biking, or keeping your iPhone in your pocket. Luckily, unlike some other iOS 10 features, Siri announcing incoming calls isn’t limited to newer iPhones. Here’s how to get Siri to announce incoming callers with iOS 10.

A lot of people are asking, "How do you use Voicemail Transcription in iOS 10 on iPhone?" The feature itself is pretty easy to use, but it can be a little glitchy. If it's not working, check to make sure your phone is running iOS 10 or later. Here, we'll go over some troubleshooting tips you can do to get Voicemail Transcription in iOS 10 working again.

What is Voicemail Transcription in iOS 10? It allows you to simply read a transcription of the voicemail sent to you. Once read, you can listen to the voicemail if you feel like the transcription missed a piece of information. You can also let Apple know whether or not the Voicemail Transcription was useful. The feature is still being improved, but it certainly is nice to have. Here’s how to use voicemail transcription in iOS 10.

There’s a lot or a little you can access from your Lock screen on iPhone, depending on the settings you choose to enable. For easy access to features you often use, you can customize what is available from your Lock screen and turn on features such as Siri and Reply with Message. However, if you're concerned about privacy, there are some features you may want to turn off. Here’s how to customize iPhone Lock screen access.

SIM cards (Subscriber Identity Module cards) are how carriers connect your iPhone to their network; they also makes it easy to keep your number when switching phones. If you get a new iPhone, you may end up needing to remove the SIM card from your old phone and insert it into the new iPhone. You may also want to switch one SIM card for another when traveling abroad in order to use a local carrier. Most modern phones have SIM cards, and if you have an iPhone 4s or later, your phone definitely has a SIM card slot in case it’s needed. Here’s how to remove or insert a SIM card from your iPhone.

I don’t know about you, but I record a lot of Voice Memos. They’re a great way to capture a random thought or idea to save for transcription later. However, what if you want to save those memos on your computer? You can easily sync your voice memos to your computer the way you sync your music. Of course, you'll need to use iTunes to do this, but it's a simple change to make. Here’s how to transfer your Voice Memos from iPhone to your computer.

The Do Not Disturb setting is pretty handy, especially when you’re at work or sleeping. This feature allows you to receive all your usual notifications, minus the disruptive sounds and vibrations that tend to come with them. But what if someone on your favorites list (like your brother, mom, best friend, etc.) has an emergency and can’t get ahold of you? Well, there’s an easy way to let their call pass through the Do Not Disturb barrier. Here’s how to let Favorites contact you when Do Not Disturb is turned on.

I have several hours of commute time every week, and I don’t always have my iPhone’s Bluetooth headset with me. The last thing I want to do while going 55 on the highway is fidget around in Contacts looking for the person I need to call. Luckily, you can use Siri to make speakerphone calls whenever you need to keep your hands free. Here’s how to make speakerphone calls using Siri.

Here’s a tip to help you avoid automated operators. Let’s say you need to call a company and you have the extension for the person you’re trying to reach — you can use this tip to dial right to the extension without have to speak to a robot at all. It’s super easy to do and will probably save you a headache in the future. Here’s how to dial an extension on your iPhone.

Do you find yourself answering the phone and quickly putting it on speaker mode? Well, there’s an easier way than tapping buttons. You can set your iPhone settings to answer in speaker mode automatically within the Settings app. It’s part of Apple's accessibility features. Here’s how to set speakerphone as the default for answering incoming calls.

I love that I can receive calls on my Apple Watch. If I’m out and about, my iPhone is in my backpack, but I never miss a call because my watch lets me know one is coming in. But talking to your wrist, especially in public, isn’t ideal. No problem! You can transfer a call from your Apple Watch to your iPhone in two different ways. Here’s how.