Settings

There’s a setting called Show Subject Field on on iPhone that a lot of people are scratching their head over. Simply put, this setting allows you to add or remove the subject line in iMessages and text messages in general. Whether you’ve never used this feature but would like to add a subject line to your text messages or you have this feature and want to get rid of the subject line—we’ll cover both here. Here’s what the Show Subject Field setting means on iPhone and how to add or remove a subject line in Messages.

iPhone users have a lot of questions about Facetime in regards to its data usage, with the first and most obvious one being, “does Facetime use data?” And if so, how much data does Facetime use? The great thing about Facetime is that it does not use your cellular plan minutes, which is perfect if you have an unlimited data plan. However, if you have limited data, you may want to turn cellular off for Facetime, which will make Facetime completely free (apart from Wi-Fi expenses). Don’t worry if that seems like a lot of information; we’ll break it down step-by-step. So does Facetime use data? It sure does; and here’s how much, plus how to disable Facetime from using your data.

The Apple Weather app on the iPhone automatically picks up your location and displays the current weather and temperature in your location. However, too many active location services can slow down internet speed and drain your battery. The following steps will allow you to set a default location in your iPhone weather app and turn off those pesky power eaters while still always knowing the current weather and temperature in your location. 

Previews of incoming text messages appear as banners or alerts on your home screen by default. This can be handy if you want to quickly decide if you want to reply to a message now or if you want to wait and reply later. But it can also be a pain if your mom, or your boss, catches sight of a message you'd rather they hadn't. And we all have that one friend or coworker who thinks nothing of grabbing your phone to check out the notifications on your home screen. Luckily, within your Settings app, there’s an easy way to disable text messages from being displayed on your Home screen while still receiving notifications. Here’s how to keep your messages private.

This year at the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) Apple announced some significant changes to the way the iPhone will behave while its user is driving. The new Car Safety features in iOS 11 arrive in response to increased pressure from the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, which has urged Apple and other cellphone manufacturers to develop safeguards to reduce death and injury attributed to distracted driving. Distracted driving has been an issue in at least some capacity for over 20 years without much response at the developer level. Distraction related accidents, whether involving gadgets or otherwise, killed nearly 3,500 people in 2015, according to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, with 391,000 lesser injuries.

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If you have a limited data plan for your iPhone, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on where that data is going. If you find out that an app is sucking your data, you can turn off Cellular Data usage for it, which means you’ll only be able to access the app over Wi-Fi. If you have unlimited data, it’s not a big deal. But if you’re trying to stay within a certain amount of gigabytes each month, this tip will make it easy. Here’s how to check what apps are using the most data on your iPhone.

It doesn’t matter if you want to hide apps on an iPhone 7 or an iPhone 5—you can hide apps from your iPhone or iPad Home screen regardless of what device you have, so long as it’s running iOS 10 or later. Users have been trying to figure out how to hide apps on their iPhones for years, and we’re especially keen on hiding Apple stock apps. Plus, a lot of people want to know how to hide their apps on iPhone from themselves: out of sight out of mind, eh? And it makes sense: Spotlight search allows you to easily find any app on your device, so why not hide them? While there is no official method on iPhone for hiding apps, smart users across the web have figured out a couple different ways to hide apps on their iPhone. And, of course, if you have iOS 10 or later, you can hide apps by Apple, such as iTunes Store, Calculator, Reminders, and more. We’ll go over a few different ways you can hide apps on your iPhone, as well as how to find those hidden apps on your iPhone later on.

Read receipts notify the senders of iMessages when the recipient reads the message. This is either great or evil depending on your perspective. My colleague and his wife both have read receipts turned on on their phones. That way if a timely iMessage doesn't get read right away, they can call each other instead. Other people prefer that the senders of messages not get notified. That way there is no pressure for an immediate reply. Whichever camp you fall in, you'll need to know how to to turn read receipts on or off.

I recently wrote an article on how to turn on Two-Factor Authentication on your iPhone for better security. Two-Factor Authentication requires the use of multiple devices. For example, if you get a new iPhone, when you log into your Apple ID account for the first time, you’ll need to use your Mac, iPad, or old iPhone to confirm that it’s you logging in and not some stranger trying to access your account on a random device. This is important since your Apple ID is used for everything including making purchases with your credit card. However, if you don’t feel the need to turn this feature on, or if you have it on and decide it’s unnecessary at some point, you can use this tip to turn Two-Factor Authentication.

Different than two-step authentication, two-factor authentication is the latest in Apple ID security from Apple. When two-factor authentication is turned on, even someone who knows your Apple ID password won’t be able to sneak into your account. This is because two-factor authentication requires a confirmation from a trusted Apple device when someone is attempting to sign into your Apple ID account. Here’s how to set up two-factor authentication on iPhone.

In the photography world there’s something called "the rule of thirds." The iPhone’s camera grid helps you create a balanced composition that adheres to this rule of thirds by displaying a faint grid over the capture frame. You can turn on the camera grid on iPhone easily within settings. When I originally wrote this article, my iPhone camera grid was turned off. But I’ve kept my iPhone 7’s camera grid on since. When taking photos, the rule of thirds can be applied with or without a grid, but the camera grid makes it easier to see if your horizon lines and subjects are placed at the proper intersections for optimal balance in the shot. We’ll talk a little bit more about what the rule of thirds is and then jump into how to get a grid on your iPhone’s camera.

Sometimes you need to do some app housecleaning. Maybe your kid moved your apps around, or maybe you just want to see what apps you have. For example, I have 69 apps on the first screen and 67 on the second. Of course, they’re in folders, but sometimes I lose track and need to do an app purge. If you’re like me, or just need a fresh start, take a few quick steps in your settings to restore apps to their original layout.

When you search the web in Safari on iPhone or iPad, the iOS default search engine determines what site is used to look for results. Even if you’re in the Safari browser, you can still choose to use Google search instead of say Bing or Yahoo. iPhone also gives you the option to use DuckDuckGo for Safari, which doesn't track users' search history, for greater privacy. Changing the default browser on  iPhone or iPad couldn’t be easier. You can choose what you want your iPhone default search engine to be within Settings. Here’s how to change your default search engine in Safari on iPhone or iPad. Please note that if you set Google as your default browser in Safari it is different from browsing the web with Chrome. To make Chrome the default browser on your iPhone or iPad, simply download the iOS Chrome app from the App Store and browse the web using the Chrome app instead of the Safari app.

Within Settings on iPhone, there are plenty of ways to access your Apple ID. Before iOS.3 on iPhone, you would find your devices, access to Apple ID, storage and iCloud information, and other important device info scattered throughout the Settings app. But when Apple recently released iOS 10.3, that all changed. Now, when you open the Settings app, your Apple ID profile is the first thing you’ll see. Let’s take a quick tour.

Since the release of iOS 8 a few years back, the Mail app on iPhone has swipe options. This means that when you’re viewing an inbox, you can swipe an email left or right to select options such as mark read/unread, delete, flag, or archive an email. Plus, tapping the More option gives you access to all the other email actions. However, you can choose to customize these gestures, though the options are somewhat limited. And you can even turn them off, if you so choose. Here’s how to change mail swipe options in Settings on iPhone.

With iOS 10, Apple Maps got a huge, and needed, upgrade. The Maps app is now capable of doing a whole lot more, including connecting to third-party apps on your device. For example, let’s say you want to make a restaurant reservation. If you have your reservation app-enabled for use with Apple Maps, then you can look for a restaurant, make the reservation, and get directions all within the Maps app. Here’s how to enable and use Apple Maps extensions on iPhone.

Your restrictions passcode on iPhone can be reset without restoring your iPhone. Well, not reset exactly. But this is a sure-fire way to find your restrictions passcode, which will allow you to take restrictions off your iPhone or reset the passcode. In essence, this is an article on how to recover your restrictions passcode on iPhone. At some point, we have all forgot our restrictions passcode on iPhone, but Apple hasn’t set up a fail-safe for turning off restrictions when you don’t know the password. So we’ll use a simple workaround that will allow you to recover your restrictions passcode so you can either turn Restrictions off on iPhone or reset the passcode to something easier for you to remember. But if you happen to forget your restrictions passcode again, this article will be here for you. I’ve been so happy to see the comments from users this article has helped. It’s good to note that this article works for the old and new iOS (including iOS 7, 8, 9, 10). You can use this tip to take Restrictions off your iPad too. Here’s how to recover and reset your restrictions passcode when you don’t know the password on iPhone or iPad.  

Deleting or uninstalling apps on iPad can be done the same way as on iPhone. Most people are familiar with deleting apps by tapping and holding an app until they all start wiggling. You can delete apps on iPad using this method, which I’ll go over step-by-step below. But the fast way, that’s perfect for someone who needs to delete multiple apps, is to delete apps on iPad from your settings. This will allow you to remove apps more quickly since you’ll simply tap on an app and select Delete app. Don’t worry though, I’ll go over all the methods in detail below.

The TV app on iPhone is designed to bring all of your entertainment content together in one app. Instead of having to individually search through your favorite apps like Netflix, Hulu, etc, you can use the TV app to quickly see what’s up next and look at watching options for the streaming services you’re signed up with, as well as movies and tv shows available in the iTunes Store, of course. The TV app can be used across all of your devices, allowing you to pick up where you left off watching your favorite show, whether on iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Likewise, you can connect Apple Music to your TV app on iPhone, which will allow you to access your music in the TV app as well.

For quite some time now, you’ve been able to manage your Apple ID account in Settings on your iPhone. But with iOS 10.3, Apple made it even easier. At the top of your Settings menu, you’ll see your Apple ID profile photo and name. This new option allows you to look at your Apple ID profile in one glance and provides quick access to your Apple ID settings so that you can make any changes you want and manage your Apple ID account overall. Here’s how to manage your Apple ID account in Settings on iPhone.