The 5 best iPhone tricks you didn’t know existed

The iPhone is an impressive tool with hundreds of brilliant features, but there are several hidden features and tricks that you may not have realised existed – until now. Here, we’ve picked our favourite iPhone tips and tricks that can help you achieve things quicker and easier, and you’ll wish you’d known about them a long time ago

.1. Create custom iMessagereplies for calls you can’t answer

Sometimes it’s not the right time for a phone call;and while you could just let calls you don’t want totake go to voicemail, sometimes you want to explainwhy you’re not picking up. iOS let you quicklyrespond to a call with a text message.Depending on which version of iOS you’rerunning, you either swipe upward on the phone iconthat appears next to the unlock slider and chooseRespond With Text, or tap the button labelledMessage above the Slide To Answer slider.By default, you’ll get three pre-written options(“Sorry, I can’t talk right now”, “I’m on my way” and“Can I call you later?”), along with a button that letsyou enter text there and then. However, you cancustomise the prepared messages under Settings

> Phone > Respond With Text. You can’t have more than three, however: if you want to add a new one, you’ll have to sacrifice one of the current options. Tap the one you’re willing to lose and type in the new response.

2. Skip calls with Remind Me Later Alternatively, you can get iOS to remind you to call back later. As with the auto-replies, the way you do this depends on your version of iOS: in iOS 9 you tap the Remind Me button above the slide, but in earlier versions you swiped upwards and selected Remind Me Later. You can choose to be reminded in an hour, ‘When I Leave’ or ‘When I Get Home’. Make sure your address details are up to date in Contacts, so your iPhone knows where home is. The timings will be based on your GPS movements.

3. Create custom ringtones and alert tones in iTunes or GarageBand You can create ringtones for your iPhone based on any music track in your iTunes library. We looked at this in depth here (the tutorial includes a video to walk you through the process), but to sum up: create a short, sub-30-second duplicate version of the track; convert the file type of this track from .m4a to .m4r; re-import the track to iTunes as a ringtone; sync the ringtone with your iPhone. Better still, you can create unique custom iPhone ringtones from your own audio creations, and this is especially user-friendly if you do the creative work on the iPhone itself. Create a 30-second track in GarageBand; go to the Share options and choose Ringtone; then assign it to a contact or notification

4. Take photos while shooting videos You’re using your iPhone to film a magical moment, and you wish you could snap a photo at the same time. Don’t stop recording! Just tap the camera button, which appears on-screen in addition to the shutter button as you film. You aren’t using the iPhone’s true photo sensor; you’re getting the slightly less impressive video sensors instead, but the photos should still turn out pretty nicely. 5. Save battery with Low Power Mode If you know you’re going to be using an iPhone for a long time, then switch to Low Power Mode by tapping Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode. Low Power mode reduces consumption by turning off a number of iPhone features. Mail fetches less frequently (push is turned off), Hey Siri is turned off, background app refresh is turned off and some visual effects are reduced. The screen goes FEBRUARY 2016 • MACWORLD 123

dark after a shorter period of inactivity. You may not notice the difference (although you may not get a vital Mail or Social Media message unless you check for it). On the whole, though, the iPhone works as normal and the battery will last for much longer.