iOS 11

In addition to several built-in keyboards for different languages, iPhone also allows you to download your favorite third-party keyboards to make your typing experience smooth and comfortable. There are many keyboard apps available in Apple App Store that you can download for free and use them...

When you ask Siri to search for something, a.k.a. Spotlight Search, it looks everywhere, including your iPhone/iPad’s local apps and storage. Although this default setting broadens the scope of searches Siri performs and provides wide range of results, sometime such outcomes overpopulate the...

You can configure your iPhone running iOS 11 to automatically delete the messages after a certain time period. You may want to do so to maintain privacy of your conversation, or to keep your iPhone from getting over-populated with the message threads. Although by default configured to keep all...

A chat group may contain several people, and there might be an ongoing conversation in the group. If you’re annoyed by too many notifications of the conversations you’re not related to, rather than putting your iPhone to Silent Mode altogether, it’s good to mute the group itself. When you mute a...

Depending on the nature of the apps, by default they access Location Services in your iPhone or iPad either always, while the app is in use, or never. However, because some users may take their privacy quite seriously, they may want to manually choose which apps should access Location Services...

To ease and expedite your emailing experience, Apple allows you to assign your preferred swipe functions to the Mail app in your iOS 11 device. Although the ‘Flag’ and ‘Mark as Read’ functions are by default assigned to the left and right swipes respectively, you may want the Mail app to handle...

The Notes app in your iOS 11 device lets you note your important stuff that you may easily forget. Generally the app is used to create bulleted lists, short tables, or to add quick notes while you’re on the move. Since the Notes app is designed to be used for multiple purposes, it also allows...

With predictive keyboard enabled, your iOS device can predict the words as you start typing them. The device then uses these predictions to suggest you the words that you’re likely to use while typing, and if the Auto-Correction option is turned on, your misspelled words are automatically...

Since your Internet is used while making or receiving a FaceTime video or audio call, it might be important for you to keep track of the bandwidth consumed for each calling session, especially when you’re on a metered and/or capped network. Regular monitoring helps you decide when, and to or...

If you’ve installed several apps in your iOS device and it takes you longer than usual to locate the one you need, Spotlight is your solution. Spotlight provides an ultimate and quick means of searching stuff both online and within your iOS device. In iOS 11, Spotlight has become even more...

Nowadays, most websites are responsive in nature. This means, they can detect if they’re being accessed from a desktop computer or a mobile device, and then automatically change their layout accordingly. While this behavior makes it easy for the end-users to navigate through the web pages, the...

If you’re waiting for a reply for any of your important mails, you may have to check the Mails app frequently, especially when you have disabled the badge for unread emails on the app’s icon. To save your time and overhead, Apple allows you to set alert notifications on your emails you’re...

Since your messages and emails can contain important conversations that may require your instantaneous response, iOS 11 allows you to reply to them right from the Lock screen of your iPhone. Although you are still taken to their corresponding apps from where you can type your reply, the need of...

There might be instances when you want to remove multiple music tracks from your iDevice either because you are no longer interested in them, or you want to free some space on your device’s internal storage in order to make room for something more important. That said, the quickest and easiest...

Your iPhone or iPad running iOS 11 allows you to view and restore the deleted photos. When you delete a photo, it is moved to the Recently Deleted container which is a built-in album in your iDevice. The deleted photos remain in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days from the date of deletion...

Sometime you may not want to type the texts manually while messaging. May be you’re driving or your hands are engaged with some other important work. In such situations, dictating your messages instead of typing them might save some of your time. Even though you are required to tap a few icons...

The Timer option in the Camera app of your iOS 11 device lets you set the time duration for which the camera waits before it automatically takes the photo. The feature is helpful when you want to include yourself in a group photo and there’s no one to capture the pictures for you. Here’s how you...

Apart from helping you search contents online, calling a person in your contact list, or playing a song from your Music library, Siri can also assist you in downloading your favorite apps from the App Store. However, when you ask Siri to download an app, all it does is, it searches the app in...

Most reminders are usually time-based, and that’s how they justify the name ‘Reminders’, at least when talking in context of the mobile phones. That said, iOS 11 has a built-in ‘Reminders’ app that allows you to set time and location-based reminders. Here’s how: ■Get to the Reminders window Tap...

Apple is quite concerned about the security of its devices, and that’s why it has multiple anti-theft provisions to help you get your iPhone back, or at least remotely erase your important data in case it is stolen or lost. One such feature that your iPhone has allows you to send its last...

If you don’t have your iPhone in your pocket while you’re out, the chances are that you might have forgot taking it along with you while leaving your home, or left it at your friend’s house or at the shop you stopped by to grab some snacks. If you’re unsure as where you your iPhone could...

With Background App Refresh turned on, the apps are automatically refreshed in the background and are updated or modified as needed. Although it is a good idea to leave Background App Refresh enabled in order to keep your iOS device function smoothly and remain updated, doing so consumes some...

Even though motion backgrounds may not display any live motions in your iPhone’s Home screen, they still give decent depth to make the icons look floating. Although iOS 11 has some built-in live images that you can set as motion background for your iPhone, if you want, you can even create some...

By default your iPhone running iOS 11 has the iCloud Photo Library option enabled. As the result, all your photos in your device are synced with your iCloud storage. This method lets you access your photos across all your Apple devices as long as they share a common Apple ID. However, the...

While surfing the web on your iOS device, it’s obvious that you’ll open several tabs in Safari to browse various websites simultaneously. Even though there’s no harm in leaving them opened as your iOS device is your personal property, sometime you may want to close all the tabs for security...

When you first set up your iOS device and associate it with your Apple ID, all the photos and videos are by default synced with your iCloud storage, i.e. the new photos and videos are automatically uploaded to the iCloud, and are downloaded on all your Apple devices that share the common ID...

App notifications keep you updated about any activity related to their corresponding. For instance, you can configure when and how the notifications about the new messages should appear on your iPhone screen, whether your iPhone should notify you about a new incoming mail, etc. The good news is...

Safari, the default web browser in your iOS 11 device, uses Google as its default search engine. Although Google being one of the leading search engines across the planet can be the best platform to search stuff online, you may have a different preference. Fortunately in iOS 11 you to pick your...

When you create an Apple ID, the same account can be used to access and avail multiple services offered by Apple such as those on iCloud, iTunes Store, App Store, etc. That said, it becomes important to keep the account as secured as possible by changing its password on a regular basis. Unlike...

When you add your credit or debit card as your payment method for iTunes & App Store purchases, along with your iOS device, the card’s information also gets associated with your Apple ID, and is reflected on all the Apple devices you’ve signed in using your account. Since you may have more than...

iTunes newsletters and special offers are two the best ways to remain updated with the latest Apple news and buy Apple products at discounted rates. This not only helps you take decisions as what would be your next Apple app or device to ease your daily tasks but it also saves some of your money...

If you’re being bothered by an irritating person, and don’t want them to contact you anymore by any means, blocking their number is the best option. When you block a contact, they can’t contact you via calls, text messages, or FaceTime. The contacts remain blocked until you manually unblock...

Internet being one of the major communication mediums in this technology-driven era, many official conversations are done on WhatsApp. Such official chats may include scanned images of important documents, video or audio messages, etc. Considering the importance of the message threads your...

When you sync your iTunes music library with your iOS device, the audio files are also uploaded and stored on your iCloud account’s storage. This lets you access all your purchased tracks across all your Apple devices seamlessly. However, there might be instances when you don’t want the Music...

With all or some of the photos in the Photos app of your iOS 11 device, you can create and run the slideshows. When you run a slideshow, the selected images are displayed on the full screen one-by-one, thus turning your iDevice into a digital photo album. However, the default settings of the...

Even though your iPhone already has a few default messages to respond with when you’re unable to answer a call, the pre-build texts might not be the reason you want to give to your callers for your unavailability. Luckily, Apple is flexible enough to allow you to add up to three custom messages...

Depending on your life style and profession, you may or may not want your friends or colleagues to know when you’ve read the messages they have sent to you. Send Read Receipts is a feature in your iPhone which when enabled does exactly the same, i.e. it informs your friends when their messages...

Since some apps’ icons can’t be removed from the Home screen of your iOS devices, badges on the icons can be annoying at times. The best example can be of the Mail app that displays a badge every time you receive a new mail but leave it unread merely because you know it is a spam. Thankfully...

Whether it is a web page that you find attractive, or there’s an image or news that you want to look at after a while, capturing a screenshot of the display of your iOS device is the best, easiest, and quickest way to save things for future use. Here’s how you can capture a screenshot on your...

Even though it’s recommended to keep all your text messages as a record especially when your cell number is used for official purposes, some message threads might be useless and take unnecessary space on your phone. If you want, you can delete such unwanted messages from your iPhone to free up...

Siri in iOS 11 is better and more accurate as compared to its previous versions. Siri can not only search the web for the stuff you need, it can also enable or disable features in your iDevice. That said, enabling Bluetooth via your voice command is pretty simple. All you need to get this done...

In your iOS 11 device, ‘Auto-Brightness’ is turned on by default. Because of this, your screen automatically adjusts its brightness according to the light and ambiance of your location. Although keeping ‘Auto-Brightness’ enabled is a good idea, for some people this screen behavior might be...

Enabled by default, the Push function automatically refreshes your configured email account on the Mail app, and fetches any new data that the email server has. Although the feature saves a lot of users’ time and eliminates the need of checking for the new data manually, the process involved...

When you set up your iOS 11 device and launch the Music app for the first time, the default arrangement of the categories might not be something you like much. To enhance the end-user experience with the app, Apple allows you to customize the navigation bar to suit your preference. Here’s how...

Although your iPhone has several built-in vibration patterns that you can set along with the ringtone, some or all of them might not appeal you much. If that’s the case, instead of dropping the idea of using any vibration alert at all, as an iPhone user you can create one of your own with your...

While texting your friends, colleagues, or relatives, there may be certain phrases that you use quite often. Talk to you later, take your time, Oh My God!, be right back, to name a few. Since the virtual keyboard of your iOS or any other mobile device might not be as convenient to use as any...

There might be instances when you want to capture a picture without any delay. Be it a rare moment that you believe would never come again, or it’s a funny and unique expression by your friend that they give once in a while, Control Center in your iPhone running iOS 11 lets you access the camera...

To check the current weather conditions, you don’t have to go through the weather reports or surf the web anymore. Instead, Siri can help you with that, and all you need to do is ask Siri about it. However, before Siri can fetch the most updated weather report for you, Location Services must be...

At times you may not want to be contacted by any particular person. May be you’re mad at them and want some space, or there’s an unknown person bothering you with the prank and abusive calls. As an iPhone user, you can block a caller simply and quickly without using any third-party app. Here’s...

With all the advancements in the technology and the efficiency gained over the years, Siri now plays a major role in your iPhone and iPad. Unlike before, the new version of Siri in iOS 11 can help you search things online, translate English to five different languages (at the time of this...

Every time you visit a website on your iDevice, the information is added to the browser’s history. While the history of your web browser enables you to check and revisit the already opened websites, it can leave your privacy at risk if your device goes in wrong hands. That said, clearing Safari...

Auto-Lock in iOS 11 (and in all previous iOS versions) automatically locks the screen and puts the device to sleep if it doesn’t detect any human interaction for a certain period of time. This not only saves a significant amount of battery, but also prevents your data on the iDevice from being...

Hard resetting your iPhone running iOS 11 is an easy way to fix minor issues that your phone may encounter after you’ve used it for a few months. Although hard resetting does not guarantee that the issue would be fixed, being the easiest and most straightforward approach, it’s still worth...

By default the Background App Refresh feature is turned on and it ensures that all your iOS apps get latest updates in order to give you the best user-experience while using your iDevice. However, since refreshing the apps consumes Internet bandwidth and drains some amount of battery, you may...

You may want to factory restore your iPhone because: ■You’re planning to sell your iPhone and want to erase all your important data before you hand it over to the new owner. ■Your iPhone is acting up. ■You experience some performance issues. ■Your iPhone became too messy and unmanaged because of...

Although Siri is a helpful voice-commanded assistant in your iOS device that can make your life easier by reducing your manual overhead, there might be instances when you don’t want to control your device with your voice. You may also be in a habit of manually using your iDevice instead of...

By default your iOS 11 device allows you to access Control Center even from the Lock screen. While this configuration makes it easy for you to use your iDevice, it also makes your iPhone or iPad vulnerable to data theft or various security breaches at the same time. If you use your iOS device to...

If you have opened multiple tabs in Safari in your iOS 11 device, most likely you frequently switch between them in order to work on more than one webpages at a time. If the tabs in the browser are not properly arranged, it may take a lot of time to switch to those you want to work on...

If your kids use your iDevice more than you do as soon as you get back home, you would definitely want to block some websites you don’t want your children have access to. iOS 11 lets you do that quite easily and quickly. Here’s how: ■Get to the Restrictions window Tap Settings > General >...

Enabled for iOS updates by default, AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS automatically downloads the updates for your iOS 11 device. The AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS section also has the Music, Apps, and Books & Audiobooks toggle buttons but they are turned off, thus keeping the music files, apps, and text and audio...