The iPhone is loaded with amazing tricks and shortcuts to help you get things done faster. In fact, there are so many that even the most dedicated iPhone user probably hasn’t discovered all of them. If you’re looking for new ways to boost your device efficiency, read on for a round-up of the best time-saving secrets on your iPhone today.
-
Add favorite contacts to widgets for faster communication.
This shortcut lets you get in touch more quickly with the people you talk to most often. First, swipe right on the Home or Lock screen, or the Notification Center to open your widgets. Tap the Edit at the bottom of the page. Then, press the green + button next to Contacts to add the contacts you’ve marked as favorites. These contacts will now appear in your widgets list.
-
Manage e-mail with a single swipe.
Swiping is a quick and easy way to deal with new e-mails in your iPhone’s Mail app. A short swipe from right to left across an e-mail will bring up three possible options: More, which brings up more choices including reply or forward; Flag, which lets you mark the e-mail as important; and Archive, which lets you get rid of the e-mail right away. Swiping in the other direction, from left to right, gives you two more choices: if you’ve read the e-mail, this swipe lets you mark it as unread, and if the e-mail is unread, you can mark it as read with this same gesture.
-
Reveal recently closed tabs.
Closing a browser window by accident is annoying but, fortunately, Safari has an easy hidden feature that you can use to view and re-open recently closed web pages. To access it, open up the Safari app and tap the double squares icon in the bottom right of your screen to display all your open tabs. Then tap and hold the + button you’ll find at the bottom center of the screen, and a point-form list of recently closed tabs will appear. To re-open your chosen page, simply tap on it. Don’t forget, however, that this list is cleared whenever you force-quit Safari, so it’s not the same thing as a permanent record of your browsing history. In addition, you might want to use private browsing if you’re concerned that someone else will use this feature as a way to snoop through your online activity.
-
Use custom iPhone keyboards for faster typing.
The world’s fastest iPhone typist might be able to churn out close to 100 words per minute, but most of the rest of us aren’t quite in that league. Fortunately, as of iOS 8, you now have the option to install a custom keyboard that better suits your typing style. Just select Keyboards under General Settings. Then, select Keyboards and Add New Keyboard. Alternatively, you can choose to opt out of typing entirely with apps like Swype and SwiftKey, which allow you to “type” by drawing connect-the-dots-style lines between letters, rather than tapping them. Autocorrect and predictive text help speed up the process.
-
Quickly add new contacts to your address book.
This feature makes it quick and easy to add new contacts or new information to existing contacts. If an e-mail contains any contact info in the body of the e-mail or in the sender’s signature blurb, you’ll see the sender’s name and contact information at the top of your screen when you open up an e-mail, along with two buttons: Ignore and Add to Contacts. Just tap Add to Contacts and your phone will display a suggested contact page with all of the available information for the new person extracted directly from the e-mail; tap Create New Contact to add them as a new entry, or tap Add to Existing Contact if the information displayed is an updated version for a contact who’s already in your book.
-
Get bite-sized details in your Notification Center.
Notification Center widgets are a great shortcut for getting the exact little hit of information you need from an app without having to open it up. For example, if you just want to see what time your next meeting is or check out the current temperature, you don’t really need to open up the full Calendar or Weather apps. Instead, you can use Notification Center widgets, which are essentially mini versions of selected apps that display bite-sized pieces of key information in your Notification Center. All you need to do is swipe down from the top of your Notification Center screen to take in all the important highlights at a glance. Just be aware that not every app supports widgets, and those that do will need to be configured to display properly in the Notification Center.