iOS 14 Tips And Tricks You Need To Know For Your iPhone

While you were busy sleeping last night, Apple went ahead and rolled out the much-awaited iOS 14 update on its iPhones. While the iOS 14 brings little changes to the overall UI, they¡¯re noteworthy and in some cases, truly game-changing.

Reuters

iOS 14 Feature List

You can visit here to check out what all new has been included in the new operating system. However, in case you do know what¡¯s in store but are confused about where to get started, we¡¯ve got some handy tips for you to transition and embrace the new features easily.

1. Decluttering the home screen

Ever since we¡¯ve seen iPhones, it has continued to install all the apps and place them right on the home screen. While there are some with severe OCD (like me) who manage categories of apps in specific folders, there are many who just let all apps scatter throughout in multiple app pages.

With iOS 14 however, Apple has decided to declutter the home screen. It has introduced a feature to hide home screens that will just eliminate the icons, not uninstall the apps, to make your home screen look cleaner.

To enable this, long press to enter jiggly mode, and then tap the page indicator icons (dots) at the bottom. When you do this, it will show you the number of pages as well as an option to hide specific pages. You can also long-press on specific apps and select ¡®remove from home screen¡¯ to just hide the app and not uninstall it from the device. You can access all your apps in the App Library by swiping right to left on the last page of apps.

Apple

2. Playing with widgets

Just like Android devices, iOS 14 has (finally) got widgets. To add them on your home screen, long press to enter jiggly mode, and then hit the plus sign. This will let you pick the widget of your choice which you can drag and drop on your home screen.

3. Stacking widgets

You also have the option of stacking one widget on top of another that would move in a carousel fashion. Simply pick a widget and drag and place it on another widget to create your own stack. You can then slide up and down on the stack to view information from various widgets.

4. Pinning conversations

While most people in India love using WhatsApp for texting, most iPhone users prefer using iMessage. Lately, iMessage has been difficult to manage, with several bank messages and spam ads cluttering the conversations. However, now with iOS 14, you have the ability to pin conversations of your choice on top, so they don¡¯t get lost amidst the iMessage clutter.

Apple

Simply swipe left to right on a conversation you¡¯d like to pin, click on the pin icon, and voila, your conversation is now pinned. You can pin up to 9 such conversations.

5. Changing the default

Not everyone is a fan of Safari. Some prefer Chrome or some other browser of their choice. For those, iOS 14 brings the feature of changing the default browser. Simply head on to the settings menu, look for the browser of your choice and enable the option to make it the default. This can also be done for email clients. How cool is that?

6. Backtap on iOS 14

With iOS 14, Apple has given your iPhone an extra shortcut button which can be enabled by simply tapping twice or thrice on the back. To enable this, head to Accessibility, then Touch Settings and then Enable ¡®Back Tap¡¯ feature. You can set the app of your choice for double and triple taps. This feature sadly isn¡¯t available in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and older versions.

7. Translating on the go on Safari

While browsing on Safari if you come across a web page with text in different languages, you don¡¯t need to head to Google Translate to understand what it means. Simply tap the text icon (the one with double A¡¯s) and select ¡®Translate to English¡¯, and you¡¯re good to go.

Apple

8. Keeping a track of privacy

Worried about what sites are tracking your moves? Safari has included a tracker recognition feature that shows you how many trackers on the site are looking at what you¡¯re browsing. In the same text icon menu, look for ¡®Privacy Report¡¯ where it will show you the kind of trackers it has blocked and the behaviour of websites you normally go to.