Despite the fact that the iPhone is the most popular cell phone in the world, millions of users are only aware of the fraction of features their phones possess.
However, former Apple Store employee Tyler Morgan (known online as @hitomidocameraroll) uses his TikTok channel to share hints and tips on how people can get the most out of their iPhones and in a recent video, he shares six helpful hacks that many may not know about.
Record a video featuring music
If you’ve ever wanted to capture a video and have music playing in the background, there is a really simple way to do it.
“All you have to do is start playing your music, go to your camera and hold down [the record button] and it starts recording,” says the technology content creator.
Record voice during screen recording
Similarly, there is also a way to record your voice while screen recording if you ever need to demonstrate how a feature works for example.
“Hold down the screen record button on the Control Center*, turn on your mic and start screen recording,” instructs Tyler. “You can see here, it’s recording my voice.”
*If you don’t already have screen recording set up on your phone, head to your Settings, then Control Center and here you can add Screen Recording to your list of options in the Control Center.
Back Tap
This nifty feature allows you to assign several of your phone’s functions to a double or triple tap on the back of your phone.
It’s a feature that many may not know about, despite the fact that phones as old as the iPhone 8 can do it.
To turn this feature on, “Go to your Accessibility Settings (or type ‘Back Tap’ in the search bar), then Touch, at the very bottom you’ll see Back Tap,” says Tyler.
“And no, it doesn’t have to be screenshot,” which he demonstrates in his video.
“It can be pretty much any of this,” he says while scrolling through the myriad options. “Just go look and see what you got.”
Service refresh
“If for whatever reason, you’re not able to get cell service sometimes, there’s a little trick you can do… and it should refresh your signal,” says the ex-Apple employee.
The trick is to turn Airplane Mode on and back off again, which you can do via the Control Center. This acts as a sort of jump start for your phone and can help it to find a signal if it had previously been struggling.
Dictate instead of type
Another handy feature Tyler demonstrates is dictation. This allows you to speak the words you want to type and the phone will input them for you.
“You can turn on dictation and it will start typing what you’re saying – kind of,” says Tyler as he shows off the feature by tapping on the microphone symbol that appears at the bottom right of the keyboard.
“You can also just stop talking,” he says before typing in the next line, “and text what you want to,” before he starts talking again, “and then continue talking and it will just catch up.”
In-built Shazam
And the final feature Tyler shows off in his video is an in-built Shazam app that you can add to your iPhone’s Control Center which can help you to identify a song you’re unsure of the name of.
“If you’re wondering what a song is, you can just use Shazam and it’ll tell you what song it is,” he says. “You could use Siri but Shazam’s a lot faster.”
To find this feature, head into Settings, then Control Center and “your Control Center should have ‘Music Recognition’ there,” says Tyler.
