30 iOS 8 Smart

Features That

You May Not

Know

The Not-So-Obvious Features of iOS 8

Check Battery Usage of

Apps

Want to know how much of battery your

iOS apps are consuming?

Go to Settings-> General-> Usage->

Battery Usage to get the info at a glance.

Do a Quick Reply

Want to reply to a notification without

going into the app?

Simply swipe down on a notification to

interact with it. On the lock screen, you

can respond to a notification by swiping

sideways.

Predictive Keyboard

The iOS 8 keyboard is capable of learning

as you type and predicting your next

words.

Tap the globe icon on your keyboard to

see if Predictive search is enabled.

Notification Center

Widgets

Add widgetized information to the

Notification center by pulling it down and

tapping on the Edit button.

Location Based

Notifications

If you walk past a business that has an

iOS app, a little notification will pop up

indicating the fact. Touch the notification

to go to the app or install it on your

device. This is turned on by default.

To turn it off go to Settings->iTunes &

App Store.

Have an Empty Home

Screen

For a change, you can setup an empty

Home screen on your iOS 8 device.

Hold down an app and when it jiggles,

drag all the apps away from the first

Home screen.

Use GIFs in Notes

Want to jazz up your notes with animated

images?

You can now copy and paste GIFs or

select one from your Photo library for it to

show up as an animated addition to the

note.

Photo & Video Sharing

Select a photo, tap the Share button and

scroll across to ‘More’ to see if an app

developer has enabled direct photo or

video sharing option on the said app.

Hey Siri

If your phone is connected to a power

outlet, you can activate Siri just by saying

“Hey Siri”. No need to be messing around

with the Home button.

Set Notifications for

Specific Email Threads

Want to get instantly notified when you

get a reply to an important email thread?

Swipe left on an email, select the More

option, and then select Notify Me...

Identify Songs with Siri

Shazam’s got a friend in Siri now so if you

want to know what song is playing, just hit

her up with “What’s that song playing?”

Hide Photos

You can prevent others from scrolling

through some of your personal photos by

hiding them.

Tap and hold the pictures in Moments and

tag them as Private.

View in Desktop

Browsing Safari on your iPhone but don’t

want to see the mobile version of a

website?

No worries. You can now tap on a URL,

pull down the menu, and select Request

Desktop Site.

Scan a Credit Card

Hate entering your credit card details, one

number at a time?

Now you can take a picture of your credit

card and have the number automatically

scanned into the relevant fields.

Touch ID with 3rd

Party

Apps

If a 3rd party developer has integrated the

feature in his or her app, you can make

use of Touch ID for authentication

purposes.

Share your Location from

Messages

You can now let someone know exactly

where you are with Messages.

Just tap Details in the message thread,

then tap Send my Current Location. This

will send the recipient a link to Apple

Maps with a pin at your current location.

Pick up App Bundles

Can’t afford to buy individual apps from

the App Store?

Now you can buy bundled apps from

developers for a much lower price. You

can also see a video preview of what’s on

offer in the bundle.

Greyscale Mode

Although there’s no real purpose to it, you

can go for a monochrome look on your

iPhone by accessing the Greyscale mode.

Go to Settings-> General-> Accessibility-

>Grayscale.

Send Self Destructing

Messages

You can now set an expiry date for audio

and video messages you send.

Hold down the camera icon in Messages,

and record your video or select the

microphone icon to send audio.

These will be deleted from both phones

after 2 minutes.

Do Not Disturb

You can now enable the Do Not Disturb

option in the details menu of a message if

you want to mute alerts from specific

people.

View Recent Contacts in

App Switcher

To see a list of people you contacted

recently, double tap the Home button.

Swipe to the right to see your favorite

contacts.

You can customize the view by going to

Settings-> Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Under Contacts tap Show In App

Switcher.

Zoom into Apps

You can now zoom into apps that don’t

support the feature.

Go to Settings-> General-> Accessibility->

Zoom. Turn on Zoom and Show

Controller. Double tap with three fingers

anywhere in iOS to zoom in and out. Drag

three fingers on the screen to move

around.

Buy Songs with Siri

You can now ask Siri to buy songs for you

from the iTunes Store.

Pick Up Calls on iPad

You just left your iPhone in the next room

and are browsing on your iPad when you

get a call.

You can take the call on your iPad if both

devices are connected to the same

network.

Navigate to Settings-> FaceTime and

enable iPhone Cellular Calls.

Take Time Lapse Videos

You can now shoot time lapse videos

from your Camera natively. Just hit the

time lapse option when you’re shooting a

video to get started.

Send Last Known Location

of iPhone

Let your iPhone send the last known

location to Apple when the battery drains

to a critical level so that you can know the

location of your device if it ever gets lost.

Share Family Purchases

You can now share family purchases

across multiple devices in the Family

Sharing mode.

Close iCloud Tabs

In iOS 8, you can close iCloud tabs from

other devices too.

Tap the tabs button in Safari, swipe up to

iCloud Tabs and swipe left on any of the

tabs to reveal the Delete button.

Switch Between Multiple

Drafts

Want to quickly switch between multiple

drafts when you are composing an email?

Swipe down from the top to view the

email messages in a tabbed view and

switch between them.

New Mail Gestures

• Open your Inbox and do a short right

swipe on any mail to reveal the Mark as

Unread option.

• Swipe to the left to reveal 3 more

options - More, Flag and Archive.

The End

Hope these 30 hidden features in iOS 8

will help you get the best out of your

iPhone and iPad.

For more interesting tutorials on iOS 8, be

sure to check out theapptimes.com