How Tos

Apple's Messages app offers one of the most convenient ways of having a text-based conversation with your contacts on iPhone and iPad, but messages aren't the only things you can send and receive. Apple's iMessage service enables all manner of files and attachments to be shared, such as photos, links, documents, audio messages, and more. Files that are sent to you can of course be accessed...

Deleting old messages from your iPhone or iPad is a good way to save on your device's storage space, but going back through your old conversations and deleting them individually would be a tedious and long-winded process. Fortunately, there's a simpler way to say goodbye to old messages in iOS – Apple's mobile operating system can be automated to discard messages that have been on your...

Downloading lots of songs or albums from the Apple Music catalog can use up a lot of local storage on your device. Fortunately it's easy to remove downloaded Apple Music content and reclaim the storage space of your devices. Here's how. Launch the Music app on your iPhone or iPad, or open the Music app on your computer. Find the song or album in your library that you want to remove...

If you have an Apple TV+ subscription or you've rented or purchased movies via iTunes, you can download the videos to your iPhone and iPad over Wi-Fi or cellular using Apple's TV app, which allows you to watch them offline. Apple gives iPhone and iPad users granular control of TV app video download settings. So if you want, you can choose high quality video if you don't mind them taking...

The video recording capabilities of iPhones and iPads get better with each new model that Apple releases, which is great if you want to capture the best-looking video possible. However, the higher quality the video format is, the more storage space the video files naturally take up, which may not be good news if you're device is short on capacity. Typically, iPhones default to shooting video ...

The photos and videos you take using your iPhone can quickly eat up storage. If your device is close to full capacity because of all that media, one solution is to start afresh and delete all the photos on your iPhone. The following steps show you how. Before you wipe all the photos from your iPhone, make sure you've backed any up that you want to keep. iCloud will only let you restore all...

If you're running out of space on your Mac's internal drive, macOS Sequoia 15.1 includes a handy new feature that lets you install large apps directly to external storage. Here's how to use it to preserve space on your boot drive. Apple is known for charging customers a very high markup for additional storage when buying a new Mac. Given that internal storage usually can't be upgraded after ...

With the introduction of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1, communicating with Siri has become more flexible since you can easily type your requests instead of speaking them. It's a subtle but powerful change that's perfect for those moments when you need to be quiet or discrete. Enabling Type to Siri is straightforward. Head to Settings -> Apple Intelligence & Siri, tap Talk & Type to Siri,...

Ever need a moment of privacy without raising suspicion? If you're secretly shopping for a holiday gift or planning a surprise party, you might want to temporarily obscure your actual location in Apple's Find My app on your iPhone without completely turning off location sharing. Here's a clever trick that lets you keep sharing enabled while displaying a different location – all by using...

While Apple's built-in Activity app tracks your daily steps, it doesn't offer a way to display this information as a step count directly on your Apple Watch face. Fortunately, there's a simple solution using third-party apps. Here's how to keep your daily step count just a glance away. Apple's Activity app accurately tracks your steps and floors climbed, and you can check them any time by...

Apple's new Genmoji feature lets you create personalized emoji that aim to perfectly match what you want to express, going far beyond the limitations of standard Unicode emoji. Want an emoji of a break-dancing astronaut or a dog playing bagpipes? With Genmoji, you can make it happen. Unlike standard emoji that are fixed Unicode characters, Genmoji are dynamically generated using on-device...

Billions of messages are sent over the WhatsApp chat platform every day. One of the reasons for the service's massive popularity is that it lets users send and receive as many media-rich messages as they want, which – as long as they've limited WhatsApp's use of their cellular data plan – costs them next to nothing. That's great news for senders, but one of the drawbacks of receiving...

In iOS 18, Apple has introduced a clever new way to identify if your iPhone charging setup is running at less than optimal speeds. The new feature appears directly in Settings, making it easy to spot when you're not getting the fastest possible charge. The Battery section displays a Slow Charger message when your iPhone detects a "slow" charger in use. You'll also see charging periods with...

If you're looking for a great way to capture a shot of an action scene or an unexpected event on your iPhone, try Burst mode in Apple's stock Camera app. In Burst mode, the camera on your iPhone captures a series of photos in rapid succession, at a rate of ten frames per second. When photographing anything dynamic like sports events, wildlife, or children at play, burst mode increases the...

Apple has introduced expanded charging limit options for iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models in iOS 18, offering users more control over their device's battery health. This feature, which previously capped charging at 80%, now includes new 85%, 90%, and 95% options. The system Apple has applied aims to improve battery longevity by reducing the time your iPhone spends fully charged. Apple says...

A key indicator of your MacBook's battery health is its cycle count. Keep reading to learn what it means and how you can check it for yourself. Modern MacBooks can last 18 hours or more on a single battery charge, but like all rechargeable batteries, the one in your Mac has a finite lifespan. Over time, its capacity to hold a charge gradually diminishes, potentially leaving you tethered to a ...

The photos that you keep on your iPhone or iPad naturally take up storage space on your device, which can fill up quickly depending on the available storage capacity and how much content you have. If you see a message that your device's storage is full, it's worth checking out a system option called Optimize Storage, which is designed to work with iCloud Photos. This feature replaces...

If your iPhone or iPad storage space is dwindling at an alarming rate or your device feels like it's getting slower, then you could benefit from clearing the cache that apps use. Cached data includes all the files and images that are kept in your device's memory, which is meant to help apps avoid having to request the same data repeatedly and thereby keep things speedy – in theory. In ...

Animated GIFs have become a staple of the internet. Invented in 1987, the looping, soundless video clips can be found everywhere online, from social media networks to messaging platforms. They're often used to express emotions, communicate ideas, or just make people laugh. Because they are so short, GIF files are quick to load and they play automatically, so they communicate what you want...

With iOS 18, Apple introduced several handy improvements to the Notes app, making it easier to organize information and add visual flair to your notes. Read on to learn how these new features can improve your note-taking experience. The following four new Notes features are worth getting acquainted with in iOS 18. Collapsible sections allow for better organization of lengthy notes...