From The Straits Times    |
ios 10 best features

CONTROL CENTER TRICKS

All of these work even when the phone is locked. 

ios 10 - control center shortcuts

ADJUST YOUR FLASHLIGHT

Our obsession with #foodporn has probably seen us using the phone’s flashlight at some point to illuminate the photo. 

And we’ve also been annoyed one too many time when the light seems too harsh to do a beautiful dish justice.

But no fret. On the new iOS 10, you can swipe up the Control Center, and press hard on the Flashlight icon to choose between “Low Light”, “Medium Light” and “Bright Light”.

Only available for iPhones 6s and above with 3D Touch.

HANDY TIMER OPTIONS

Use 3D Touch on the Timer icon, and you’ll be shown options to run a timer for 1 minute, 5 minutes, 20 minutes and 1 hour ─ super useful when you’re cooking or when you’re timing exercist sets.

CAMERA READY

Instead of tapping several times to get to the right camera mode, you can swipe up to Control Center, then 3D press the camera icon to choose selfie, video, slow-mo or regular camera mode. 

GET THE LAST CALCULATION

Splitting the dinner bill with your BFFs? 3D Touch the Calculator icon to view or copy the results of the last calculation. 

 

IMAGE SAVVY

ios 10 - searching photos

DEEP SEARCH

Looking for a picture of the beach? Your dog? Just type into the search box. 

LIVE EDITS

You can finally edit Live Photos! So go ahead, add filters, rotate, crop and adjust lighting to your heart’s content.

 

MESSAGING FUN

The default messaging app is now a giant mashup with the coolest features culled from Whatsapp, Telegram, Google Hangouts and Google Allo. Besides built-in features like link preview, text effects, emoji replacement and handwritten messages, you can download more iMessage-centric apps and games for a richer experience. Who knows, maybe you wouldn’t even need to leave the Messages app in the future!

To access the following features, tap the App icon (it looks like an ‘A’) beside the text field. 

STICKERS

It took a long time to get stickers on Messages, but hey, it finally happened. There’s a whole new section in the App Store that’s dedicated to free and paid stickers. Get ready for an onslaught of cute pictures ─ especially of cats! ─ from your friends

GIFS AND MEMES

Because sometimes, emoticons and still photos aren’t enough. Like when Hubby makes a ridiculously lame joke and you just need to roll your eyes. (FYI: There are more than 100 gifs ─ cartoons, celebrities, movie characters ─ just on this!) 

There’s a search function that trawls the world wide web for all the gifs you need, so the possibilities are endless.

CRAZY TEXT EFFECTS 

Type your text in, then long-press on the send icon to preview your choice of effects.

There are two sections, Bubble and Screen. Swipe up and down Gentle/Loud/Slam to preview and choose your text size, and there’s also Invisible Ink which “hides” your text with a starry effect.

If you flick to the Screen section, you can swipe left and right to choose between sending your message with balloons, confetti, lasers, fireworks and shooting star effects.

But just so that the joke doesn’t fall flat on you, these only work when your recipient is also on iOS 10. I tried to send a fireworks effect to my friend, but it was stated as “(sent with Fireworks)” on her screen. 

HANDWRITTEN AND HANDRAWN MESSAGES

For a personal touch, try sending a handwritten message ─ it can be text, or a drawing ─ instead. To access, tap on the middle icon (it looks like two fingers on a heart) and scribble away. 

It will be sent as a gif; for instance, if you drew “Hello”, your recipient will see you scrawling ‘H’,’e’,’l’, ‘l’, ‘o’. 

You can even snap a photo or video, and doodle on it before sending.

imessage - emojis

NO MORE HUNTING FOR EMOJIS

Ever wondered how some friends seem to be able to find an emoji for everything? Well, you can be on a par with them now with the new Emoji function.

After you’ve typed a message, hit the Emoji button and all the phrases (e.g. burgers, cakes, cocktails) that have emoji equivalents will be highlighted in yellow. Then tap on them to turn the word into an emoji.

SEARCH FOR ANYTHING

Need a quick Wiki reference or an address while chatting with a friend? Highlight the relevant portion of the text, e.g. “Jigger and Pony” and tap Look Up. You’ll be presented with the cocktail bar’s website and map info, or a Search Web option. 

ios 10 imessage apps

APP WITHIN AN APP

A common complaint about the old iOS is that a lot of apps kinda acted in silo. Unlike in Android where almost everything can be shared from one app to another, apps in iOS didn’t use to interact very much. 

But now, there are plenty of apps that can be loaded right from the Messages app. For instance,if you’ve got transport app Citymapper, you can call it up to send your friend your current location (or search for specific locations); or if you’ve got Evernote installed, you can also search all your notes and share individual notes. 

In fact, there’s an additional App Store just for you to download these built-for-iMessage apps. To find them, go into a conversation, tap on the App Store icon (which looks like an ‘A’), tap again on the four dots at the bottom left corner of the screen, then hit “Store”. The default tab, Featured, lets you browse through apps to download; the Manage tab shows you which “regular” apps are compatible with iMessage so that you can add them to the app drawer on Messages. 

 

REDUCE CLUTTER

ios10 - filter mail, unsubscribe mailing list

UNSUBSCRIBE THE EXTRAS

Decluttering all the mailing lists you hardly ever actually read? 

Apple’s default Mail app now scans messages to check if it came from a mailing list. If so, you’ll be shown a big “Unsubscribe” button at the top, which should make it real easy for you to speed unsubscribe from all your unwnted emails.

CLEAR THE UNREADS

When you’re ready to tackle your unread emails, tap on the filter icon at the bottom left corner, and change it to ‘Filtered by: Unread’. 

The filter is also useful for looking for emails addressed to you only, emails with you in the CC field, emails with attachments, and emails from your VIP contacts. 

APPS THAT DON’T MATTER

Stocks, Compass, Weather ─ they’re apps that for some reason, Apple assumed we’d need but… they’ve been just taking up space on the home screen and you couldn’t even unistall them. But now at least you can hide them. Just long press the app icon and cross them out.