Forward an iMessage or text message

You can forward an iMessage in just a few taps.

So, you just got a text message or iMessage that you’d like to forward to someone else. You could try simply copying and pasting the message, but there’s an easier way.

• Tap and hold the message until a little black pop-up appears, then tap the “More” button within the pop-up.
• All the messages in the thread should have scooted a bit to the right, revealing “select” buttons on the left side of the screen, and the message you tapped and held should already be selected. Go ahead and select more messages, if you wish.
• Tap the “Forward” button (it looks like a curved arrow) in the bottom-right corner of the screen; when you do, the message (or messages) you selected will appear in a new message window. Add one or more recipients in the “To” line, then tap “Send” when you’re ready.

Find out exactly when a text message was sent or received

Yes, there are timestamps for each and every message in an iMessage thread, but you’ll need to swipe to reveal them.

If you glance at one of the busier message threads in the Messages app, you’ll see dates and times (a.k.a. “timestamps”) telling you roughly when a particular exchange occurred. But what if you want to know the precise time when a given message was received or sent?

Try this: swipe the display from right to left, holding your fingertip to the screen at the end of your swipe.

Doing so will pull your sent messages (the ones in blue or green, depending on whether your messages were sent as iMessages or garden-variety text messages) to the left, revealing timestamps for each message on the right side of the screen.

Silence an annoying group message

What’s with all the random text messages that just started appearing in iMessage? Most likely, a friend added you to a group iMessage or text-message thread, and now you’re the lucky (or not) recipient of each and every reply.

To mute an annoying group message, open the thread, tap Details in the top-right corner of the screen, then flip on the Do Not Disturb switch. Ah, sweet silence.

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That much you may already know. What you may not know, however, is how to quickly add new sites to the Favorites panel, or how easily to can rearrange, rename or delete your Favorites buttons. You can even turn a different folder of Safari bookmarks into your Favorites.

Read on for three ways to make the most of your Safari Favorites, starting with…

There’s an easy way to add sites to your Favorites on an iPhone or iPad.

Quickly mark a site as a Favorite

So, what’s the easiest way to designate a web site as one of your Favorites? Well, you could open the site on your iPhone, tap the Action button (the square one with the upward arrow), tap Add Bookmark, tap Location (almost there!), then tap Favorites.

If you’re using Safari on a Mac and you’re syncing your bookmarks with iCloud, you could just drag and drop a URL in the address bar into the Favorites bar—not too much work.

By far the easiest way to turn a web site into a Favorite, though, is this: open the site in Safari on your iPhone or iPad, tap the address bar, then tug down on the Favorites panel to reveal the Add to Favorites button. Tap it, and done!

Want to rearrange your Favorites? Just tap, hold and drag.

Rearrange, rename, or delete a Favorite

Want to juggle the order of your Favorites buttons, change their names, or nix them altogether? Easily done.

Tap the address bar to open the Favorites panel, then tap and hold a Favorites button. Now, drag it up, down, left or right; when you do, the other buttons will scoot out of the way. When you’re happy with the new position of the button, just let it go.

To edit a Favorite’s name or delete it, tap and hold its button, then release. A pop up with two buttons—Delete and Edit—will appear. Tap Delete to trash the Favorite, or Edit to change its name or URL.

Turn any bookmarks folder into your Safari favorites

Nope, there’s no iOS law saying that the Favorites folder in Safari is the only bookmarks folder that can contain your Favorites.

You can choose any of your bookmark folders to be your Favorites, not just the default Favorites folder.

In fact, you can choose any of your bookmark folders to be your Favorites, not just the default Favorites folder.

If, for example, you’ve created a folder full of web tools you need for work, or a folder of your favorite online news sites, you can quickly designate either one of those as your Favorites in Safari.

Here’s the trick…

• Tap Settings, Safari.
• Head for the General section, then tap Favorites.
• Go ahead and select any one of your bookmark folders.

Now, go back to Safari, tap the address bar, and presto: your Favorite sites should now be the same as those in the folder you selected.

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You can grab the latest version of Google’s Chrome browser from the App Store—and no, there’s still no way to make Chrome the default browser on your iPhone or iPad. That’s a shame, because Chrome’s nifty new gestures are making me rethink my allegiance to Safari.

Read on for five gotta-know Chrome gestures, starting with…

1. Refresh a page

If you want to reload a page in Safari for iOS, you must tap the tiny “reload” button in the top corner of the screen. In Chrome, refreshing a page is a whole lot easier: just tug the page down.

Doing so reveals a “reload” icon at the top of the screen; just wait for the icon to highlight itself, release the page, and … refresh complete!

Want to switch tabs in the new Chrome for iOS? Just swipe the address bar.

2. Add a new tab

Opening a new tab in Safari demands a couple of taps: once on the Tabs button in the bottom corner of the page, and again on the “plus” button.

In Chrome, adding a new tab takes just a single gesture (well, maybe a gesture and a half). Tug down on the page again, swipe left to select the “+” icon to the left of the refresh icon, then release.

3. Close a tab

Again, just tug down on the page, except this time swipe right to select the “x” icon. Done and done.

4. Switch tabs

The standard way to switch tabs in Chrome is to tap the little square button to the right of the address bar; doing so reveals all your open tabs, and you can tap one to open it or swipe it away to close it.

All well and good, but there’s an easier way to switch tabs: just swipe one way or another on the address bar. When you do, you’ll switch to the next open tab; keep swiping to cycle through them all.

5. Go back (or forward) a page

With its latest version, Chrome catches up to a feature Safari’s had for some time now: the ability to swipe to go back a page. Just swipe in from the left edge of the screen to go back, or swipe in from the right side to go forward.

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Hi Jacqui! Yep, these settings are a bit confusing. And I don’t blame you for thinking that toggling the “Enable LTE” setting might have the same effect as turning the “Cellular Data” setting off. In fact, though, these settings do two very different things.

What the Cellular Data setting does

The Cellular Data setting (which you’ll find by tapping Settings, Cellular) will completely turn off your iPhone’s access to cellular data. This means the only way you’d be able to browse the web, check email, or otherwise connect to the Internet will be via Wi-Fi. Turning Cellular Data off might be a smart move if, say, you’re going travelling and you don’t want to risk roaming on pricey international data networks.

What the Enable LTE setting does

The Enable LTE setting will (among other things) let you turn off LTE data, but LTE isn’t the only kind of cellular data.

The Enable LTE setting is a different beast. Yes, this setting will, among other things, let you turn off LTE data. But LTE (short for “Long Term Evolution“) isn’t the only kind of cellular data. And if you turn LTE data off (Settings, Cellular, Enable LTE, Off), your iPhone may simply downshift to 3G or even 2G networks. LTE is considered 4G—fourth generation—when it comes to cellular data, by the way.

3G and 2G data networks (denoted by “3G,” “1x” or “EDGE” at the top of your iPhone’s screen) are slower than LTE data, but they aren’t necessarily cheaper, so don’t think of them as money-saving options. A better reason for turning LTE data off might be that your LTE data connection is too spotty.

Some important Enable LTE options

Now, the Enable LTE setting has a couple other options, too. The first is “Voice & Data,” which means your iPhone will use its LTE connection for both data and regular voice calls.

The advantage of the Voice & Data setting: it could (potentially) boost the quality of your voice calls. And it’ll also let you surf and talk at the same time.

OK, but what if you have problems with the Voice & Data setting—such as, say, your callers not being able to hear you that well? That’s what happened to me when I gave the Voice & Data setting a try.

In that case, you’ll want to revert to “Data Only”, the third option in the Enable LTE setting. Data Only may be your best bet for solid voice-call quality, but it also means you won’t be able to surf or access the Internet while you’re on a call. Unless your iPhone happens to be connected to Wi-Fi.

Hope this helps, Jacqui, and let me know if you still have questions!

Update: Reader Jim chimes in with an excellent question…

I have the 5s, my carrier is C-Spire, which has a regional “home base area”. They also have LTE capability, in most areas, but, according to your article, you can choose to turn off LTE completely or choose Data and voice or Data only. The only choice I have for LTE is either on or off. Is that peculiar to my carrier or is it because I have the 5s iPhone?

Hi Jim! You bring up a great point, and apologies for not addressing this in the original tip. First of all, yes: the “Voice & Data” setting for LTE will only appear on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. And yes, even if you have a new iPhone, your carrier may not support simultaneous voice and data over LTE.

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Should I turn it on and off manually or will the phone know to go to Wi-Fi when in a Wi-Fi zone? Some people say just keep it on all the time and some people say turn it off manually when in a Wi-Fi area. I get conflicting information from Verizon and other experts. What is the right thing to do? Please give me your thoughts. Thanks.

Hi Nadine! Good question, especially given how quickly an iPhone can burn through 2GB of data. (I learned that the hard way during a recent cable modem outage at home.)

You can turn the iOS Cellular Data setting off to be absolutely sure that you’re not using LTE data at home, but there are better alternatives.

Anyway, here’s the good news: the iPhone (and Android phones too) is pretty smart when it comes to juggling cellular and Wi-Fi data connections.

Your iPhone (or LTE-enabled iPad) will remember any password-protected Wi-Fi hotspots your join. And once it detects one (like your home Wi-Fi hotspot), it’ll join the hotspot automatically.

While your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi, it won’t use any cellular data, even if your handset’s cellular data setting (Settings, Cellular) is switched on.

Of course, you should still keep an eye on the Wi-Fi icon at the top of your iPhone’s screen. If it switches back to LTE (i.e., cellular data) while you’re at home, it’s probably because you’ve strayed out of the range of your home Wi-Fi hotspot. The Wi-Fi icon on my own iPhone, for example, tends to flicker on and off in the bathroom of my apartment, meaning I’m at the very edge of my home Wi-Fi zone.

Now, you could always turn the cellular setting off to be absolutely sure that you’re not using LTE data at home. But toggling the cellular setting on and off can be pain.

A few suggestions

Follow a few basic steps to make sure your iPhone doesn’t consume more than its fair share of cellular data.

• Tap Settings, iTunes & App Store, and make sure the “Use Cellular Data” setting is switched off; that way, your iPhone won’t try to download new iTunes purchases or app updates over cellular.
• Go back to the main Settings screen, tap Cellular, scroll down to the “Use Cellular Data for” heading and disable cellular access for data-hungry apps like Netflix, Podcasts, and YouTube.
• You can also see if your wireless carrier has an app or a Notification Center widget that tracks cellular data use. You mentioned that Verizon Wireless is your carrier, Nadine, and Verizon’s iOS app does boast a data tracker.
• Visit PCWorld for more suggestions (written by yours truly) on how to keep your iPhone’s cellular data use in check.

Hope that helps, Nadine. Still have questions? Let me know!

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Sure, you can still create your own playlists and spin up streaming “radio” stations based on any artists or songs you choose. However, you can no longer pick which buttons you want to see at the bottom of the screen—you know, buttons for Artists, Songs, Genres, and the like.

Instead, here are the tabs you get: My Music, Playlists, Radio (for Apple’s free streaming radio stations), and Connect. These let music fans “connect with their favorite artists” through a new, Twitter-like social network. The buttons are slightly different for those who sign up for the new, all-you-can-stream Apple Music subscription service, which starts at $10 a month.

There is, in fact, a way to get rid of the Connect button, but it’s hidden in the Restrictions section of the iOS Settings menu.

Now, I can settle for My Music, Playlists, and Radio, but Connect? Hmm. When I tap the Connect button on my iPhone, all I get is a photo of a bare-chested Flea with his arm in a sling. Uh, no thanks. (Apologies to any Red Hot Chili Peppers fans out there.)

So, guess I’ll just hide the Connect button, right? Not so fast. Tap and hold the Connect button, and nothing happens, and there’s no obvious way to hide the button on swap in a replacement.

Good news, though: there is, in fact, a way to get rid of the Connect button, but it’s well hidden.

Here’s what you do:

• Tap Settings, General, Restrictions (think parental controls), then tap Enable Restrictions.
• If you didn’t have Restrictions enabled already, you’ll be prompted to create a four-digit passcode. Go ahead and do so, but don’t forget your new PIN.
• Scroll down to the Apple Music Connect setting and flip off its switch.

Head back to the Apple Music app, and whoosh! Buh-buy, Connect button.

Bonus tip

When you tap the My Music button in the new Apple Music app, you’ll see a big alphabetical list of all artists in your collection. Fine, but what if you want to see a list of albums, songs, genres, or something else?

Just tap the Artists heading; doing so will open a drop-down menu, with options ranging from albums to composers and music compilations.

It seems obvious once you know the trick, but it took me a good five minutes of frustrated tapping to figure it out. (Oh, how I miss the easy-as-pie interface on the original iPod.)

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No longer was my iPhone making it through a full day with ease; indeed, I was regularly getting “Low Battery” warnings well before bedtime. If I dared to use my iPhone as a mobile hotspot while working remotely in the city, I’d be lucky to make it home before the battery up and died. And even when I barely used my iPhone, I’d notice the battery meter steadily dipping throughout the day.

There’s an easy way to pinpoint battery-hogging apps on your iPhone or iPad.

So, what was going on? Did I have a bad iPhone battery, or—more likely—was one of my apps being a battery hog? Luckily, there’s an easy way to find out.

If you tap Settings, General, Usage, then Battery Usage, you’ll get a list of all the apps that have been drawing power from your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) battery.

Related: 8 battery-saving tips for your iPhone

At the top of the list, you’ll likely see items like Safari, Mail, and other apps that you use all the time. What you’re looking for are apps that you don’t use that often, or anything that’s using a surprisingly large share of your battery. Find any? If so, you may want to consider evicting those power-hungry apps off your iDevice.

You’ll also see a few apps in the list with a “Background Activity” tag, denoting apps that are taking advantage of iOS’s “background app refresh” feature.

Background app refreshing lets certain iOS apps update themselves even when you’re not using them. For example, the Facebook app can go and silently update its news feed, the CNN app can grab the latest headlines, Twitter can download more tweets, and the Stocks app can check the latest stock prices, all without you ever opening the apps themselves.

Are too many of your iOS apps trying to refresh themselves in the background? Consider switching off that setting for some (or all) of them.

While background app refreshing is designed to use as little battery power as possible, too many apps trying to refresh themselves will take a toll on your iPhone’s battery life—particularly if there’s a specific app that’s using more than its fair share.

Want to see which of your apps are refreshing themselves in the background? Go back to the main Settings screen, then tap General, Background App Refresh.

Here, you’ll see a giant list of apps that support iOS’s background app refresh features, and most of them will probably be switched on.

My advice: switch off every app except those that you absolutely, positively need to be updated all the time. For example, maybe you want to make sure that Gmail is always checking for new messages, but you don’t really need Twitter to be constantly downloading the latest tweets. In that case, make sure to switch background app refreshing on for Gmail but off for Twitter.

Now, go back to using your iPhone or iPad and keep an eye on the battery meter. Is your battery holding out for a whole day again? If so, maybe the changes you made in your app settings did some good.

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Want to email the complete text—not just the URL—of a web article from your iPhone or iPad? Meet the Reader View button, your new best friend.

Well, yes, but doing so only sends a link to the article, not the article itself. What if you want to save your friend a step by sending the entire article in your mail message?

One option is to copy and paste the text of the article, but that can be a messy process, especially given how tricky it can be to precisely select text on a touchscreen.

Luckily, there’s a much easier way to forward the entire text of an article via email, and it only takes an extra tap.

When you’re viewing the article in Safari on your iPhone or iPad, go up to the address bar (you may have to pull down on the page to make the address bar visible), then look on the left side for a tiny button marked with four horizontal lines.

With a little help from Safari’s Reader mode, you can easily paste the entire body of a web article into an email.

Tap the button to activate Reader View, a handy Safari feature that reformats web articles for easier reading on small screens.

Now, tap the Action button and tap Mail; when you do, the entire text of the article, including (perhaps) a few images, will appear in a draft mail message. Add a sender and a subject, tap the Send button, and you’re all set.

Note: Don’t see the Reader View button? Unfortunately, some web pages aren’t compatible with Safari’s Reader mode; in that case, you’ll have to settle for sending just a link or copying and pasting.

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You could try finding them by tapping your way back to a specific mail account and opening the Drafts folder, but that could take some doing—especially if you’re starting from the All Inboxes folder, or if you’re not sure which email account your draft is sitting in.

Your Mail drafts are just a “long-press” of the Compose button away.

Well, good news: there’s an easier way to pull up your saved email drafts for all your iPhone/iPad email accounts, and it’s just a “long-press” away.

See the “Compose” button in the bottom-right corner of the Mail interface? Tap and hold it.

When you do, a window will slide up with a list of all your mail drafts, across all your accounts.

Just tap a draft to pick up where you left off.

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Hi Lee! Yep, you can download a PDF file from the web to your iPhone—or an iPad, for that matter. All you need is a PDF-friendly app that’ll let you store PDF files on your device.

For example, you can open and save a PDF in an e-reader app like iBooks or Amazon’s Kindle app.

You can also open a PDF in a desktop-syncing app like Dropbox or Google Drive, perfect for keeping copies of a PDF on all your Dropbox- or Google Drive-connected devices.

Let’s get started

• First, make sure you’ve installed a PDF-viewing app that can actually save PDF files to your iPhone. Plenty are available in the App Store, but I recommend one of the four mentioned above: iBooks, Kindle, Dropbox, or Google Drive.
• All set? Now, go ahead and open a PDF file on the web or in an email.
• If you opened the PDF in your iPhone’s Safari web browser, you’ll briefly see a pair of buttons at the top of the screen: “Open in…” and “Open in [name of app].” Tap the screen to make those buttons reappear, then tap the “Open in…” button. Did you open the PDF in the body of an email? If so, open the PDF, tap the Action button (the square one with the upward arrow) in the top-right corner of the screen.
• Next, a menu of PDF-viewing apps will slide up from the bottom of the display. Tap the one you want to use, and the PDF file will open in the app of your choice.
• If you picked either iBooks or Kindle, the app will automatically be saved to your phone’s memory. To open the PDF again, just launch either app, then browse the “PDFs” section of your iBooks library or “Docs” in the Kindle app.
• For apps like Dropbox and Google Drive, make sure to save the PDF for “offline” viewing. In Dropbox, open the PDF, tap the three-dot menu button in the top corner of the screen, then tap Favorite. For Google Drive, tap the little “i” button next to the file’s name, then make sure the “Keep on device” setting is switched on.

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