Whether you want to limit the time you spend on social media or you just need some quiet from work emails while on vacation, your iPhone’sScreen Time feature lets you set daily hour limits on any app.
Here’s how to lock apps on your iPhone once you’ve reached the daily time limit.
How to lock apps on your iPhone
1. Open the Settings app and select Screen Time.
2. If the only thing you see on the next page is a button to Turn On Screen Time, tap it and hit Continue in the pop-up, then select either This is My iPhone or This is My Child’s iPhone.
3. In the Screen Time menu, select App Limits. If you have a Screen Time passcode set, you’ll need to enter it to access the App Limits page.
4. On the App Limits page, select Add Limit.
5. Here you can choose which apps you wish to limit by various groupings like Games or Social. Once you tap a category, all apps within that category will appear beneath it – tap the circle next to individual apps or tap the circle next to the category name to limit all apps within that category. If you want to limit all apps on your device, select All Apps & Categories at the top of the page.
6. After you’ve selected which apps you’d like to limit, select Next in the top-right corner of the page. Under Time, choose a daily hour limit, or select Customize Days to choose which days to limit app time and customize the hourly limit by day.
7. When finished, tap Add in the upper-right corner.
How to access locked apps on your iPhone
1. If you’ve hit the time limit you’ve placed on an app but wish to continue to use the app, tap Ask For More Time under the icon of an hourglass pictured.
2. Tap Enter Screen Time Passcode. If you haven’t created a Screen Time passcode, this will just be your lock screen passcode you use to unlock your iPhone. If you don’t have a passcode on your device, you won’t be required to enter anything.
3. Once you’ve entered your passcode, you can choose how much longer to allow use of the app – either 15 minutes, an hour, or all day.
Technology has come a long way over the past couple of decades. All but gone are the days of disposable cameras, Polaroids, or even point-and-shoot models – these days, most of us just whip out our phones and tap a button.
If you have an iPhone or iPad, you’ve also got access to Live Photos.
Live Photos are like still photos, but when you hold your finger down on them, they “activate” and play a few seconds of video and sound. They’re like GIFs with sound, and are a fun treat when you’re looking back at your photos later. But they’ll only work on Apple devices, and if you try to play them elsewhere, they’ll just be still photos.
Here’s how to take, view, and edit Live Photos on an iPhone or iPad.
How to take a live photo on an iPhone or iPad
1. From your iPhone or iPad’s home screen, open the Camera app.
2. Make sure that Live Photos are turned on by tapping the icon that looks like a bullseye. On a new iPhone, it’ll be at the top of the screen.
If the Live Photo icon is colored yellow, that means it’s enabled. If it’s white with a line slashed across it, it’s off. You can enable or disable Live Photo at any time by tapping the icon.
On iPhone 11 and newer models, when you tap the Live Photos icon you’ll also be given an “Auto” option. This will let your iPhone decide whether or not to take a Live Photo based on how much movement it sees.
3. Aim your phone at whatever you want to take a photo of and tap your shutter button as normal. You can also use filters like a normal photo.
You’ll be able to find your Live Photo in your camera roll.
How to edit a live photo on an iPhone or iPad
You can give your Live Photo various effects.
1. Open your device’s Photos app and select the Live Photo you want to edit.
2. With the Live Photo open, swipe up to reveal a list of Effects options.
3. Under Effects, you can choose to keep the Live Photo as is or use a few different options:
Loop, which will play the Live Photo in an endless video loop.
Bounce, which will cause your Live Photo to bounce back and forth.
Long Exposure, which will blend every frame of the Live Photo together into one shot.
4. Save your effect simply by exiting out of the photo – no need to do anything else. You can, however, change the effect at any time by following the same steps outlined above.
You can also change the Live Photo’s “Key Photo” – the image that appears when your Live Photo is still – and trim the Live Photo’s video.
1. Open the Live Photo and tap Edit in the top-right corner.
2. At the bottom of the page, tap the Live Photo icon.
3. A slider will appear with every frame from the Live Photo. Slide the white window to pick a new Key Photo, or use the arrows on the edges to trim the Live Photo.
How to turn off live photos on iPhone or iPad
If you want to turn off Live Photos – maybe you just want to take a good still photo without worrying about the video portion – doing so is easy.
When you open the Camera app, you can turn off Live Photos by tapping the icon so it has a slash through it.
If you want to turn off Live Photos permanently, so they don’t default to being turned on every time you take a photo:
1. Open the Settings app and select the Camera option.
2. Tap Preserve Settings, and make sure the Live Photo switch is turned on.
Your Netflix password is an important tool for protecting your account. It keeps strangers from using your account, obviously, but it also helps safeguard your payment information.
Related Article Module: How to create strong passwords for every site, and keep your info secure from hackers
Experts agree that keeping a different password for every site you use – and making sure that password is complex – is the best way to keep your information secure.
With that in mind, here’s how to change your Netflix password, even if you don’t remember it.
How to change your Netflix password
The steps to change your Netflix password are the same on both computers and phones.
2. In the Membership and Billing section, click Change password.
3. On the Change Password page, enter your existing password and then the new one you want to change it to. There are no requirements for what your password has to contain – it just needs to be between six and 60 characters long.
4. Confirm the new password, and when you’re done, click “Save.”
How to change your Netflix password if you’ve forgotten it
If you want to change your password, you usually need to enter your current password to prove you really own the account. But if you’ve lost or forgotten your password, there’s a workaround.
If you’re currently logged into your account, follow the steps above to reach the Change Password page. Once there, click Forgot password? If you’ve been logged out of your account and can’t remember the password, head to the login page and click or tap Need help?
You’ll be given the option to reset your password via email or text message – you’ll be sent a link where you can make a new password.
If you don’t remember which email address or phone number you connected to your Netflix account, you can enter the first and last name associated with the account, as well as the card number you use to pay for it.
Dave Johnson contributed to a previous version of this article.
Your phone may be silently listening to everything you say. That’s because smartphone voice assistants like “OK Google” need to know when to spring into action.
To activate your Android phone’s voice assistant, all you need to say are wake words “OK Google” or “Hey Google.” Your phone uses only your audio starting with – or just before – the wake word and ending when you’ve completed your command.
These interactions are archived to improve the service. You can see all your Google Assistant commands by visiting My Google Activity. Click Filter by Date & Product and then choose Voice & Audio.
While having a voice assistant at the ready has its advantages, this understandably raises privacy concerns for smartphone users. So if you’d rather not have your phone listening to you, you can disable the features that do it. You’ll need to disable “Hey Google,” audio monitoring while driving, and the Google search microphone.
Once you do, Google will no longer listen for your voice.
How to stop an Android from listening to you by disabling Google Assistant
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Google.
3. In the services section, select Account services.
4. Choose Search, Assistant & Voice.
5. Tap Voice.
6. In the Hey Google section, select Voice Match.
7. Turn off Hey Google by swiping the button to the left.
How to stop an Android from listening to you by disabling audio monitoring
After disabling Hey Google in the Voice Match menu, as depicted in the section above, stay in the same window.
1. Tap Driving Settings.
2. Turn off While driving by swiping the button to the left.
How to stop the Google search app from listening to you on your Android
1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap Apps & Notifications or Apps, depending on your device.
3. Select See all apps if required. Otherwise, scroll down and tap Google.
4. Choose Permissions.
5. Tap Microphone.
6. Select Deny to prevent Google from using the mic.
Real-time text is an advanced accessibility protocol for people with speech and hearing difficulties. It transmits text and audio as you type and talk, allowing the receiver to read the message instantly.
Designed for phone users who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech-related impairments, but usable by anyone, it comes standard on all iPhone models 6 and higher.
RTT isn’t yet supported by all carriers in every country or region, meaning availability can depend on the network and carrier being used. But if available with your service, your iPhone’s RTT tool can be enabled and configured through the Accessibility menu in your phone’s settings.
Once on, you can communicate with other RTT or teletypewriter (TTY) device users.
How to enable RTT on an iPhone
1. Open your Settings app.
2. Either use the Search tool or scroll until you see Accessibility. Tap on it.
3. Select RTT/TTY from the list of options.
4. Turn on Software RTT/TTY.
5. Choose a line if your iPhone has Dual SIM.
6. Tap Relay Number then enter the number used for relay service calls when you use Software RTT/TTY.
7. Enable Answer All Calls as RTT/TTY. Then confirm your decision to have calls automatically answered as RTT instead of voice calls.
8. Tap the toggle for Send Immediately to turn on sending characters as you type them.
How to start an RTT/TTY call on an iPhone
1. In the Phone app, tap the number of the contact you wish to call.
2. Tap RTT/TTY Call or RTT/TTY Relay Call when prompted.
3. Once the call connects, tap Use RTT in the bottom right corner.
How to type text on an iPhone during an RTT/TTY call
To send a text during an RTT/TTY, type it out as you would a text message in the call field. If Send Immediately is switched on, the recipient will see each character as you type.
If it’s switched off, tap the arrow symbol in the message window to send your communication. Finally, if you’d like to send audio, simply tap the microphone symbol and begin speaking.
How to review the transcript of an RTT call on an iPhone
1. Open the Phone app.
2. In the Recents tab, scroll until you locate the RTT/TTY call you want a transcript for.
3. On the call line, tap the Info symbol, which looks like the letter “i” in a circle.
4. Tap the Download icon in the upper-right corner and follow the remaining prompts.
If you’re shopping for a book lover, Barnes & Noble offers gift cards that can be used both online and in store. You can purchase a card with a pre-set amount, or choose your own amount up to $2,000. After receiving a gift card, you can activate it by calling a toll-free number or go online to activate and use it instantly.
Once activated, using the gift card is easy, so knowing how to check your card’s balance is a must. Fortunately, Barnes & Noble has three different ways to check your balance.
How to check your Barnes & Noble gift card balance online
If you want to check your balance online, you can access your balance through the company’s website.
2. Hover your mouse over the Stationery & Gifts tab at the top and select Gift Cards in the drop-down menu.
3. Select Check Gift Card Balance in the center of the page.
4. Enter the card or validation number, along with the card’s PIN.
5. Click Check Balance. The amount will display below the button.
How to check your Barnes & Noble gift card balance by phone
Barnes & Noble also gives you the option to call their toll-free number to check your balance. Dialing 1-800-295-3029 will connect you to an operator who will ask you to enter “8” before entering your gift card number and the pound key. You’ll be instructed to enter your PIN before being told your card balance.
How to check your Barnes & Noble gift card balance in-store
You have the option to go into a Barnes & Noble store to check your balance. At the bottom-right corner of the Barnes & Noble website, there’s a search box to help you find the nearest store.
A Barnes & Noble associate at the help counter or register can help you check your balance; you just need your gift card to provide them with your card number and PIN.
You might not realize it, but your iPhone is capable of making conference calls with up to five participants at once, including you.
You can even break off into private calls with individual participants, or end the call for only certain participants.
Here’s everything you need to know about conference calling on iPhone.
How to start a conference call on your iPhone
1. Open the Phone app and place a call to your first participant in the usual way.
2. After the call connects, tell your participant that they’ll be briefly placed on hold while you dial in the next person.
3. Tap add call underneath the plus sign “+” icon.
4. Call the next person any way you like. You can select someone from your list of contacts or tap any of the icons at the bottom of the screen – Favorites, Recent, Contacts, or Keypad to place the call.
5. After this next participant answers, tap merge calls to combine them into a single conversation.
6. If you want to add more people to the call, you can repeat the process: tap add call, place the call, and merge the call. You can add up to five participants, depending on your carrier’s limitations.
You can also add someone who calls you to a conference call in progress. When the call comes in, tap Hold & Accept, and then tap merge calls.
How to manage your conference call on iPhone
Once your conference call is in progress, you can go “private” with a specific participant, as well as hang up on callers one at a time.
To do that, tap the blue “i” icon at the top-right of the screen. You’ll see a list of all the participants on the call with buttons to end the call or speak to them privately.
The person who started the conference call is the only one who can see the list of all callers. If you didn’t start the call but added a participant, then you can see a list of only the people you’ve added.
With so many video chat apps available today, it can be difficult to keep them all straight – especially when a single company like Google offers several different apps that serve similar purposes.
Introduced in 2016, Google Duo is unique from other Google video chat apps (like Google Hangouts, Google Meet, and the now-shuttered Allo) in that it’s designed to be a fast and easy one-to-one video chat app like Apple’s FaceTime.
But, unlike FaceTime, because it’s cross-platform, Android and Apple users can video chat with one another.
Here’s everything you need to know about using Google Duo.
After installing the app, follow the setup instructions by selecting your country, adding your phone number, and entering the confirmation code that will be texted to you.
Then, to make a call or send a message:
1. Open the Google Duo app.
2. On the app’s homepage, swipe the contact list up and select a recipient. You can also type in a name or number at the top of the screen to quickly find someone without having to scroll through the whole list. To start a group call, click Creategroup at the top of your contact list.
3. Once you’ve selected a recipient, you can choose Video call or Voice call at the bottom of the screen to start an immediate call.
4. You can also select Message in the bottom-right corner to create and send a Voice, Photo, Video, or Note message.
What you can do with Google Duo
Google Duo has a number of notable features, including:
Wi-Fi calls or cellular network calls: The app automatically switches between your cellular network and Wi-Fi, and when your connection allows, it will use the highest quality video available – 720p HD on most devices and 1080p HD on the Samsung Galaxy S20 and above.
Voicemail: If the person you’re calling doesn’t answer, you can leave a video message for them.
Messages and calls: You can record short voice or video messages to send to select contacts, and you can choose to make audio-only calls as well.
End-to-end encryption: All messages and calls on Duo are end-to-end encrypted, which provides an added layer of security.
Special effects: During video calls, you can add augmented reality effects to your face, similar to Instagram. With Family mode, you can create on-screen doodles to share with others on the video call.
Knock Knock: The Knock Knock feature lets the recipient of a call see a live preview of the caller before accepting the call – so you can see who is calling you, what they look like, and even where they are before you choose to answer. Google also provides the ability to turn off Knock Knock if you prefer not to use it.
Group calls: Duo supports group calls of up to 32 people worldwide.
Like any high-tech device, the iPhone is designed to be as trouble-free as possible, and most people will own one for years without ever experiencing a serious issue.
But sometimes things can go wrong, and if your iPhone is unresponsive – and all other troubleshooting steps have failed – then you might need to enter recovery mode.
Here are some reasons why you might need recovery mode:
Your iPhone’s display shows nothing but the Apple logo for a long time and never fully turns on.
During an iOS update, the phone gets stuck in a loop of continuously restarting.
The phone won’t turn on, turn off, and is completely unresponsive.
Recovery mode is a troubleshooting tool that connects your iPhone to a computer and lets an app – either Finder or iTunes – diagnose and fix the problem.
How to put your iPhone into recovery mode
The method you use to activate recovery mode will differ depending on whether you’re using a newer version of macOS, an older version, or a PC with Windows.
1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac or PC with a USB charging cable.
2. If you’re running macOS Catalina or newer, open a Finder window. If you’re running macOS Mojave or older or Windows, open iTunes.
3. You’ll need to press and hold buttons on your iPhone to activate recovery mode.
On an iPhone 8 or newer, press and quickly release the Volume Up button, and then the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Lock button until the recovery mode screen appears.
On an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, press and hold the Lock and Volume Down buttons until the recovery mode screen appears.
On an iPhone 6s or earlier, press and hold the Lock and Home buttons until the recovery mode screen appears.
4. In Finder, click on your phone in the left sidebar; or in iTunes, click the iPhone icon near the top-left corner of the window.
5. You’ll be asked if you want to Update or Restore your iPhone. Click Update – this will try to fix your phone without erasing the data. If the recovery finishes and your phone still isn’t fixed, try it again but click Restore.
Once you’ve gone through the recovery process, your phone should exit recovery mode on its own. Turn it back on and set it up.
If recovery mode didn’t work, and your iPhone is still malfunctioning, then you’re probably out of options you can perform at home. Try contacting Apple directly for more help.
On an iPhone with iOS 14 or later, you can also hide an app from your home screen by saving it to your App Library – after selecting “Remove App,” choose “Remove from Home Screen” instead of “Delete App.”
The process to delete apps on an iPad is the same. But instead of first selecting “Remove App,” you’ll simply select “Delete App.” Like on iPhone, deleting an app on an iPad will also delete the data associated with the app.
To free up space in your iCloud account, go to the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, then select your name, hit “iCloud,” and “Manage Storage.” From there, go into the “Backups” section and you’ll see your list of apps, which you can then delete.
How to delete apps on a Mac
You can’t delete some of the apps on your Mac, but for the ones you can, the Launchpad is the easiest route to getting it done.
Simply open it and then click and hold the app. An “x” should appear in the top-left corner of the app icon. Click the “x” to delete the app on your Mac.
Instead, it’s best to go through the “Apps and Features” page in the Settings app. Once there, simply select the app and click “Uninstall.”
Like Mac computers, however, some apps cannot be deleted.
How to delete apps on Android
To delete apps on Android, you can simply press and hold the app, then drag it to the “Uninstall” text at the top right of the screen (next to the trash icon) to delete it.
How to delete apps on an Apple Watch
There are two ways to delete apps from your Apple Watch: from the Watch app on your iPhone or from the apps screen on your Apple Watch.
On your Watch, you can tap and hold the app icon. An “x” will appear over the icon, which you can tap to remove the app from the device. If your apps are in a list view, you can swipe to the left on an app and tap the trash can icon to delete it.
On your iPhone, open the Watch app and, on the “Watch” tab, select the app and then toggle off the option to “Show app on Apple Watch.” You can also turn off automatic app installation from there.
How to delete apps on a Chromebook
Deleting apps on a Chromebook is simple: Select and open the launcher, then right-click the desired app, and select “Uninstall” or “Remove from Chrome.”
On the other hand, if you want to delete apps from Google Chrome, go to “chrome://apps” in the browser and, like with Chromebook, right-click the desired app icon and then select “Remove from Chrome.”
How to delete apps on an Apple TV
You can only delete apps on newer Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD models – otherwise, you’ll only have the option to hide them from the home screen.
But for those who can, the process is simple: Scroll to the app on your home screen, then if you have a remote with a touchpad, press down in the center of it until the apps begin to wiggle. If you don’t have the touchpad, press and hold the select button. Then hit the play/pause button to open the menu to delete the app.