Technology moves at such a rapid pace. Just 10 years ago, you'd need 10 different devices to do the things you can do now with just a single smartphone. Today's globally connected smartphones can make it easy to make calls, send texts, watch TV shows, read the news, and even make online payments. There are a lot of more features new phones have, but that is outside the scope of this article. What follows next are 15 of the most important new secret features your phone has, that you probably don't know about.
One of the worst things about having your life and business depend on your smartphone is the risk of losing it. For that reason, many new phones have a feature where they can display a message to the person that has found your phone so that they can return it to you.
To enable this nifty feature, all you have to do is go inside the settings section of your phone, and then into the "lock screen and security" submenu. In that menu, you are going to open the "lock screen signature" option and write your backup phone number or email there.
If the lock screen message that shows your backup phone number or personal email address is not enough, you can also use one of the available anti-theft apps. These apps can play a loud signal when your phone is lost, as well as taking pictures and GPS coordinates.
Although phones these days have a lot of memory (ranging from 2GB to 8G]B for some models), it seems that many people just can't have enough memory. The more apps you have open, and the more you do multi-tasking, the less memory you are going to have.
There is another type of memory found in all smartphones, which is the internal storage memory. You can free up this memory by switching the apps you use the most, such as Telegram, to keeping your files and pictures in the cloud, rather than in local storage.
CCTV cameras are arguably very useful in preventing crime. Few people know that most phones can also work as CCTV cameras, although for this function, you want to use an old phone and not the iPhone X< as thieves may just steal your CCTV camera in that case.
To use your old phone as a CCTV camera, you are going to need an app with a built-in motion sensing function - that is needed so that you don't overfill your storage with useless video files. After that, you need to find a suitable location and electrical outlet for your phone.
Just as apps can turn your phone into a CCTV camera, they can also turn your phone into a dash cam, which can be very helpful in case you have an accident, and it is not your fault. The best apps for this are DVR-based applications.
Most phones from the bigger manufacturers these days have a so-called "magic" menu, which can display often hidden information, and even give access to debug and testing functions - pretty useful if you are suspecting your phone of being faulty.
Different phones have a different routine needed to access the magic menu. For the iPhone, you should head into the settings app and then go to the "about" submenu. In there, you need to click 7 times on the "model number" label.
Another trick that many people don't know about is making your phone shine as a UV light - in case you want to become a detective. All you need to do is stick a tape over the flashlight, paint it over with a blue or violet marker, and then enable the flashlight.
If you have ever dabbled in construction, you've probably noticed how important it is to keep things level. There are different tools construction workers and engineers use to achieve this, but your phone can also use its sensor to act as a ballast.
Although all phones display some information regarding past usage, there are many types of information that are kept hidden from the end user. The good thing is that you can access this data if you know where to look for it.
To find more information regarding your battery usage (that is hidden by default), you should go into the battery menu of your iPhone settings app. In there, press the diel to the right of the "7 days" column, which is going to show a lot more quality information regarding your app usage.
In case you want to better save your battery life (and perhaps your eyesight), you should then try to enable the built-in monochrome mode. To do that, go into the magical developer's menu (as previously shown), and then go into the "simulate anomaly" submenu.
