Apple released iOS 7 to the public this week, providing a new design and a handful of cool features to iPhone and iPad lovers everywhere. While there are many visible changes, some of the best stuff lurks beneath the surface. Apple failed to advertise quite a few awesome features. These are our top 10.
10. Teach Siri To Pronounce Names Better
Siri doesn’t always get names right, especially if they’re not in her native tongue. If you want to change the way Siri handles a particular name, tell it to her and then say: “you didn’t pronounce that correctly”. This will initiate a series of questions to help her get it right.
9. Siri Can Handle Your Calls
In addition to her (or now his, if you prefer) new voice, Siri can manage your call log for you. Need to listen to a voicemail? Just ask. Want to call back whoever just rang and you missed? Siri can handle that, too. Just make the request and she (or he) will take care of the rest.
8. You Can Change Your AirDrop Visibility
AirDrop makes it very easy to share files with other iOS 7 users in your vicinity, but perhaps you don’t want everyone knowing you’re ready and willing. If you want to place restrictions on who can send you files, bring up Control Center and click on the AirDrop section towards the bottom left. You can decide if everyone, no one, or only contacts can see you.
7. Night Mode For Maps Avoids Blinding You While Driving
Sometimes you don’t want a bright white screen in your face, like when you’re driving somewhere at night. Apple’s Maps app automatically adjusts based on the time and provides you with a darker interface so you don’t blind yourself while driving. Note: there’s no way to disable this.
6. The Compass App Includes A Spirit Level
Got a few crooked picture frames? The built-in Compass app now has a secret second page with a spirit level. Just line it up against the wall until you get a balanced zero degrees and then you’ll know you’re hanging things straight.
5. Messages Provides Time Stamps
Ever need to know when a specific message arrived? You can now find out by checking its timestamp in the Messages app. Just swipe over from the right side of any conversation and you’ll see when each message came in.
4. iPhones Automatically Join Trusted Free Wi-Fi Hotspots
iOS 7 makes joining free, trusted Wi-Fi hotspots much easier because you don’t have to do anything at all; the connection happens automatically.
3. Mail Can Mark All Messages As Read
Remember how you used to have to exploit an iOS bug to mark all your emails as read? Now you don’t! You can simply tap the “Mark All” text at the bottom of your mail list and tell iOS 7 what you want.
2. You Can Make Audio-Only FaceTime Calls
You don’t have to make a call with just your face. If you want to reach another iOS or OS X user on a slow connection, or you just look like crap and don’t want anyone to see you, then you can ring them via FaceTime. Simply initiate the call the same way you would with video but click the phone icon instead.
1. You Can Block Calls and Messages
iOS’ lack of a call blocking feature has been a major omission, so we’re glad to see it finally remedied.If you want to block someone from calling your or sending you a message, hop into Settings -> Phone and/or Settings -> Messages and find the Blocked section toward the bottom. Tap it and add any people you don’t want. You can always remove them if you change your mind.
Comments
13 responses to “Top 10 Secret Features Of iOS 7”
How are these secrets? its not as if Apple wont tell you these :/
I don’t think it’s a matter of keeping them secret, but just small things that they didn’t bother mentioning officially.
Auto-joining wifi networks? That’s an old feature.
I think that’s to do with automatically joining trusted hot spots even if you haven’t been there before, like in restaurants and such.
So you can make phone calls on iOS7, what an innovation.
Congratulations on missing the fact that FaceTime is over a data network; so you don’t have to use you call credits; or you can make voice calls on the iPad.
Why can I still not delete contacts as a single swipe?
Apart from the Siri thing, I have had every single one of those features on my phones since my Galaxy SII… and some of them since my Nokia 5110 I got in 1999. Apple really do just make you wonder how they can get away with being so useless, so expensive yet sell so well. Incredible.
I have to manually join the enterprise Wifi at my work every time I use the phone. Is there a way to make this automatically join in iOS7?
real
Holy shit you mean you can now find out what time a message arrived? This is going to change everything forever… again…
It’s nice they actually added that feature at long last..
You can also send a time and date (to other iPhone users) through iMessage that the user can click on and create a calendar entry. Try it.. Send the message “today 4pm” 😀
7. Night mode for driving on Maps. “Note: there’s no way to disable this.”
You can disable this if you have some light, it automatically changes when the area you’re in is dark or in light. Try covering your head over your phone and then moving out into the light.