Want to drive safer but always end up getting distracted by your phone? With the news that using your phone while driving will soon be punishable with far stricter penalties, you may want to correct those bad habits. But would you trust a phone app to help you use your phone less while driving?

We'll be the first to say that being worried about someone knowing if you've read their message is a little ridiculous. Reading the message is the whole point of texting and yet... we can also admit there are some strategic reasons why you'd want a message to appear unread. Many messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and DMs on Twitter all support read receipts. iMessage-sending iPhone users have read receipts too, with a fun caveat: they're very easy to get around.

In iOS, the read receipts option can be toggled on in the Settings app, under Messages. If you usually keep this option off then you'll never have to worry about sending read receipts, even if the person you're texting has theirs set to "On".

If you usually have read receipts turned on, however, but want to secretly read a message, 3D Touch is your friend here.

There's no magic bullet or divine secret to maintaining a romantic relationship - every couple is different. But if there's one thing that's almost always guaranteed to help, it's more communication. And yes, even the silly, superfluous kind will do.

This week we have a man that met the girl of his dreams, but work got in the way before romance could blossom. Is there a good way to contact the one that got away and rekindle the magic?

Some people have problems that require delicate advice from a qualified professional. Others just need a random a guy on the internet to kick 'em in the teeth (with honesty, that is). I'm the latter. Welcome back to Tough Love.

If you get a text from Facebook, then you probably don't want to respond -- even if your response is something along the lines of "Stop texting me."

Google has released more messaging apps than I can remember (Allo, Android Messages, Messenger, Hangouts, Gchat, the list goes on), but the company has never been able to come up with a single service that can easily handle your messages on all platforms the way iMessage does for iOS and Mac devices. Now, Google may have finally figured it out by copying one of Apple's best features: Desktop SMS messaging.

Were you afflicted by the devastating epidemic, first recognised less than a decade ago, of people bending their necks to look at their phones? Then you had "text neck", a disease that almost certainly never existed in the first place.

Someone you're interested in dating gave you their number and asked you to text them. Hard part is over, right? Wrong: your entire romantic future here could be determined by your first few text messages. Here's the best way to approach texting someone you want to date, according to the experts.

We asked for readers' most bizarre, awkward wrong number calls and text messages and, boy, did they deliver. These tales of "whoa" involve everything from clueless callers to tactless texters, playful responses to toilet phones, and everything in between.

Even with smartphones and caller ID, wrong number calls and texts still happen all the time. What's the most bizarre one you've ever received? And how did you handle it?

The gay emojis are here. Smiley face!

iOS: There are always a few hiccups when you jump ship from one platform to another. If you're switching to Android from iPhone, for example, don't forget to disable iMessage.

Google's Allo is packed with useful features, not the least of which is Google Assistant, which brings a lot to the table. Even so, it takes a lot to make someone switch from what they're using now, especially if their friends use it. What's your favourite texting app? Are you sticking with it?

When you think of 'burner' phone numbers, espionage and spies probably come to mind. But there are plenty of reasons regular folks would want a burner number, and a few apps, let you create as many as you need. Here are a few ways you can use a burner number professionally, to protect your privacy, and even kill text message spam.

iOS: There are a few ways you can fix the iPhone's helpful, but sometimes annoying, autocorrect feature. Unsurprisingly Apple's software ebbs towards somewhat puritanical word choices -- like "duck" when you meant something else.

Group texts can be annoying sometimes, especially if you got added to a conversation with people you don't know. But they can also be a great way to reach out to your closest friends all at once and bring you closer together.

Sarcasm is hard to catch in text because there are no other cues for you to go off of, like tone of voice or body language. That's why it's best saved for people you have a close relationship with, not professional correspondence. And even then, a recent study suggests friends and family still probably won't get it.

Android: If you've used Facebook Messenger for a long time, you might remember the glory days when it could handle your SMS messages, too. For some reason, Facebook took this feature away, but it's back in the latest Messenger beta.