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Smartphones have become the go-to technology tool. They go far beyond making and receiving calls while on the go. Yes, they’re often described as a minicomputer in your pocket. But you also have a radio, a flashlight – even a level for when you’re doing handiwork around the house. Apart from these basic features, your smartphone also has many additional hidden features.

As smartphones added features over the years, people began relying on them to take pictures, serve as their address book, wake them up in the morning, and manage their appointments. More than 8 in 10 people age 50 and older own and use a smartphone, including 7 in 10 who are 70 and older, according to an AARP research report released this year.

But your smartphone can do much more. Here are some additional ways to use your iPhone or Android device and how to tap into those capabilities. All of the features are either baked into your phone already or available as free downloads from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store for Android. So, whether you’re using an iPhone or an Android, you can use these features.

Tip: Sick of fumbling with your phone? Some of the functions here can be launched just by talking to it. For iPhones, say “Hey, Siri,” then state your command. For Android phones, say “Hey, Google,” then your command.

Limit your phone to one app

This is one of the most helpful hidden features on your smartphone. If you’re ever in a scenario where you have to hand your phone over to someone else, but you can’t be sure they won’t go through it, try a feature known as app pinning. It works by allowing users to only use one app. To set it up,  go to the More Security and Privacy menu, scroll down to the bottom, and tap App pinning. On Samsung devices, open Security and privacy in Settings, tap More security settings, and then toggle on Pin app. Then open the app carousel, or tap the three-lines button on a Samsung phone. Select the app you want to pin, then tap the icon on top of the app to open the menu, and tap Pin. If you want to unpin the app, swipe from the bottom of the screen and hold, or, on Samsung phones, hold the three-lines and back buttons simultaneously. This will prompt your phone to lock, and you will need to use your password, PIN, or biometrics to unlock it.

One of the lesser-known features of the Samsung Gallery app is that it can help you draw perfect shapes by hand, including lines, rectangles, circles, arrows, and more. This is useful when you want to, say, highlight a certain part of a business document or infographic.

To try it out, open a photo in your gallery, tap Edit (the pencil icon), and tap Decorations (the emoji icon). Then, draw a shape and hold it for a second before you lift your finger; your phone will automatically fix the shape based on what it thinks you’re trying to draw.

Use Android’s version of AirDrop

Known as Quick Share, this feature allows you to share files between Android devices, Chromebooks, and select Windows PCs – even if you’re offline. To set it up, go to Settings, search for Quick Share, make your device visible to nearby devices, and select to share with your contacts or everyone nearby. Your device will either use Bluetooth or device-to-device Wi-Fi to share content.

Use your phone to charge your friends

No cord? No problem! If you or a friend is need of power boost, you can do it with ease. All you need to do is, on Samsung phones, open Settings, and then tap Wireless power sharing. For Pixel owners (except those with a Pixel Fold or an A-series Pixel), go to Settings > Battery > Battery Share. To charge a device, put your phone face-down and place any other phone that has wireless-charging capabilities face up on top of your phone. Then your phone should start charging.
Split screen
This is a very overlooked hidden feature on your smartphone. To split screen on an Android device, open the app you want to use. Then open the recent apps menu by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Long-press the app icon you want to split, and select the ‘Split screen’ option. This will allow you to choose the second app you want to display alongside the first one on the screen.

Screen record

Recording your screen has never been easier. Simply, pull down the notification shade, tap the pencil, find Record screen. Then when you want to record your screen, specify whether to record your whole screen or just one app. You can even choose if the recording should include audio.

Snap pictures faster

Android users: all you have to do is double-tap your phone’s power button to launch the camera app. Then you can use the volume-down button to snap a picture, or you can hold it down to start a video. This can make your life so much easier, especially in those moments where shooting horizontally one-handed is needed.

Scroll around like a mouse with the space bar

We’ve all had those moments where you’ve typed out a long text, email, or social media post only to realise there’s a typo or awful autocorrect making it wrong, haven’t we?

You can try tapping near the mistake, but this can be frustrating as you tap around or behind or in the middle of the part you need to change. There’s a much simpler way to get direct control if you spot an error in something you’ve typed in.

Just hold down your finger on the space bar for a second or two, and you should get a full touchpad style interface to zip the cursor precisely where you need it to be. From there you can delete or edit as needed, and even use the same long press on the spacebar to then zip back down to the end of what you were typing. It couldn’t be simpler!

Print (to an actual printer!)

If your home or office printer is on Wi-Fi and reasonably recent, the odds are very good that you can print photos, documents, or web pages straight from your phone to your printer. This is generally true whether you’re using an Apple iPhone or one of the many Android-based smartphones from makers such as Samsung, Google, Oppo or Motorola.

All you typically need to do is select whatever it is you want to print, and then choose the share icon. From there, select Print, where at the very least “Print to PDF” (which just creates a file) should be available. If your printer is natively supported, you should be able to select it from there, as well as choose print size and quality. If it’s not, check whether your printer maker has its own printing app to handle this kind of function.

We hope you find all these tips useful and you get around to using these hidden features on your smartphone!

 

 

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