iOS Tip 165 - FAST Redial

Redial the Last Called Phone Number on iPhone Quickly

Most iPhone users know that the Phone app keeps track of their outbound and inbound phone calls, and while you can use the Recents list in the Phone app to redial a recently called number, there’s another way to quickly fill in the last dialed number that is better suited for many circumstances.
This trick will re-dial the digits of the last called phone number on iPhone, but won’t actually start the call. This allows you to see the last number that was called, and also allows the user to make changes to the number dialed if need be

1 Open the Phone app and go to the “Keypad” tab
2 Press the green call button
3 The last dialed number will fill in instantly, you can make changes if need be or simply press the green button again to dial the number

This is particularly handy because it immediately displays the last called number on the numerical keypad, but without dialing it. This allows you to see the digits of the last number called, make corrections to the last number called, perhaps add an extension to the number, or make an anonymous call on the redial if need be. Another perk to this approach is this works to reveal the number even if the call history has been cleared on the iPhone.

You can also see who it is associated with by tapping and holding on the digits to copy the number and search for it.

iOS Tip 164 Quickly Open New Safari Tab

The latest versions of Safari for iPhone have an even faster way to open a new Safari tab, without having to enter into the broader tab view window. It’s a great trick, but it’s a little hidden and less than obvious, but nonetheless offers the quickest way possible to open a new browser tab in Safari for iOS.
1 Open Safari in iOS if you haven’t done so already
2 Tap and hold on the two overlapping square icons in the iOS Safari navigation bar (lower right corner)

Simple, fast, and easy. Even if the feature is a little hidden behind a long tap and hold, it’s still easy to remember once you get the swing of things.
Note this feature is primarily aimed at iPhone (and iPod touch users), as it’s less important on an iPad, since the iPad version of Safari in iOS always has the new tab “+” plus button in the navigation bar.
You can open as many new tabs as you want in the latest versions of Safari for iOS.

iOS Tip 163 - Block Unwanted Calls

Here’s a clever workaround that effectively prevents all “Unknown” calls and all “No Caller ID” calls and also prevents any other unrecognized number from getting through to you as well.

Do not use this approach to block unknown callers if you regularly get wanted phone calls from numbers or people calling from unrecognized and numbers. This workaround works by using your iPhone Contacts list as the allowed caller list. Anyone not in your Contacts list will not get through to you.

This is not the traditional block call method, it’s a workaround using Do Not Disturb mode and your contacts list to prevent any random unknown callers from reaching the iPhone. There are some caveats, so be sure to read through and understand how this works:

1 Open the Settings app on the iPhone and go to “Do Not Disturb”
2 Flip the switch next to “Manual” to the ON position – this turns on Do Not Disturb mode (as signified by the moon icon) which essentially keeps your phone silent, we’re going to customize this

3 Tap on “Allow Calls From”, from here you have two options for restrictions
•Choose “Favorites” if you only want your ‘Favorite’ contacts to be able to get through to your iPhone, this is an acceptable solution for people who have their family, friends, and other important people on their iPhone Favorites list, but never get calls from anyone else not in ‘Favorites’
•OR: Choose “All Contacts”, which will allow calls to come through from anyone in your Contact list (not just Favorites) but not anyone who isn’t already added to your address book – this is the better solution for many, since obviously an Unknown caller, solicitor, or “No Caller ID” call won’t be in the address book of your iPhone, but if everyone you do communicate with IS in your iPhone contact list, you won’t miss their calls
4 Exit out of Settings and enjoy your new peace and quiet

Remember: choosing ‘All Contacts’ will prevent any phone number or address that is not in your iPhone Contacts list from reaching the iPhone. Do not enable this without thorough comprehension, otherwise you may miss calls you actually want to get.

Remember Do Not Disturb mode silences the iPhone completely, stopping the iPhone from ringing or making any alert sound, and prevents any contact attempt if someone is not on your Favorites list or in the Contacts list, assuming you chose either of those options. Because of how this is designed, Do Not Disturb mode is an excellent feature but it’s generally best used on a schedule so that it kicks in automatically in the evening and turns off automatically in the morning, but some people like to have it on all the time.

It’s highly recommended to enable the “Repeated Calls” option in Do Not Disturb mode, since it is unlikely that anyone outside of an emergency situation would repeatedly call the iPhone.

iOS Tip 162 - Measure Your Signal Strength

If you're measuring your cellphone signal by the little dots in the top-left hand of your iPhone's display, then you're really missing out on a cool feature: using the built-in Field Test Mode feature.

You access this feature from your Phone app, but before you do that you need to do a couple of things:
• Turn off Wi-Fi (Settings > WiFi)
• Turn off LTE, because these readings can be different from standard cellphone signals (Settings > Cellular > Enable LTE)
Now you've got that out of the way, go to your Phone app, switch to the keypad and dial the following:
*3001#12345#*
Now press Call and you'll activate Field Test Mode.

To exit, just press the Home button.

If you want to replace the signal strength dots with a decibel value, press and hold down the power button until the Slide to power off message appears. Then release the power button and then press and hold the Home button for around five to ten seconds until the Field Test Mode screen disappears.
A high signal score is around -50 decibels, while a weak signal will be around -115 decibels, so basically the closer to zero the number is, the better your reception.

iOS Tip 161 - Record iOS Calls

Record iPhone Calls:

1 Open the Phone app and call the person (or place) as you normally would
2 Explain to the person that you are about to record the phone call, get their permission, and explain in order to do so you need to put them on hold for a moment to merge with the call recording function
3 Tap on the “Add Call” button and dial your own phone number, this will send you directly to your voicemail answering service
4 Once the voicemail starts recording as usual, tap on the “Merge Calls” button to merge the recording voicemail message with the live call in first step
5 Have your conversation as usual, when the call is finished end them as usual by hanging up then wait a moment for the recorded phone call to appear in the “Voicemail” section of the iPhone Phone app.

This is a popular trick that many interviewers and journalists use to record a call easily without other equipment and directly from their iPhone, and it likely has other purposes as well.

* Always get permission to record a phone call, and be sure to explain to the person you are going to record the phone call. In many regions it is illegal to record a phone call without consent to do so. Knowing the legality of recording phone calls varies per region, it is entirely your responsibility to know and understand these rules otherwise you could be breaking the law.

iOS Tip 160 - Delete Default Apps

Finally in iOS 10 you can delete some stock Apple apps that you may never use.

1. Locate the default app you want to delete from the iPhone or iPad

2. Tap and hold on the app icon to cause them to jiggle and make the (X) delete button appear, tap on that (X) to delete the default app

3. Confirm that you want to delete the app by choosing “Remove”

4. Repeat with other default apps you want to delete in iOS

Deleted default apps will disappear from the devices Home Screen and remain inaccessible to the device unless they are reinstalled again.

Some default apps can not be removed from iOS such as: Settings, Messages, Phone, Safari, Clock, Photos, Health, App Store, and Camera. If you don’t want those apps, you’ll need to hide (Tip 62) them in a folder or on another home screen.

Even after an app has been deleted it can be reinstalled again at anytime by going to the App Store, searching for the app in question, and choosing to re-download it again.