5 mindblowing Apple iPhone hacks TikTok has taught us

The last time we tried learning something new from TikTok, it ended up in grazed shins, lots of tears and a very broken office chair. So we’re low-key stoked that the app is an absolute goldmine for iPhone hacks, because we’ve spent far too long trying dance moves far beyond our skill and fitness levels (seriously, how does she get her leg up that high?).

There’s nothing we love more than discovering new iPhone features we never knew existed, even if it makes us feel a little silly for not finding it ourselves. Check out five of the craziest features we only discovered, thanks to the clever and wholesome TikTok community. Best of all, they’re not just for Apple’s new phones like the iPhone 12, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max – most of these work on older iPhones, too!

USE THE BACK OF YOUR IPHONE AS A BUTTON

Hol’ up. The back of an iPhone works as a button?! It turns out you can use the Apple logo and surrounding rear surface to get even more control over your phone. Head to Settings, choose Accessibility, then Touch, and scroll down to the bottom until you see Back Tap. Here, you can choose what happens when you double or triple tap on the back of your phone – like opening apps, turning down the volume or switching on the magnifier. We’ve seen it called the ‘Apple logo button’, but it should work anywhere on the main rear surface of your iPhone.

PLAY MUSIC WHILE RECORDING VIDEO

Sick to death of missing the beat drop whenever you want to record a quick clip? US TOO. That’s why this hack from TikTok is an absolute game-changer. Usually, when you open your camera and swipe across to Video, your music stops. But if you keep it on the Photo tab, you can hold the shutter button to start recording, drag it to the bottom right-hand corner then let go. Your iPhone will start recording, but your music will keep playing too. Voilà! This one may not work on older iPhones (or those with burst mode attached to the shutter button), but you should be okay with an XR or later.

MOVE A BUNCH OF APPS AT ONCE

We don’t know about you, but we regularly reshuffle our home screens so that our favorite apps are always the easiest to reach. But moving several at once is a pain, especially when sliding it between pages – you would need to hold one until it jiggles, choose Edit Home Screen, drag it where you want and repeat the process. Until now, that is! After choosing Edit Home Screen the first time, hold the first app with one finger and tap any other apps you want to move. They’ll all stack up in a pile so you can drag them across each page as one. YASSS.

STOP PEOPLE SNOOPING THROUGH YOUR SELFIES

If you break into a sweat every time someone asks to borrow your iPhone, this one’s for you. The last thing you want is for a friend to open your gallery and start flipping through all those photos and videos you don’t want them to see, right? One method is to turn on Screen Time, add a custom passcode and set the time limit for the Photos app to one minute. The only problem is that snoopers can briefly ignore Screen Time – long enough to look at things they shouldn’t. For a more sneaky approach, choose one or more photos and videos in your iPhone gallery, tap the share button and tap Hide (the symbol has an eye with a line through it). This hides the photo from your main gallery and puts it in a folder called Hidden that’s near the bottom of your album list. You can even change your settings to hide the folder from this list if you want to be extra stealthy.

STOP MUSIC AND PODCASTS WITH THE TIMER

This one’s super cool, especially for those who need a bit of help getting to sleep. If you want your music or podcast to stop playing after a while, open the Timer and tap When Timer Ends. Ignore the usual choice of tones and sounds, scroll right to the bottom and tap Stop Playing. Set your timer, and boom – when it hits zero, it will simply stop any music or podcast you’re listening to so it doesn’t play all night. You’ll sleep more soundly than ever!