iOS 12: Solve These 4 Infuriating iPhone Annoyances With iOS's Hidden Fixes

Apple’s iOS 12 software is chock full of hidden gestures which, once activated, can streamline the way users navigate their iPhones and iPads. But the best way of accessing these features isn’t always immediately obvious.

While Apple always highlights some of its more flashy capabilities whenever it rolls out a new version of its mobile operating system, for example Group FaceTime or grouped notifications, it tends to gloss over big fixes or workarounds to common frustrations.

We’ve all struggled to put the curser down exactly where we want it, for example, and iMessage’s autocorrect has long made it a habit of switching a certain word to “duck.” But take a deep breath, there are remedies for all of these issues and more, they’re just hiding in plain sight.

4. iOS 12 Hidden Fixes: Turn the Keyboard Into a TrackPad

If you’ve ever tried to correct a certain word in a long series of text, you know the struggle of fat thumb syndrome. You tap once and totally miss the word. Tap again and it highlights something different. Put an end to this by just holding down on the spacebar of your keyboard.

All of your keys will go gray and you can accurately place the cursor by moving your thumb across the spacebar as if were touch pad of a laptop.

3. iOS 12 Hidden Fixes: Train or Silence Autocorrect

Autocorrect is supposed to save you time by swapping out words it thinks you’ve misspelled. But this famously runs into trouble when you’re trying to text a word that it doesn’t recognize, including many common er, colloquialisms. A prime example is the f-bomb that it always switches to “ducking” or “duck.”

There are a few solutions to this befuddling problem. Autocorrect recognizes text combinations that are in your contacts list, if you don’t mind sending the occasional profane message in partly capital case. You can also teach auto-correct to let you swear like a sailor in peace by creating a text replacement (go to Settings, then select General, Keyboard, and finally Text Replacement to add a new word to its vocabulary.)

Finally you can always simply turn off autocorrect entirely. The option can be found in the Settings app by tapping General, then scrolling down to Keyboard, and toggling the Auto-Correction setting.

2. iOS 12 Hidden Fixes: Turn Off Siri Suggestions

Apple is taking steps to improve Siri, but the voice assistant can be cause for some annoying notifications, especially Siri Suggestions. This iOS 12 feature is supposed to try to get the voice assistant to predict what app you want to open next. But it’s never that accurate will often times suggest podcasts when you are trying to open Apple Music, for example.

Much like autocorrect, there’s a hidden menu to silence Siri Suggestions so they aren’t overcrowding your notification center. Open the Setting app, tap Siri & Search, then scroll down until you see the three Siri Suggestions options.

Simply toggling “Suggestions on Lock Screen” will be enough to get them out of your notification center. But switching the other two off will further disable the feature across other areas of your device.

1. iOS 12 Hidden Fixes: Disable Screen Time Reports

Screen Time will track how much you use your iPhone down to the minute and deliver that data to you in a weekly digest that appears in your lock screen. If you’d rather just check this on your own or ignore Screen Time altogether, you have to either turn off the feature completely or edit your notification settings.

To switch Screen Time off open the Settings app, tap Screen Time, and scroll to the bottom where you’ll find the “Turn Off Screen Time” button.

Alternatively, you can just silent its notifications and still have it track your phone use. Go to the Notifications menu in the Settings app and scroll down until you find Screen Time. Then edit its notifications settings to make it less invasive.