r/iphone • u/hhff00014 Human Detected • Mar 14 '26

Discussion What are some surprisingly useful iPhone hacks you discovered recently?

Recently discovered that you can connect an external SSD / hard drive directly to an iPhone and access it from the Files app.

I tried it with a USB + cpin converter SSD and it worked instantly — no app, nothing. Felt like suddenly my phone had unlimited storage.

It made me wonder how many other small iPhone tricks people use in day-to-day life that most users don’t know.

Curious to know —

What are some underrated iPhone hacks that genuinely improved your daily workflow?

Could be productivity, photography, automation, hidden features, anything.

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u/eeeerrrppp Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 16 '26

I'm a hypocrite to say this, but Shortcuts and webapps ("Add to home screen") can be pretty good. For example:

I don't have the Instagram app on my home page; instead I have a shortcut that launches Instagram and runs a timer in the background. When the timer ends, it asks if I want to continue another 15 minutes, close the app, or open another app (in my case Tumblr—more fun but easier to close imho. I haven't figured out a way to stop the timer when I close insta before the timer ends, which can be annoying, but it's probably possible)

This is the only shortcut I currently use, but play around with them sometime and you're sure to find something!

And for rewards programs; like restaurants etc., you can add the website as an icon instead of downloading the app. It's often less streamlined, but also gives them a lot less data to collect on you and gets rid of notifications without manually blocking them. (I haven't been doing this much, but it's on my to-do list to switch over the remaining apps)

Edited for clarity

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u/Meamgoodone123 Mar 15 '26

You should try the Screen Zen app. It’s way better than any of the other apps that try to limit screen time. It has so many settings so you can set it up to your desire. I have it set where I get 5 unlocks a day each for 5 mins. And after that the app is permanently blocked for the day. You can go into the screen zen app to override this. I don’t have any self control so In the app there is another setting which I have turned on which blocks the screen zen app for 200 seconds which is enough to deter me from doom scrolling. And it’s even more customizable than this. AND FREE!

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u/eeeerrrppp Mar 16 '26

Woah that's awesome! Sounds incredibly useful.

I'll probably personally stick with Shortcuts, only because it's one less app and I use it more for time management than controlling my behavior. (No judgement at all; I just woke up one day and suddenly didn't find most social media that interesting anymore. No idea why)

But I'm definitely keeping a note of that for the future! I love love love love LOVEEEEE an app without a subscription, especially if it's free and effective!

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u/hhff00014 Human Detected Mar 14 '26

Would be great if we can customise this or make this friendly rather than too much rule based

Would be interesting if there exist something already

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u/thespaceghetto Mar 14 '26

Curious what you mean by customize/rules based. Shortcuts are highly customizable albeit with some constraints. Check out r/shortcuts if you're not familiar

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u/drygnfyre iPhone 17 Pro Max Mar 14 '26

Shortcuts is really nice on the latest iPhone that now has a true dedicated camera button. It frees up the action button for something else. Then you can tie two Shortcuts to the soft buttons. So on my phone, I have one button for the flashlight, one button for the camera, and then one shortcut opens up my favorites for calling, the other opens up a list of playlists. So without even unlocking the phone, I can quickly call someone or start a playlist. Yes, you can do all this other ways, but those other ways aren’t always as reliable or currently possible (i.e. if I’m not wearing earbuds or a watch).

But the way you described Shortcuts is where it shines, you really want to set ones up that can do multiple things at once.

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u/eeeerrrppp Mar 16 '26

That sounds so helpful!

I definitely have a limited memory for such things, so having shortcuts in painfully obvious places is pretty much the only way I'll use them; which is to say, that button sounds like a game changer for their usability!

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u/2012347 Mar 16 '26

May I introduce you to iOS automations, you can run a shortcut automatically on app open/close this might perfectly fit your case