Deb’s top 10 texting tips:

Welcome to 2019, did you survive the silly season?  

How many of you got gifted a new phone or just bought yourself one with the gift money received? I am sure you have already set it up and are going through the arduous steps of learning your new device. 

I am an iPhone user, don’t hold this against me non-apple lovers, but I am still learning new tricks all the time from others that have one. I generally use my iPhone for everyday tasks like Calendar, Notes, pictures, Social media, Email and Googling. We all have different functions we like to use our phones for and it is good to learn from others around you as they may know of an App that can help or make things easier for you. 

Here are some of my tips to help you when texting with you phone: 

1. If you get a text message and you want to do a quick reply just hold down on the message and your quick response options with pop up - quick and easy 

2. When in your text message screen you can swipe to the left to see the time the message was sent to you 

3. If you ever have trouble getting that pesky cursor back to fix a mistake just hold down on the space key then slide your finger left or right. Lift your finger when in the right spot. 

4. You can now easily markup photo’s you send in a text –just press and hold on the image you want to add to your text and it will pop up in edit mode 

5. You can create keyboard shortcuts, got to settings/general/keyboards. Tap on ‘text replacement’ click on the + top right of screen and start creating your own. Eg: omw = on my way or brb = be right back. 

6. Do you know that you can easily delete what you have typed in one simple step – just shake your iPhone and select ‘undo’. Whala text gone. 

7. If your eyesight is becoming more of an issue you can set your iPhone to ‘read out your messages’ just enable Speak Selection on your iPhone – settings/general/accessibility/speech – toggle to ON 

8. If you want to take a screen shot of your phone just hold down the Power button and the home button – comes in handy if see something you liked and want to send pic to friend. 

9. If you don’t want to type your message simply click on the microphone on the keyboard and voice record instead. 

10. Lastly if you want to have more edit control on your phone then play around with the keyboard settings. You can customize your phone to suit your style of texting. Settings/general/keyboard. 

So have fun with your new or old phone. Don’t let it frustrate you, let it work for you to make your life easier. Isn’t this why you got a smart phone in the first place. ♥