Open your favorite Messages chat from your iPhone Lock Screen

In iOS 18.4, Apple added a new Shortcuts action to open a specific conversation in the Messages app. This means it’s now possible to open a chat thread with someone important to you straight from your Lock Screen, for example. Keep reading to learn more.

If you’d like to reduce the time it takes to chat with a frequently contacted person, this new shortcut action is for you. Placing a shortcut on your Lock Screen to a spouse or family member’s chat thread allows you to contact them without navigating through the app, making it perfect for quick updates, urgent communications, or daily check-ins.

The feature also streamlines interactions by minimizing distractions, since it lets you bypass the Messages interface, so you won’t be tempted to engage with other messages or notifications. It could be handy in situations where rapid access matters, such as emergencies or business communications. The following steps show you how it’s done.

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How to find your Apple TV Siri remote using your iPhone

In iOS 17 and tvOS 17 and later, Apple includes a feature that lets Apple TV users locate a misplaced Siri Remote using their iPhone.

Prior to the launch of the latest ‌Apple TV‌ 4K, there were rumors that Apple would build ‌Find My‌ functionality into the ‌Siri‌ Remote. That didn’t happen. Instead, Apple introduced a new iPhone option that does essentially the same thing.

If a ‌Siri‌ Remote becomes lost, the ‌Apple TV‌ remote control available in the Control Center on an ‌iPhone‌ can be used to locate the missing remote. When enabled, users will see a Find My-like interface on their iPhone that guides them toward the remote, with an onscreen circle that changes in size to guide movement in the right direction.

Note that Find My for the ‌Siri‌ Remote is available on the second and third-generation ‌Siri‌ Remotes, and the feature is limited to the ‌Apple TV‌ 4K models released in 2021 and 2022 with updated firmware.

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Stop Videos from looping in the Photos App

Have you noticed your iPhone videos keep playing on repeat in the Photos app? Since Apple’s iOS 18.2 update, the stock Photos app automatically replays videos until you manually pause them – a feature that might be fine at first but can quickly become annoying, especially with longer clips.

The auto-loop feature can be fun for short clips or when showing someone a quick video, but it forces you to take action to stop each video rather than letting it end naturally. It can be disruptive when you’re browsing through multiple short clips in your library, and proves particularly annoying when viewing longer content where you likely don’t want to see the same three-minute video play twice in a row.

Fortunately, Apple provides a simple toggle to disable the behavior:

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How to get Visual Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro

On iPhone 16 models, Visual Intelligence lets you use the camera to learn more about places and objects around you. It can also summarize text, read text out loud, translate text, search Google for items, ask ChatGPT, and more. And thanks to iOS 18.4, currently in beta, iPhone 15 Pro models can get in on the action, too.

Until recently, ‌Visual Intelligence‌ was a feature limited to iPhone 16 models with a Camera Control button, which was necessary to activate the feature. However, Apple in February debuted the iPhone 16e, which lacks Camera Control and yet supports Visual Intelligence. This is because the device ships with a version of iOS that includes Visual Intelligence as an assignable option to the device’s Action button.

Apple has since confirmed that the same Visual Intelligence customization setting would be coming to iPhone 15 Pro models via a software update. That update is iOS 18.4, which is set to be released in early April and is available in public beta.

Maybe you’ve installed iOS 18.4 beta on your iPhone 15 Pro, or maybe you’re waiting for the final release. Either way, in iOS 18.4 you can assign Visual Intelligence to the device’s Action button in the following way.

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Share an Apple Music song to TikTok

In iOS 18.1 and later, Apple makes it easier than ever to share Apple Music songs to TikTok. Keep reading to learn how the app streamlines the process of making music-focused content on the social platform.

TikTok has become a leading venue for music discovery, with countless songs going viral through its short-form videos and trends. Recognizing the demand for sharing music on the platform, Apple in iOS 18.1 added a function that makes sharing songs from Apple Music to TikTok extremely simple.

The direct sharing feature automatically links the song to your TikTok post. This ensures proper attribution while making it easier for others to find and use the same track. So whether you want to create a mood-setting photo montage, or simply share a great song with your followers, this Apple Music integration helps you do it more efficiently.

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Get a copy of your Apple Account Data

As part of putting you in control of your data and privacy, Apple gives you the ability to request a copy of data associated with your Apple Account. This can include your sign-in records, data that you store in iCloud, app usage information, purchase and app usage history, marketing and support history, and more. If you live in the EU or the UK, you can also request App Store information, and app installation and push notification history.

The data Apple can provide you with comes in its original format or in industry-standard formats that are easy to open and read. Photos, videos, and documents are provided in their original formats. Contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and mail are provided in formats such as .vcf, .ics, .html, and .eml. App usage information is provided as spreadsheets or files in .json, .csv, or .pdf formats.

Apple promises to fulfill all data requests within seven days. Bear in mind that the size of the data download depends on the items that you choose to include (iCloud photo libraries can be several gigabytes, for example), but Apple will divide it into multiple files to make the download more manageable.

For users in the European Union or United Kingdom, you can schedule a one-time or recurring download (either daily for 30 days or weekly for 180 days) for certain data, including App Store information and your app install and push notification activity.

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How to check what type of RAM you have

In addition to Windows tools are third-party tools that show the RAM type. We especially like Speccy because it’s easy to use and shows lots of other useful information about the inside of your PC that you might need. But, other programs can dig up RAM info, too, like HWiNFO and CPU-Z.

To check your RAM type using CPU-Z:

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Generate Images in iPhone’s Messages App using DALL·E

With iOS 18.2, Apple introduced ChatGPT integration with Apple Intelligence to expand the range of AI capabilities accessible to users on supported iPhone models. One skill in particular that you may not be aware of is the ability to generate images in the Messages app, ready for sharing. ChatGPT leverages DALL·E to generate the images, and the results are almost invariably better than Apple’s Image Playground. Keep reading to learn how it’s done.

If you have Apple Intelligence enabled on an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16, setting up ChatGPT integration requires just a few steps, and you can begin without even having a ChatGPT account. You can always start with the basic setup and upgrade to a connected account later if needed, although in our tests there isn’t too much difference between them when used within the context of daily iPhone usage.

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Track a Flight on your iPhone

Flight tracker apps are a popular way to keep tabs on planes in the sky, because when you’re preparing to fly or when someone you know is on board a flight, you can use them to check that things are still on schedule. But if you have an iPhone, you don’t need to download and install a third-party app to track a flight – it’s a handy built-in feature of the operating system.

The ability to track flights in iOS is thanks to the data detectors that Apple has integrated into the system for quite a few years now. Data detectors recognize things like times, dates and addresses, and in the right context, turns these into tappable links.

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