Local Files Not Syncing on Spotify iOS App? Here’s How to Fix

There’s this recurring issue of Spotify that we’re all too familiar with: local files stored from our computer suddenly don’t sync over to Spotify’s iPhone app. A quick Google search reveals it’s an issue affecting thousands of users. And sure it’s straight out annoying, considering that you lose access to tens or hundreds of local tracks coming from sources outside of Spotify.

Spotify, despite being the streaming behemoth that she is, is still marred with performance and playback issues that are too random that sometimes you get a random fix. This Spotify syncing issue usually happens immediately after a major update on its iOS app. Spotify could be introducing new features or purging locally stored data, causing synced local files to get wiped out.

Why Local Files Are Not Syncing on Spotify

There are a few reasons why local files fail to sync. First, you might have unknowingly deleted or moved the local files on your laptop. This action of course confuses the Spotify app on your desktop so it can no longer locate the local files. Second, for local syncing to work, in your Spotify desktop app, you’ll have to “Download” those tracks as well.

How To Fix Spotify Local Files Not Syncing

If you’re sure your local files are untouched and you encounter this Spotify synchronization issue. Follow these steps:

  1. Ensure you have the latest copy of Spotify installed both on your iOS and desktop app, and ensure you’re connected to the same network
  2. Restart both apps on your iPhone and desktop
  3. On your desktop, ensure you “Download“ the entire playlist where your local tracks are stored
  4. Go back to your Spotify iOS app. Go to Settings > Local Files and ensure Local audio files is toggled.
  5. Navigate to that same playlist and click the green "Download" icon.

You’re done. For best results, also ensure your iPhone is not on “Low Power Mode”. Low Power Mode limits background activity such as downloads & syncs.

Local Files Not Syncing on Spotify iOS App? Here’s How to Fix

iOS 14 is coming to iPhone! Just like Apple’s previous releases, the upcoming iOS 14 is packed with features that will redefine everyone’s iPhone experience.

One of iOS 14 much-awaited features is the introduction of Picture-in-Picture (PiP) playback on iOS (finally). That is, with PiP officially coming to iPhone, you’ll be able to multitask and navigate to other apps while a small, resizable window floats on your device’s screen.

iOS 14’s Picture-in-Picture playback will be officially supported on iPhone’s stock apps like FaceTime and Safari. In Safari for instance, you can play whatever video source and enable Picture-in-Picture with just a few taps. This makes it possible to do PiP on YouTube as long as you view it inside Safari.

But, what about PiP in YouTube app?

Unfortunately, PiP isn’t automatically enabled on third-party apps like YouTube. It’s up to individual third-party apps like YouTube to follow suit. And if for some reason Google won’t update their official YouTube app and bring support for PiP, then, here’s a neat trick to do Picture-in-Picture in YouTube app.

What you need:

  • Shortcuts iOS app installed
  • A copy of YouTube App PiP Opener by Nangu

Using Shortcuts to Enable PiP on YouTube iOS App

  1. First off, add YouTube App PiP Opener shortcut and ensure it’s shown in Share Sheet (this is a one-time setup)

    ios 14 youtube app picture in picture

  2. Ensure you allow custom shortcuts to be ran. Go to your device’s Settings > Shortcuts and enable Allow Untrusted Shortcuts
  3. Launch YouTube app. Play whatever video you want.
  4. While video is playing, hit Share icon. This should bring iOS’s Share Sheet.

  5. Tap on YouTube App PiP Opener. It should launch and transfer video playback to Safari.
  6. Just go fullscreen and tap the PiP icon. You’re done.

See, we’re exploiting Shortcuts’ app to view YouTube videos in PiP mode. Not the most elegant solution but it’s a nice workaround while waiting for YouTube’s turn to finally bring Picture-in-Picture to its official iOS app.

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How To: Use iOS 14 Picture-in-Picture on YouTube App (No Jailbreak)

There’s another iOS text bug making the rounds of the internet today that renders anyone’s iPhone useless. And Apple is currently rolling out a patch to fix this so be sure to update your iOS immediately to iOS 13.4.5 beta.

So, the offending text is a combination of an Italian flag emoji and Sindhi character. As soon as it arrives on your inbox as a text message or through your WhatsApp or Messenger, your iPhone will become unresponsive, forcing it to restart your iPhone.

Apparently iOS has an issue dealing with that offending text as soon as it arrives in your notification tray, causing it to exhaust all its internal resources and eventually crashing your device. This is similar to the 2017 iOS text bug that crashes your iPhone as soon as you get a message containing a specific Telugu characters.

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Apple is said to be seeding out an update to fix this Italian emoji and Sindhi bug. So be sure you’re getting the most recent update from Apple. Alternately, you can temporarily disable notifications from your iMessage, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

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Set up sleep timer Spootify iOS

Music streaming giant Spotify silently rolls out an update to its iOS app which finally brings a sleep timer support for its app. No need to separately launch the iPhone’s Clock app.

Setting up a sleep timer on Spotify

To set up a sleep timer on Spotify, be sure you’re getting the latest update of the app. While your Spotify songs are playing, launch the Now Playing screen, tap the tiny three dots that sits in the upper right of your screen, and then scroll down a bit until you see the “Sleep timer” option. From there you can set a timer from 5 mins to 1 hour.

To turn off sleep timer on Spotify, just redo the above steps and in “Stop audio in“ screen, just tap ”Turn off timer“.

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As a music app, a sleep timer is a hotly-requested feature of Spotify which lets you doze to your favorite songs without draining your iPhone’s battery. It’s a feature first introduced to the Android version last year. iOS users, on the other hand, resort to the iPhone’s Clock app to stop audio playback on Spotify at a predefined time.

Spotify iOS App Gets Native Sleep Timer Support

On average, I get around dozens of promotional spam text messages in a week from different lending companies offering their loan services. Not to mention the pesky offers from my telco and its merchant partners who aggressively promote their products through SMS.

Getting 20 unsolicited SMS in a week may not sound like a lot. But I felt harassed knowing that they have access to my personal contact number and they can anytime shoot me an unwanted SMS without my permission.

Truth is, while the internet is still the most effective place to attract customers, a handful of marketers still turn to robocalls and SMS marketing as a way to generate leads. They’ll assault your iPhone’s inbox with offers and yes, even dirty texts containing links of adult websites. And the most clever part is: they’ll use a different random number to text blast; not too easy to block and stop.

Well, not until today.

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If you’re using the iPhone and tired of getting spam text messages from lending companies and random people, now is the time to take action and permanently block those spam messages. And nope, you don’t have to jailbreak your iPhone just to accomplish it.

Meet VeroSMS, the Best iOS App to Block Spam Texts on iPhone by Keywords

Upon hearing VeroSMS’ promise of permanently blocking unwanted SMS, I didn’t easily get excited, to be honest. First, I thought it’s not at all possible to manipulate iPhone’s SMS inbox considering the well-protected iOS ecosystem. Or, even if you can do it, you’ll have to engage in the risky business of jailbreaking.

But I was wrong.

VeroSMS works flawlessly during my test and I don’t even have to upgrade to a $2.99 premium version just to get the job done. This iOS-only app automatically blocks incoming SMS matching my custom-defined keywords.

No more nasty alerts from spammers. All unwanted SMS are automatically rejected under SMS Junk tab in the iPhone’s Messages app. Yep, the nice thing about it is while iPhone won’t alert you for incoming spam messages, the app still keeps a copy of every unwanted SMS so you can anytime check back.

How To Stop, Block Spam Text on iPhone by Keywords or Phrases

Getting started is easy. All you have to do is:

  1. Download and install VeroSMS from App Store.

  2. Launch the app. If this is your first time opening the app, you’ll be asked to Enable VeroSMS Spam Filter. Just go to Settings > Message > Unknown & Spam. Under SMS Filtering, enable VeroSMS.

  3. Navigate back to VeroSMS app. From Blocklist section, you can define your own keywords

    The paid version already comes with crowdsourced keywords so you can pretty much skip this step. However, you can also add your own, localised keywords, which makes this app really useful.

  4. Now, see your iPhone magically junks those spam text inside your iMessage app. All matching text messages will be stored in SMS Junk tab. And you don’t hear a notification when a spam text arrives.

Note: Only those SMS coming from unknown phone numbers will be filtered out by VeroSMS. If a text message comes from someone in your contacts list, VeroSMS will see it as important and it won’t tag it as spam.

How To Automatically Block Spam SMS By Keyword on iPhone (No Jailbreak)

It looks like Tim Cook doesn't want to heavily rely on traditional wireless carriers to beam internet data to its iPhone. And he hopes to see results within five years.

Bloomberg reports that Apple Inc. is hiring dozens of top-caliber engineers from aerospace, satellite, and antenna design industries in its bid to develop satellite technology that can beam internet data directly to iPhone devices.

Joining this newly-assembled team includes Michael Trela and John Fenwick, former aerospace engineers who helped lead satellite imaging company Skybox Imaging, which was sold to Google in 2014. Wireless technology messiah Matt Ettus also joins the team, along with Ashley Moore Williams from Aerospace Corp. who focused on communication satellites, and Daniel Ellis, a former Netflix Inc. executive.

Apple can pursue the costly development of a satellite constellation from scratch. Or they can team up with existing satellite makers to beam internet data direct to Apple devices.

Apple's Next-Generation Wireless Technology

The apparent goal of the said project is probably to mitigate Apple devices' dependence on traditional wireless networks across the globe, which are often confronted with issues on cost, efficiency, and privacy.

Remember that Apple's cash cow doesn't solely come from its devices' sales. Apple also gets a significant amount of revenues from other sources such as Apple TV+ subscription, Apple Music, Arcade, and who knows -- Virtual Reality experiences in the future.

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Tim Cook's reign in Cupertino also requires him to fight tooth and nail in VR wars. In fact, Apple is working on its own virtual headset which is expected to debut as early as 2021.

All these TV and internet contents and VR experiences require a massive amount of internet data that needs to be fed to Apple devices in realtime. So, developing its own wireless technology is a sound decision from Apple in my opinion, as foreign companies like Apple are often held at a gunpoint when trying to penetrate a foreign market.

Developing countries, for instance, have exorbitant internet data prices and there are often data caps to deal with -- issues which Apple nor Google is unable to control, disrupting the company's goal to expand its services to foreign lands.

Satellite technology is an unchartered territory of Apple Inc., but with its massive $16 billion pumped in its research and development in 2019 alone, it can be just a matter of time when Tim Cook's reign at Cupertino surprises us with this wireless ambition.

Next-Generation iPhones May Soon Ditch Traditional Wireless Networks

iphone simultaneous front back recording

Apart from the updated keyboard, new editable emojis, system-wide dark mode, and other tiny yet much-needed bells and whistles, iOS 13 also brings a plethora of enhancements under the hood.

One of them is the introduction of a new API that lets you use both front and back camera of your iPhone to simultaneously record all the action in front and back all at the same time.

We saw it from a demo at Apple’s event last week, which showed an iPhone 11 Pro with Filmic Pro installed that delightfully activates and captures both front and ultra-wide back camera.

Newer versions of iPhones will certainly get this multi-cam sessions support. At the recent WWDC event last week, Apple also confirmed that the same multi-cam recording functionality will also be supported on iPhone XS and XR. That’s pretty much good news.

Apple's New Patent Gives iOS Quick Access to Camera, Bypassing Passwords & Biometrics

Filmic Pro, being one of the biggest names to incorporate this feature on its app, is said to be releasing an update to its app later this year.

However, if you want to try it yourself right now without spending a penny and see how this front and back simultaneous recording works, then, you’ve got to check out Dualgram.

Dualgram: Use Your iPhone’s Multiple Cameras To Record Back & Front All At The Same Time

Dualgram was a brainchild of Junda Ong, who says there are so many occasions where he wished he could capture all the actions on both sides of the phone. And he’s not alone. Imagine you’re in your vacation abroad and wants to update your family back home and so you excitedly update them with your pictures and videos. Isn’t it cool to show all the sights in front of you while at the same time showing all the fun right behind you?

A multiple camera recording isn’t new. In fact, it’s been around for years on select Android devices — and it proved to be fun and more personalized.

With the latest iOS 13 and Dualgram, finally you can try it on your iPhone.

Enable Front & Back Simultaneous Video Recording on iOS 13 with this App

turn off geotagging iphone

iPhone and iPad camera has this built-in geotagging feature that automatically attaches your current location (aka EXIF metadata) every time you snap a photo. This geotagging support enables iOS to organize your photos by location, making it easy for you to browse through your past photos including personal travel photos and selfies.

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Most iPhone and iPad have iOS camera geotagging enabled by default. You can tell if photo geotagging is enabled when you go to iOS Photos > Albums, there’s a Places folder where all your photos are displayed on a map.

A lot of people may find it cool that their iPhone detects their location and attach it on their selfies. What these people don’t realize is that they’re exposing their exact location coordinates which could turn them into easy prey from people with malicious attentions.

So, if you’re uncomfortable about unintentionally sharing your location data and want things a little bit private, it’s highly recommended to permanently disable geotagging on iPhone before finally sharing them online.

Here’s how to turn off geotagging on iPhone 6, 7, 8, XR, iPhone Max Pro & iPhone 11

  1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services

  2. Tap Camera and set Allow Location Access to Never.

    remove geotagging iphone disable geotagging ios

Preventing iOS from geotagging your photos should be that easy. Once done, it should remove geotag from photos on the iPhone moving forward.

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Please note that past photos with existing geotag won’t be removed. You’ll have to use EXIF remover such as Metadata Remover EXIF GPS TIFF or EXIR Purge to strip off sensitive metadata from iOS photos.

How To Turn Off Geotagging on iOS to Permanently Remove Locations from Photos on iPhone

artyline converts sketches to interactive prototypes

The latest advancement of AI continues to offer us a whole new way to experience our digital lives. We’ve seen how Google predicts traffic delays & bus crowdedness, well, thanks to AI. We’ve also seen how YouTube enables you to virtually try on makeup and help you with your purchases decisions, thanks to its immersive AR Beauty Try-On.

With millions of power users’ growing appetite for anything automated, it’s not difficult to imagine a future where mundane, routinary tasks are being kept to a minimum. And fact is : it has already begun.

One of the coolest finds we’ve come across is Artyline, a free iOS & time-saver app that converts hand-drawn sketches into digital equivalent in realtime. All you have to do is to give a good scan on your sketches and you’re done.

Not everyone will appreciate this app, but such an app comes in handy if you’re an app developer or designer who wants to skip NinjaMock or any online mockup tools to quickly visualize your ideas.

Why Artyline is such a great app

The trouble with hand-drawn sketches is that it can potentially be misunderstood by most clients who normally aren’t adept in UX design elements. So whether it’s a simple app or not, the best way to present your idea and get their approval is to give prototypes as realistic as possible.

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With Artyline, generating prototypes is as simple as scanning your sketches and you immediately get an interactive version of our mockup. Think of it as an additional team member in your UX / design department where design sketches drawn from whiteboard or paper are quickly converted to digital formats. So you’d come well-prepared when meeting your client to discuss the next big app.

Artyline limitations

Because Artyline is powered by AI, it has a limited set of training to recognize basic shapes and transform them into design elements. Good thing is Artyline has this easy-to-follow guideline to make your sketches more recognizable by their AI.

Pro Tip: Use markers instead of writing pens. Don’t use pencils as they’re too illegible to recognize by Artyline scanner.

Artyline is still in its infancy and got tons of areas to improve especially in the execution side. However, I can’t easily denigrate an app idea this good just because of those hiccups. So, we are still impressed.

Give your app designs workflows an upgrade. Get this iOS app while it’s free. Thank me later!

Download: Artyline [Apple App Store]

Finally, An AI-Powered App That Transforms Sketches Into Interactive Digital Prototypes in Realtime

If for some reason you want to restore that crucially important text message on iPhone that was deleted by accident or maybe you've bricked your phone and wanted to recover those important text messages, chances are you'll immediately hop back to your computer and look for backups to restore.

But what if you don't always have a scheduled backup and you desperately need to retrieve that lost text message?

Fret not! As dodgy as it may sound, you can fully recover deleted text messages on iPhone even if you don't have a backup. And best of all, you don't have to spend a penny to restore those deleted precious text message data.

How it's possible to recover text messages on iPhone

When you permanently delete a message on your iPhone, you're not actually deleting the data itself. What iOS' Message app does is it only removes the indexing file.

So you can imagine your actual SMS data still sits inside your iPhone's internal memory and can be fully restored even if that message is deleted.

iPhone Message Recovery: A FREE Text Message Recovery Tool for iOS That Actually Works

Everyone, meet iPhone Message Recovery. It's a tiny piece of app currently available for Mac that lets you recover accidentally deleted text messages on iPhone at no cost. I was told Windows version is in the works, so maybe a little wait is required for Windows users.

I nearly had to shun and skip this tool thinking maybe this is yet another garbage app that secretly installs malware instead of delivering the promised iPhone text message recovery as advertised. But the entire install file is just below 15MB so me being too skeptical had to give it a go.

To my surprise, iPhone Message Recovery actually works like a charm! After just a few scans, the app was able to recover my deleted text message and lets me preview those deleted text messages! Sweet.

Here's how to restore deleted text messages on iPhone without backup

  1. Download and install iPhone Message Recovery for Mac (14.6MB). It's FREE, no sign-ups needed.

  2. Launch iPhone Message Recovery on your Mac, it should prompt you like this

  3. Once installed, connect your iPhone to your Mac. It should automatically detect your iPhone

    There are two sources for text message data recovery: Device or Backup. Be sure you're selecting Device mode.

  4. Click Next, it should immediately start the scan. Analyzing your iPhone data can take a while, so wait for a few mins and do not disconnect your iPhone.

  5. As soon as you're done with the scan, the app prompts you this:

    If you're recovering just standard plain text message, just toggle Messages and click Next

  6. Let iPhone Message Recovery app do its thing and wait until you're taken to this screen

    You'll notice that two striked-through items being the deleted text messages. And see how I can easily preview them even if they're deleted inside my iPhone.

Wrapping it up

iPhone Message Recovery is not your typical dodgy data recovery app you've come to know from other data recovery apps. It's a fully functional data recovery app for iPhone that brilliantly recovers lost text messages data and even recover iMessage's photos and videos attachments in one go.

How To: Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone without Backup for FREE

Not everyone has the time and skill to generate a simple 2-3 minutes social video for Facebook or Instagram. Stitching your video clips and adding music can be all easy to achieve on iOS, but adding styled, custom text? It can be bloody difficult feat especially for a non-techie person who easily gets intimidated by video editing apps.

iOS' built-in video editing app iMovie doesn't make the cut either. Their “Add Text” overlay functionality is just plain boring, unusable. iMovie is decent enough in combining your clips with nice transitions and custom audio background but not in adding custom styled text.

The hunt for Canva for video

I had this interesting challenge last week where I needed to add a few texts to my travel videos. And me being a non-multimedia person, I'd rather do it straight on my iPhone and totally skip the headache of editing them with Adobe Premier or Quik, which for me are all complicated to use.

With that said, I had to check out and try nearly almost all video editing apps on iOS that allow me to add a text overlay for my videos. Some are very promising but one app that really stood out: Vont.

What is Vont?

Vont, currently available on iOS, lets you add highly customizable text overlays to videos. You have the flexibility to choose your own font or use Vont's font collections, change font sizes and colors. And the best part? It lets you insert multiple text overlays to any given video timeframe.

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And the fun doesn't stop there. Vont also lets you add transitions to each text overlay, giving you full control how you want your text enters the viewport.

Here's Vont in action:

It's easy to imagine Vont as Canva for videos. First off, Vont interface is so neat and it's a delight to use, almost similar to Canva.

For the uninitiated, Canva is a must-have app that lets you create professional-looking photos and banners for all your social media needs. Its suite of pre-made layouts makes it easy to create graphics, cards, flyers, invitations, and posters straight from your iPhone or iPad.

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The true strength of Canva lies in its ability to let anyone — with or without design experience — generate professional-looking visuals for their marketing needs.

Now, if you're looking for Canva for video alternative offering the same editing experience, then, you've got to check out Vont.

Vont: Canva for Video Alternative that Lets You Easily Add Custom Text to Videos (iOS)

Since the release of Apple's ARKit back in 2017, we've seen how it stirred the pot of curiosity among app developers wanting to deliver a whole new level of user experience.

Online retailers like Lacoste for instance now employs AR app to let customers virtually try on shoes. IKEA also has an AR app where customers can visualize how a piece of furniture fits and looks in their homes.

Augmented Reality isn't only disrupting retails. Right now, we're also seeing cool AR apps that virtually take you to other places around the world.

One of those apps that caught our attention is Portal: Learning with AR. It's a fun app best played with kids that let you explore the world at your fingertips.

Currently available in iOS, Portal: Learning with AR lets you create portals where you can walk right in and experience a different world (virtually of course). The portal is quite immersive; you can interact and walk around.

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Portal: Learning with AR is one basic Augmented Reality app that proved fun and useful. You can let your kids or students visit ancient medieval Rome or a green energy field.

LINK: Portal: Learning with AR

This Augmented Reality App Lets You Create Your Own Portal, Teleport to New Places (iOS)

Unless you're on an unlimited data plan and your phone still has gigabytes of extra space at your disposal, you can skip this guide now. However, if you are a heavy WhatsApp user under a throttled, capped data plan and notice that sudden drop of available phone storage space, then, this guide is for you.

In this article, we will show you how you can save precious data and free up some space on your iPhone or Android by restricting WhatsApp from automatically downloading shared photos, videos, and documents on your phone. WhatsApp by default automatically downloads photos or videos being shared within the app so you get the best possible user experience. But if that UX feature means exhausting our data plan fast while shrinking our storage space, then, we don't want that.

Save Data and Space - Restrict WhatsApp from Automatically Downloading Photos and Videos

The process is easy, you just need to go to WhatsApp Settings tab and just fiddle around those toggles and checkboxes.

For Android:

  • Navigate to Settings > Data and storage usage.

  • Just scroll down and under Media auto-download, tap on When using mobile data. It should bring you a dialog. Just uncheck Photos, Audio, Videos, and Documents.

  • Do the same process for When connected on Wi-Fi and When Roaming options.

For iOS

  • Go to Settings > Data and Storage Usage
  • Tap Photos and select Never option to stop downloading photos automatically

  • Do the same for Audio, Videos, and Documents

You're done!

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Restricting WhatsApp from automatically downloading photos or videos is one simple action that can save you both space and data.

How To: Prevent WhatsApp from Automatically Downloading Photos, Videos

WARNING! The SMS spy applications detailed below are intended to be used only for private and legal purposes. They cannot be used for violating anyone's rights, spying or other illegal purposes. User of any of these spying software takes all responsibility for using these applications in any illegal use cases.

Tired of cheating husband? Do you ever suspect your wife or girlfriend is making an affair? Do you suspect your kids are secretly buying stuff they're not supposedly getting? Ever wondered who's that someone trying to interact with your daughter? If yes, then, a remote SMS monitoring spy app for Android or iPhone is all you need.

Below are some of the best and free and paid SMS monitoring apps that you can install on your iPhone, Android and even Symbian and Blackberry device. These remote SMS monitoring mobile apps allow you to remotely spy and monitor text messages, SMS of your cheating husband, kids without their knowledge.

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Best & Free Remote SMS Monitoring App For Android, iPhone

  1. SMS Replicator Android Secret Spy App - Spy, Read Someone's Inbox

    SMS Replicator, one of the most controversial applications for Android, does almost the same with SMS Monitor. It automatically forwards another copy of every successful text message, SMS sent. This SMS spy app works well with Android and can be used to spy on your girlfriend/boyfriend or kids or simply for fun. Simply grab the phone while they are taking bath. Download and install SMS Replicator for Android, configure it with your number. Once done, the app will run in the background and it will forward incoming messages to you.

    Secret SMS ReplicatorIf successfully installed, this SMS remote spy app for Android has no icon so it is impossible to find on phone and will run on its own. The only way to reveal the app is to text the phone with your secret password. Just text "000" to the phone to open the secure settings and choose the forwarding number.

    In my test, it really worked like a charm and felt that uncomfortable feeling of guilt of being able to monitor whoever I want to track. So please use it at your own risk.

    SMS Replicator, being a controversial Android app, cannot be downloaded on PlayStore so you have to look for it on Google or other file hosting sites. I previously hosted it at 110mb.com but apparently the hosting site is already unavailable, and I don't have backup :( Sorry about that.

  2. Mobile Spy - The most advanced, next generation remote SMS spying software for iPhone

    UPDATE: I originally wrote this article back in 2011 so I can no longer vouch if Mobile Spy still works for iPhone, considering the often-updated, walled ecosystem of iOS. However, you can go give it a try, request a demo and see if it's what you need.

    However, the closest alternative I can think of to somehow monitor your kids is to use IFTTT and track every single snap without them knowing (no Jailbreak required). Follow this guide how you can Use IFTTT as a spy app to secretly copy, collect iOS photos on iPhone, iPad.

    Mobile Spy Mobile Spy is your ultimate solution for remote mobile spying needs. This is a subscription-based app, with great handset support, and comes with advanced remote monitoring functions.

    Mobile Spy uses the Internet capabilities of your phone, records your text and call activities, and logs your GPS locations. All data are then quickly uploaded to your Mobile Spy account so that you can monitor the activity of your cheating husband or kids via web. To download, visit Mobile Spy website.

    Remotely Lock, Password-Protect Your Lost/Forgotten Phone Via SMS

    Your two timer husband is less likely to make the same crime again if you install SMS spying/monitoring app on his phone. If you manage a business, your employees are less likely to abuse their SMS privileges.

  3. SMS Monitor - Get instant copy for every SMS, text message sent and received by your husband or kids

    This is one of my favourite apps back in Symbian days (Nokia) so if you have old Symbian device lying around, you can use below's app. Otherwise, you can skip this part.

    SMS MonitorSMS Monitor is a powerful tool for remote sms-monitoring. It was purposely created for security audit and parental control. You'll be able to read every single text message/SMS being sent and received.

    SMS Monitor Key Features:

    - the app secretly sends incoming and outgoing SMS from mobile phone where it is installed to an admin number (you)

    - all messages would be sent in hidden mode

    - application is not shown in phone menu (there's no way for them to jon and uninstall)

    - the app does not keep copies of SMS in sent and reports folders

    - the app is not shown in Task List

    Free SMS Bombing Apps To Send Multiple Messages All At Once

    SMS Monitor perfectly works on any s60v3 and s60v5 Nokia Symbian handsets. Download, sign and install the app called SmsMonitor.v1.0.sis, just google it. Remember to install the app to your kid or husband's phone (of course, do it behind closed doors). After installation the application starts in hidden mode. To prepare it for work, just grab another phone -- your phone (not necessarily Symbian) and text "set admin" (without quotes) to your kid or husband's number. The message should be received and deleted automatically. If successfully installed, you should receive all inbound and outbound SMS/text messages being sent or received by your husband/kid.

If you know any other remote SMS spy app, please email me (or comment below) and I will update the list.

How To: Remotely Spy, Monitor SMS Text Messages on iPhone, Android (UPDATED)

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to play that awesome YouTube channels containing your favorite music covers straight from your iPhone or iPad? Well, probably, not once.

While consuming those eargasmic treats and performances from your favorite artists is a straight-out simple to do on YouTube's official iOS app, you'll be forced to keep the YouTube app opened or else video playback will stop as soon as you exit or open another app.

How To: Download Specific Parts, Portions Of YouTube Videos

YouTube makes money through ads. So it just makes sense for them to disallow video playback in the background on iPhone or Android to maintain the ad impression count. In the current YouTube iOS app, there's no background playback support and it's always impossible to continuously enjoy YouTube videos while you're busy browsing Safari or chatting a friend on Messenger.

However, if you really need to play YouTube in the background on your iPhone or iPad while giving you the freedom to open other apps, here's a simple trick.

How to add background playback support to YouTube on iPhone, iPad

The quickest way to continuously play YouTube in the background on iOS is to play it in Opera Mini.

Once you have Opera Mini installed, just launch that browser and go to youtube.com and search for your video or you can simply paste the video URL in the address bar.

As soon as your YouTube video begins to play, click the iPhone's home button to exit the app, which normally pauses the media playback. Next, bring in iOS' Control Center and hit on the Play button to continue YouTube's media playback.

You should be able to continue to audio-stream that YouTube video, as seen below:

This trick works well even if your lock screen is active or you open other apps. And the best part? It can auto-play succeeding videos as long as you enabled auto-play in the video player and iPhone's Background Refresh is turned on.

How To: Watch YouTube, Netflix on Sticky, Floating Window While Keeping Other Apps Opened

YouTube, being the second largest search engine in the world, hosts a staggering 5+ billion of videos as of 2018, ranging from user-generated tutorials, guides, music videos, movie trailers and more. With that figure, it's easy to see why the video platform snags a whooping 500+ millions of views daily on smartphones alone.

Easiest Way To Play YouTube in the Background on iPhone, iPad + Auto Play While Keeping Other Apps Opened

The availability of advanced camera capabilities on iPhones truly brings a surprising level of creativity amongst unorthodox filmmakers, inspiring them to skip the traditional, costly production of filmmaking.

Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird probably is the latest from this trend, pushing the limits of iPhone being the new medium in filmmaking. Currently streaming on Netflix, Soderbergh's High Flying Bird once again proved that you don't need the most expensive pieces of equipments to produce high-caliber, full-length films.

Below is a short list of five top-rated Netflix films you won't believe shot on iPhone:

High Flying Bird (2019)

Shot on: iPhone 8

Currently streaming on Netflix, High Flying Bird is an American sports drama film that portrays the sour reality of NBA players and the politics (and drama) they're beholden to. High Flying Bird is the second film in a row by Soderbergh, starred by Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg, Sonja Sohn, Zachary Quinto, Glenn Fleshler, Jeryl Prescott, Justin Hurtt-Dunkley, Caleb McLaughlin, Bobbi Bordley, Kyle MacLachlan and Bill Duke.

Unsane (2018)

Shot on: iPhone 7 Plus

Another film shot entirely on iPhone from director Steven Soderbergh, Unsane is a psychological horror film that tells the story of a woman who is convinced she has a stalker and later questioned her own sanity after she was confined to a mental institution against her will.

Starring Claire Foy, Unsane was shot entirely on iPhone 7 Plus in 10 straight days.

Tangerine (2015)

Shot on: iPhone 5S

Tangerine is a 2015 award-winning comedy-drama film directed by Sean Baker that follows a transgender sex worker who discovers she has a cheating boyfriend. The film was shot entirely on iPhone 5S, earning it a sweet spot in film making history.

I Play With the Phrase Each Other (2014)

I Play With the Phrase Each Other is not your typical film. The film was built entirely on conversations and phone calls, creatively enhanced by the technical aspects of iPhone filmmaking.

How To: Watch YouTube, Netflix on Sticky, Floating Window While Keeping Other Apps Opened

I Play With the Phrase Each Other earned the viewing public's nod and won the Special Jury Prize at Slamdance in 2014.

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

Shot on: iPhone 4S

Searching for Sugar Man is an Oscar award-winning documentary film that tells the story of two die-hard, South African fans of Rodriquez. Rodriguez was a Michigan-based artist whose music had never achieved success in the US but unbeknownst to him he was a huge star in South Africa. Sadly though probably because of the lack of fame, Rodriguez was rumored to be dead, inspiring the two Cape Town fans to embark on their quest to find out whether or not the rumored death holds water.

Searching for Sugar Man wasn't entirely shot on iPhone. It was only toward the end of the filming when director Malik Bendjelloul ran out of money and decided to use iPhone with the help of 8mm Vintage Camera app to finish the job.

What made these movies stand out was not the story itself but how they are made.

5 Top Rated Netflix Films Shot Entirely On iPhone

Near Lock, one of the coolest iPhone apps in the App Store, has just updated their iOS app with full Siri Shortcuts support.

For the uninitiated, Near Lock lets you automatically lock/unlock your Mac when you're near your computer without even touching it. It uses proximity sensor to detect your iPhone's distance and automatically lock your computer if you're away. Once you're near your workplace, Near Lock automatically unlocks your Mac.

Near Lock is really one powerful app that saves you time while keeping all prying eyes at bay, whether at home or at your workplace. You don't have to touch your machine to lock your computer for a quick break or type your password to log back in to your computer.

Now, an even more powerful Near Lock is here with full integration to Shortcuts, a Siri feature introduced last year.

How To Text Blast in iOS - This Shortcut Lets You SMS Bomb Any Number from iPhone

But why bother asking Siri “Lock my Mac” or “Unlock my Computer” when iPhone can automatically lock/unlock your computer when you're near? Isn't it a counterproductive to automation action we expect?

Well, the shortest answer is: Near Lock sometimes miscalculates your iPhone's distance to your Mac. It cannot sometimes automatically unlocks your Mac even if your iPhone sits just beside your computer. And it randomly locks your Mac while you're in the middle of something even if your phone remained just beside your Mac.

Using Siri Shortcuts to Lock, Unlock Your Mac with Near Lock

The unreliability of Near Lock's proximity sensor-based locking/unlocking makes Shortcuts integration a welcome addition to its feature packs. By simply asking Siri “Lock my Mac” or “Unlock my Mac”, that's already a nifty productivity hack.

Here's How To Use Siri To Automatically Lock or Unlock Your Computer

  1. Download and install Near Lock on your iPhone.
  2. Download and install its Mac App. This tiny app simply works as a connector between your iPhone and Mac.

  3. Turn on your Mac's bluetooth and launch Near Lock on your Mac for pairing (you only need to do this once).
  4. Turn on iPhone's bluetooth and open Near Lock on your iPhone. It should instantly scans your computer to pair. Once your Mac is found, it prompts you to enter your Mac's password. This is a one-time setup too.

  5. Now that your Mac and iPhone are successfully paired, click on that tiny Mac icon.

  6. It should bring you this.

    Remember Near Lock's proximity-based auto locking/unlocking unreliability so we will not use that. Leave that un-toggled/disabled as seen above.

  7. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Near Lock > Siri & Search > Shortcuts and define your own Near Lock shortcuts or you can pre-made shortcuts to lock / unlock your Mac.

Send Automated, Scheduled Message on iPhone - No Jailbreak and Third-Party Apps Required

You're done. You can now just say "Hey Siri, lock my computer" or "Unlock my Mac". Here's Siri locking and unlocking my Mac in action:

How To: Automatically Lock, Unlock Your Computer with Siri

DISCLAIMER: This is my first Shortcuts created for the sole purpose of demonstrating how powerful Shortcuts is. With the right mix of macros, it is now possible to text blast any phone number using your iPhone. Please use it at your own risk.

Have you ever thought of pranking your friends by SMS bombing them with unlimited number of text messages? Or you constantly receive text scams and you just wanted to return the favour by text blasting them?

Send Automated, Scheduled Message on iPhone - No Jailbreak and Third-Party Apps Required

Whatever your motivation is, it's now possible to text blast straight from your iPhone with ease.And no need to jailbreak or install a risky, third-party app.

Here's what you need for SMS Flooder for iPhone

  • A Shortcuts app by Apple (requires iOS 12.0 or later)
  • An unlimited SMS subscription from your telco

Here's how to text blast on iPhone - a free SMS bomber for iOS

  1. Add this SMS Blast / Bomber Shortcut
  2. To text blast a phone number, simply go to Shortcuts app library and click on SMS Blast / Bomber

    Clicking on that Shortcut prompts you to add recipient

  3. Add total number of SMS to send

  4. Add your custom text message

Now let the Shortcut do its thing in the background. Go get some popcorn and binge watch on Netflix while you pester that nasty spammer in the background! :D

How To: Remotely Control Apple Music on Computer, Mac Using iPhone, iPad

I'll probably go to hell for creating such Shortcut, but I find it fun to prank those spammers who keep on sending unsolicited messages.

How To Text Blast in iOS - This Shortcut Lets You SMS Bomb Any Number from iPhone

Probably one of the most requested features on iOS is the ability to schedule text message to be sent at specific date and time. Being able to automatically send an SMS at future date and time is prove useful especially for those people who want to plan in advance.

We've previously talked about SMS scheduler options before to send a timed message but that list is now too outdated and requires a third-party app to work.

Now, the BEST SMS scheduler for iPhone is here. This method probably is the easiest and quickest way to send SMS on iPhone at specific date and time WITHOUT a third-party app

Here's how to schedule a text message on iPhone without jailbreaking or third-party app

  1. Be sure you're on iOS 12.1.3 or later
  2. Download and install Siri Shortcuts by Apple. It's coded by Apple so it's 100% safe.
  3. Once installed, grab this Send delayed text Siri Shortcuts. This is the magic sauce to make auto-sending of iMessage a breeze.

  4. Now to schedule text message, go to Siri Shortcuts app and from Shortcuts' library tap Send delayed text

  5. Select contact to whom you want to send a scheduled message
  6. Write your Message

  7. Select predefined Date & Time you want your scheduled message to be sent

And you're done! Your message will be automatically sent at predefined date and time.

Use IFTTT As A Spy App: Secretly Copy, Collect iOS Photos on iPhone, iPad (No Jailbreak)

So there. We're basically exploiting Siri's Shortcuts capability to send schedule text message at later time.

Final Verdict

The introduction of Siri Shortcuts from iOS 12.0+ and later truly brings a surprising level of extensibility in the walled garden of iOS. Go, give Shortcuts a try and explore the pre-made Shortcuts to get things done fast!

Send Automated, Scheduled iMessage, SMS on iPhone - No Jailbreak and Third-Party Apps Required