10 hidden features that will make your iPhone even more useful

Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 10, is now available to download on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. As the tenth instalment of the firm's most crucial bit of software, powering the world's most popular smartphones, tablets and music devices, Apple described iOS 10 as its "biggest iOS release ever"

Here's our list of the ten best hidden tips and tricks in iOS 10, in no particular order.

Delete the default apps

One of the most welcome features in iOS10 means that users can now delete Apple's own default stock apps that come pre-installed on the operating system. In previous versions of the software, apps such as Tips, Apple Music and Apple Watch couldn't be deleted, even if you never used them. But now you can, by simply long pressing on the Apple app you're wanting to get rid of and clicking the small cross in the top left corner.

Lower the intensity of the torch app

If you have an iPhone 6S or 6S Plus with the 3D Touch feature, you'll now be able to alter the intensity of the flashlight app in the control panel with a gentle touch, choosing from either Low light, Medium light or Bright light. This will also be an option on the iPhone 7 once it ships.

Swipe left at the lockscreen for camera

In iOS 10, Apple has changed the way you unlock your phone. You now need to click the home button to wake the device in order to bring up the lockscreen passlock or Touch ID option. Accessing the camera from the lockscreen is also no longer just a swipe up, as this now brings up the control centre instead. However, the camera can still be accessed quickly if you swipe left.

Automatic emojis

iOS now automatically highlights keywords as you type, and with a single tap you can turn these into the relevant emojis. Why use text when you can communicate in cartoons?

Customising Contacts cards

Perhaps more of a boon for business users, Apple has revamped the Contact Cards feature in iOS 10, meaning there is now more ways to customise how you call or message different people. For example, if you deep press on the Message button, you can opt for a preferred app to use to message this person, or choose the best iMessage phone number to call them on.

iMessage effects

iMessage has undergone some significant changes in iOS 10, in what is probably Apple's attempt to sway people away from Whatsapp. There's new drawing tools and animation effects, but one feature that everyone doesn't know about yet is the ability to long press on the send button to access bubble effects.

Another lesser known feature is that you can also Tapback by double tapping on a message. This lets you react to a friends message with a thumbs up, for example, to let them know you've seen their message without triggering a full-blown notification.

Search in Photos

Thanks to the new updates in iOS 10, the software now analyses all your photos for certain contents using machine learning techniques so that you can search for objects for example a chair or some laptop and it will look through your photos for them, offering you some search results in the form of photos with these items in.