Use your phone to its full potential and maximize the daily activities you can solve with a few clicks

Our smartphones are always with us, and this habit goes beyond the fact that we need them for communication. Lately, we need our phones for everything! The average daily screen time ranges from 3 to 5 hours, according to Common Sense Media. 

It’s not just that we spend a lot of time on social media or texting, but we are also using them for locating ourselves, sending professional emails, completing work and study tasks, and even checking on our health through our phones.

Even though, with all of these tools, smartphones remain simple to use, even for people who are not very acquainted with technology, there are always new hacks and tricks to learn to improve our use of our smartphones. 

You already know your phone is capable of a lot, but you probably don’t use it to its full potential. In this post, you will find 18 mind-blowing smartphone hacks that will not only enhance your technological experience with your phone but also make it a more convenient device, with tips on how to improve its lifetime and overall usage. Keep reading!

1. Keep your phone dry with a ziplock bag

Using a ziplock bag can help protect your phone from humidity and dirty places, such as the beach or even when you are cooking and using your phone to check on the recipe. However, it is not a safe method if you want to immerse your phone underwater, and for this situation, you should get a specific waterproof case for your phone.

Another great use of a ziplock bag for your phone’s safety is when you are at the beach and want to take a swim but don’t have anyone to keep an eye on your personal belongings. Put your personal items in a ziplock bag, bury it in the sand, and cover it with a towel. This way, you’ll keep your items safe and know where they are.

2. Make your own phone case with hot glue

To make an affordable, fun, and personalized phone case, you can easily use hot glue!

You will need your smartphone for measurements, a hot glue gun, and hot glue sticks. After measuring your phone’s dimensions, you can start having fun with your hot glue by creating your own patterns to cover the space that will be your phone case, according to the measurements you have taken.

Then, quickly place your phone onto the hot glue while it’s still soft, pressing it gently to create an impression. This will form the base of your case. Carefully lift the phone off the glue, and once the glue dries, you can get as creative as you want with how you want to decorate your self-made phone case.

3. Fix your broken charger cables with pen springs

One of the most annoying things we have to deal with is how fragile charger cables are, always breaking and needing replacing. And, let’s face it, we need to invest a good amount of money in original chargers since non-originals can easily damage our phones.

To help you make your charger cables last longer, try using pen springs on their tips. This will keep the charger flexible without compromising the strength of your cable, helping to preserve it.

4. Use an eraser to clean your phone screen

Although there are specific cloths made for cleaning electronic screens, they don’t always seem to remove all the dirt and fingerprint marks from our screens.

For an efficient and thorough cleaning of phone screens, try using an eraser. Most screen cleaning cloths have a rubbery texture, but erasers, being thicker, can effectively remove more dirt and cost a lot less than the cloths.

5. Make a phone holder for your car with a rubber band

Although it is not responsible to use your phone while driving, we often use it solely for its GPS tools. In this case, the safest way to follow your route is to keep your phone at eye level, so you won’t have to take your eyes off the road.

If you don’t have a phone mount for your car, you can easily use a rubber band to do the job. All you need to do is thread the rubber band through the car’s air conditioning vents, create a loop by twisting the rubber band around itself, and adjust it to your phone’s size so it won’t slip. Then, place the phone inside the loop and enjoy your drive.

6. Use an eyeglass case to keep your headphones and chargers organized

No matter how hard we try, it is so easy to get our wires all tangled up and messy! 

To help you avoid this annoying mess, try using an eyeglass case to keep your wires, such as chargers and earphones, organized. Eyeglass cases typically close securely, reducing the risk of them getting tangled and making an even bigger mess.

7. Use your phone as a TV remote control

I bet you probably didn’t know about this function on your smartphone! 

To use your phone as a TV remote control, all you need to do is download a remote control app from your phone’s app store. Then, connect your phone to your TV via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. 

You can easily perform all the functions you would typically do with a remote control using your phone. From controlling the volume to changing the channels, say goodbye to hunting for your remote control.

8. Let your phone adjust its brightness automatically

This hack is very convenient because you won’t need to strain your eyes in bright places while trying to adjust the brightness without seeing a thing on your screen. It will also save a lot of battery! 

By accessing the settings on your phone, looking for the screen adjustments, and enabling automatic brightness adjustment, you can have your phone do all the work for you. In the long term, this can also help prevent eyesight issues, as you will always have the appropriate brightness levels for different environments.

9. Save money on calling fees using apps like Skype

Stop wasting money on phone calls! 

With the apps we have nowadays, all you need to make phone calls is a Wi-Fi connection. Apps like Skype or WhatsApp have call and FaceTime options within them. You can also easily make group calls and talk to more than one person at once without spending a single penny.

10. Make your morning alarm louder with mugs

Having trouble waking up in the morning even though your alarm is already blaring at the loudest volume? You can easily make it even louder by using mugs, cups, or other cylindrical objects.

Just place the phone inside hese objects, and it will amplify the volume, acting like a speaker. You can always use this hack to make music louder at your parties and get-togethers as well.

11. Use your sunglasses as a photo filter

Increase your photo quality by placing simple sunglasses over your camera! 

Get those pro-like shots and avoid unwanted light flares in your pictures. If it’s too bright and adjusting the brightness directly in your camera settings isn’t helping, just put sunglasses in front of the camera to achieve high-contrast pictures while still maintaining the bright colors and photo quality.

12. Get your lost files back with a file recovery app

Not all is lost when you delete files from your phone! 

Browse your app store and look for file recovery apps. Check their ratings and reviews to find the one you like the most. By using these apps, you can retrieve deleted files, as recovery apps access backups, digital trash, and virtually scan your phone to find the deleted files. 

You can rest assured knowing that you may still be able to recover those files you deleted by accident. Give it a try!

13. Use your sunglasses to prop up your phone

Do you also like to have your meals while enjoying entertainment, as people did in medieval times? 

If you engage in this old tradition, you may need a stand for your phone to make it more comfortable to watch your content. However, you don’t have to spend money on a phone stand for this. 

Simply get a pair of sunglasses and place the phone on top of them. There you go! Enjoy your meals without your phone sliding off all the time.

14. Get a phone case that has a built-in wallet

Let’s face it, since all we need for surviving a day out is our phone and maybe our house keys, we don’t need to walk around carrying bags and wallets.

You can easily place your cards, ID, and money on your phone by getting a phone case with a built-in wallet. This way, you optimize the space in your pockets and make sure you have all your important valuables arranged together, without the risk of losing any of them.

15. Use a black wallpaper to conserve battery life

Not many people know about this, but the trick here is quite simple: the display technology in smartphones works so that each pixel on the screens is lit individually. When a pixel displays the color black, this technology interprets it as turned off and not emitting any light, significantly preserving energy on your phone. In summary, the brighter and more colorful the display, the more pixels are activated, and the more energy is demanded.

Additionally, by using a black wallpaper, you create more contrast between your apps and the background on your phone. This way, you can easily locate them without having to increase the screen brightness.

16. Make your phone case unique with nail polish

Alongside making phone cases with hot glue, you can also create personalized cases with nail polish. You can purchase phone cases and decorate them, or combine these two DIY hacks by making a phone case with hot glue and then decorating it with nail polish.

For a more long-lasting effect, make sure to apply a nail base on top of it after the nail polish has dried completely.

17. Use your old phone to keep an eye on your home

You don’t need to invest a lot of money in house security systems; simply use your old smartphone to do the trick.

You will need to find a suitable position in your house to place the phone where it won’t be vulnerable to rain and other potential risks. Then, download a security camera app on your phone and set it up. Install the same app on your other device, so you will be able to monitor your home from anywhere.

Remember to keep the phone connected to a power source so it won’t run out of battery, allowing you to easily keep an eye on your property.

18. Use your phone to scan documents into PDFs

Another functionality that, when used on your phone, eliminates the need for external tools.

You don’t need to own a scanner to digitize your documents. All you need to do is download a scanner app, and using your phone’s camera, you can scan and digitize your documents in black and white. You can even edit and adjust them. Afterward, you can easily save the scan in PDF format and share it via messaging apps or email.