iOS 8.1 tips and tricks: See what your iPhone and iPad can do now

iOS 8.1 brings a host of new features, tips and tricks. We worked our way through the operating system to try and bring you as many of the new features as possible to allow you to get as much out of the latest software on your phone without having to upgrade to the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.

Most of these tips are new to iOS 8, but we've also included some gems from iOS 7 that you might not have found yet.

Either way we can be sure to promise that there should be plenty here for new users and power users alike to get the most out of the operating system when they upgrade their current iPhone or switch to the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. 

We'll be keeping an eye on things as updates roll out and if you've got any tips of your own that we've not covered please feel free to add them to the comments below.

Enjoy:

Mail for iOS tricks

Mark as Read: In your inbox swipe from left to right to reveal a "Mark As Read" icon. If it's a conversation you will have to do this for as any time as there are unread messages.

More, Flag, Trash: Swiping from right to left reveals quick actions to let you do a number of things. More brings up a secondary menu to let you reply, forward, flag, mark as unread, move to junk, or notify you of future messages in this conversation while Flag and Trash let you do just that.

Quick delete (Trash): If you do a continual swipe from right to left on an email in the inbox it will delete it without you having to swipe and then tap delete (Trash).

Changing the swipe options: You can also change what happens when you swipe left or right in Settings. Go Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Swipe Options and then set your Swipe Left command and your Swipe Right command. Options are limited, but it is something.

Minimise email you are working on: If you are mid composing or replying you can now drag that email to the bottom of the screen so you can still access the rest of your inbox. To do this press ad hold on the title of the email at the top and drag towards the bottom. To get it back, just tap on the parked email.

Reply notifications: If you are waiting for a specific response from an email and don't want to have to keep checking your phone every two minutes you can opt for iOS 8 to notify you. In any message you've received tap on the Flag icon at the bottom left of the screen and then select Notify Me. Confirm your decision and when they reply you'll know about it. To send an email with a notification alert already one it, select the bell icon in the subject line.

Time Zone override: The Time Zone Override when on will let you always show event data and times in the selected time zone. When off, events will display according to the time zone of your current location. If that sounds like something you want go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Time Zone Override and toggle away.

Build out your contacts book: When you get get a mail from someone and they've got a signature, Apple now reads that information and asks you whether you want to add it to a contact. If you don't you can choose to ignore, but if you do, press on the Add to Contacts button at the top of the screen.

Unread emails: Finally you can now see how many unread emails you've got. Go to Mail >Mailboxes > Edit and select Unread.

VIP, Flagged, All Sent, To or CC, Attachments, All Drafts: You can also do the same for a host of other folders to for the first time. Go Mail > Mailboxes > Edit and select which ones you want.

Change Flag style: Yep you can change the Flag Style from flags to circles if that gets you excited. Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Flag Style.

Search: Drag down in your inbox to reveal a search box. You can now search your entire inbox for a keyword rather than just To, From, Subject. You can also limit your search to All mailboxesor the current mailbox you are in. Furthermore you can also limit it to conversation threads.

Mark all as read: You can now mark all as read in Mail. Yay. In a mailbox, or the combined inbox, you just tap "Edit" at the upper right, then tap "Mark All" at the lower left. Then choose "Mark As Read" from the pop-up menu and all your messages should be marked as read.

General iOS 8 tips

Find battery guzzling apps: Apple doesn't specifically tell you which apps are using the most memory, but it does allow you to check which apps have used the most battery over the last 24 hours or 6 days. Go to Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage. Here you'll be able to see if a certain app has been used more than others. That might help change how you use that app. 

Standard or Zoomed: On the iPhone 6 and iPhone you can change the display setting from Standard or Zoomed. To switch between the two if you've changed your mind after setup go to Settings > Display > Display Zoom and select Standard or Zoomed.

Set the brightness: It's now moved from Wallpapers & Brightness to Display and Brightness.

Text Size and Bold Text: To change the default text size and whether you want all fonts to be bold to make the easier to read go to Display & Brightness > Bold Text.

Favourite and recent people: Double tap on the home button to reveal the app tray. Above your apps you'll see circles of the people you've recently talked or messaged with. Swipe to the left to reveal your Favourites. Pressing on their face (or icon) reveals shortcuts to call, message, FaceTime, and FaceTime Audio them.

Disable Favourites and contacts showing in App Switcher: Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar scroll down and toggle "Show in App Switcher". When you go back to the App Switcher mode they will have gone.

10-day forecast in weather: Go to weather, and on any city swipe up. You now get to see the 10 day forecast as well as additional information like a mini weather forecast for the day, sunrise and sunset times and the chance of rain.

Hey Siri: To get siri working by just shouting at it rather than pressing a button go to Settings > General > Siri > Allow "Hey Siri". A word of note you will need to have it connected to a power source for it to work.

Choose a new wallpaper: New wallpapers to be had in the Settings > Wallpaper.

Setting up Do Not Disturb: If you travel a lot to different time zones it's probably a good idea to schedule your iPhone to go into to Do Not Disturb mode. Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb and then schedule in a time. We've set ours from midnight to 6am. During that time all calls and alerts will be silenced. If you are worried that you might miss an important call you can set the phone to allow calls from Favourites or repeated calls if someone is calling more than once in a three-minute window. You can now in iOS 7 set it so the Do Not Disturb works only when you've got the phone locked or all the time regardless of what you are doing. Handy if you are in the middle of a presentation.

Creating nested folders: It's a glitch, but it does work if you are timely. Create a Nested folder by dragging one app icon on to another one. Then quickly drag that folder into an existing folder. If you are not timely enough, keep trying and you should achieve a nested folder.

More from Safari in iOS 8 

DuckDuckGo: If you want to set DuckDuckGo as your default search engine over Google, Yahoo, or Bing, go to Settings > Safari > Search Engine and select the private friendly search engine as the default.

Auto suggesting websites: Like Safari on the desktop you can have the iPhone or iPad Safari recommend suggested search results as you type. It's on as default but if you don't want it, go to Settings > Safari > Search Engine Suggestions and toggle the feature off.

Auto suggesting apps: Likewise as you type in popular app names into the Safari search url box Apple will try and match that with apps you either have or might want. It's on as default, but if you want to turn if off go to Settings > Safari > Spotlight Suggestions.

Getting the website link quickly: Settings > Safari > Quick Search will determine whether Safari offers up website matches or not for you.

Making websites load faster or saving your data: Safari in iOS 8 preloads the first hit of the search result to make loading your choice seem quicker. The downside is that this could use updata. If you want to turn it off go to Settings > Safari > Preload Top Hit and turn it off.

Searching on page: If you are looking for a specific word on a page, simply start typing that word into the URL bar at the top of the page. The results will show you the google search results first but if you scroll down it will show you "On This Page" and let you jump through the mentions of that page.

Scan your credit card: Rather than having to type all your details you can now use the camera to scan your credit card. When it comes to entering the credit card details either press to auto fill if you are already using that feature with Keychain, or press it and then select Use Camera on the next menu you get. 

Swipe forwards and backwards: Swiping from off the screen on to the screen from the left of the screen goes back through your browsing history while swiping from the right of Safari goes forward through your browsing history. 

Getting Handoff and Continuity to work

Enabling Handoff between iOS 8 devices: Go to General > Handoff & Suggested Apps and then toggle the box.

Accessing Handoff apps: On the Lock Screen press the app icon in the bottom left corner or if you are using the phone already, double tap the Home button and swipe left to reveal the app page to the left of the home screen.

Stopping your iPad ring when someone calls your iPhone: One of the new features of iOS allows you to take calls on all your devices regardless. To stop you feeling like you are in the last scene of lawnmower man where all the phones ring at once go to Settings > Face time and turn iPhone cellular calls ring.

Allowing SMS messages on your Mac: To do this you need to enable the feature on your iPhone. Make sure you are running iOS 8.1 and then go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding. Find your Mac or iPad you want to allow access and pair the two devices with a security code. You’ll now be able to see and send Text messages via the desktop.

HealthKit

No thank you to certain apps: If you don't want apps requesting access to the Health app, turn them off by going to Settings > Privacy > Health

See which apps are giving data to Health: Go into the app and click on the Sources icon at the bottom

iOS 8 Keyboard tricks

Adding Emoji keyboard: Go to Settings > General > Keyboards > Keyboards > Add NewKeyboard. Scroll down and select the Emoji keyboard (it's after the Dutch keyboard) - :)

Adding third party keyboards: Install the app and follow the instructions in the app. At some point it will ask you to go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards and add the third-partykeyboard.

Accessing additional keyboards beyond Emoji: If you have more than three keyboards installed the keyboard will show a globe icon next to the spacebar. In any app that has akeyboard tap on that globe icon and then again to reveal the next keyboard you've got installed.

Hiding or showing auto suggestions on QuickType keyboard: The new Apple keyboard shows word suggestions on what you type. If you don't use this you can hide it to give you more space on the screen. gently press and hold at the top of the auto-suggest bar and drag it towards the top row of keys. You can bring it back by dragging up from the top of the keyboard if you change your mind.