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This awesome iPhone trick that went viral on TikTok just blew my mind

Updated Apr 16th, 2021 9:49AM EDT
iPhone Tricks
Image: Zach Epstein for BGR

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Amidst a sea of iPhone tutorial videos that have seemingly infiltrated TikTok, I recently stumbled across an iPhone tip that genuinely blew me away. In a video that started making the rounds a few weeks ago, Erik Tollefsrud shows how easy it is to record a video while simultaneously playing music in the background via Spotify, Apple Music, or any other app.

While this may not seem like a huge deal at first glance, there have been many times, believe it or not, where I’ve wanted to record something and use whatever song happened to be playing from my iPhone as background music. However, Apple naturally turns background music off when you open up the Camera app and navigate over to the Video setting.

Apple’s design here certainly makes sense given that most people don’t want background music accompanying their video footage. Still, for times when you do want to create a video with background music in real-time, Apple thankfully has a solution that’s quite simple to use.

All you have to do is open up the Camera app and instead of navigating over to the Video setting, keep the Photo setting at the forefront. Now, with your background music still playing, simply press down on the white button and drag your finger to the right. The white selection button will quickly turn into a red “Recording” button as you drag your finger towards the edge of the display. Once there, you can release your finger and your phone will keep recording with the background music of your choice in full effect.

The magical TikTok video that brought this game-changing revelation to my attention can be seen below:

@erik_tollefsrud

Record and video and play music at the same time! #iphone #apple #iphonetips #iphonetricks #iphonehacks #fyp

♬ Paradise – Ikson

This is such a simple and helpful feature that it’s somewhat shocking that Apple itself doesn’t put up a website with an entire list of hidden iPhone tips and tricks that can really take the iOS user experience to the next level. While it’s fun to poke around the web and find new features you didn’t know existed, there’s no reason for Apple to force users to go on scavenger hunts in order to get more utility out of their device.

That aside, we’ve seen a number of helpful iPhone tips and tricks video surface over on TikTok in recent weeks. One other iPhone tip, if you happened to miss it, is how iOS makes it easy for users to take a screenshot of an entire webpage as opposed to only the visible portion of that same webpage.

To do this, all you have to do is take a regular screenshot and when the preview image shows up in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen, tap it once whereupon you’ll be whisked away to a page that lists “Full Page” at the top. Upon selecting that, you can take a screenshot of an entire webpage with ease.

@oldersistah

♬ Blue Blood – Heinz Kiessling & Various Artists

Yoni Heisler Contributing Writer

Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry at large with over 15 years of experience. A life long expert Mac user and Apple expert, his writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK, and TUAW.

When not analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni enjoys catching Improv shows in Chicago, playing soccer, and cultivating new TV show addictions.