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Need to Have a Private Conversation? Use Your iPhone Notes App for Secret Messaging

Use this easy trick with the iPhone Notes app to have an under-the-radar conversation with friends.

Our phones have completely changed the way we communicate with friends and family. While we can now chat at any time, keeping conversations private is more difficult than ever. Whether you want to spill some tea without anyone sneaking a peek, or you’re planning a surprise event, you don’t need to rely on third-party apps to keep your messages secure. By taking advantage of the iPhone Notes app, you can have a private conversation without needing to download anything at all. 

No matter the nature of your private conversation, you have plenty of options available. Sure, Signal and WhatsApp are popular for their focus on privacy. But why complicate things when you don’t have to?

The built-in Notes app for iOS is a secret weapon for private conversations. It’s always fun when you find a way to use an app outside of its intended use. It’s almost like you’re using it in a sneaky way that you shouldn’t be, but all the parts are there to make this a simple way to have private conversations with someone. We’ll lay it all out for you below. 

For more iOS tips, check out the new features in iOS 17.5 and how to easily view and copy Wi-Fi passwords on your iPhone or iPad.

Create a note in the Notes app

On your iPhone, launch the Notes app, and tap the Compose button on the bottom right to create a new note. Next, type anything into the note to keep it, or else it’ll automatically be deleted when you exit from the note. You can also just go into an existing note, but it’s better to start fresh with a new one.

Adjust your note’s share options to add collaborators

Once your note is up and ready to go, you can begin the process of adding another person as a collaborator, which means they can read and edit whatever is in the note. To start, tap the More button on the top right, and then hit Share Note.

Now tap Share Options and make sure the Can make changes option is selected under Permission. You should also toggle off Anyone can add people in case you want to be the only person who can add collaborators to your note. Go back to the last page when you’re finished configuring these settings.

Add people and share the link

Next, choose a method to share the note: You can send it via text message, email, social media and more. If you swipe on the share options, you can also select Copy Link, which copies the note link to your clipboard and allows you to paste it wherever you want. 

For this example, I’ll choose the Copy Link option to share the note.

At the top of the Copy Link page, enter the email address or phone number of the person you want to access the note. You can also tap the Add icon to search through your contacts. Adding a contact to the note is required. If you share the link without adding a contact, the other person won’t be able to see or edit the note, even with the link.

Lastly, hit Copy Link to copy the note link to your clipboard and share it with your collaborator.

Send secret messages using Notes

The person on the receiving end must now open the note link and accept the invitation. If they accept, they’ll be redirected to the Notes app and to the collaborative note you just created.

To communicate, simply type something into the note, which the other person will be able to see in real-time without you having to hit send. They’ll also receive a notification any time the note is altered. 

Each person in the note will have a corresponding color appear (only for a moment) so that everyone else knows who typed what. You can also swipe right from the middle of the note to see the name of who wrote the message, as well as a time stamp for when the message was written and any corresponding colors. 

You can also tap the Share Note button (with the check mark icon), go to Manage Shared Note and then toggle on Highlight All Changes. That way, all messages will stay permanently highlighted in their corresponding color, making it easier to read the conversation.

If you want to keep your communications more low-key, delete your message or the other person’s message to strike it from the note. That way your conversation is more like it would be on Snapchat, with ephemeral or short-lived messages that outsiders can’t see if they snoop through your notes. You can do this with any text in the notes, as well as photos, videos, links, drawings or any other attachments you add to the note.

Delete your secret chat for good

Not all secret conversations can go on forever, so it’s time now to end it. 

If you’re the owner of the note and want to keep the note intact for everyone but prevent them from editing it, you can easily do so. On the top right, tap the View Participants button and then hit Manage Shared Note. To remove a participant, you can either swipe left on their name and then hit Remove or you can tap on their name and then tap Remove Access.

Additionally, you can tap the Stop Sharing option, which will not only remove participants from the note but also delete the note from all of their devices.

If you’re not the owner of the note, you can just delete the note from the Notes application.

For more tech tips, don’t miss how to save money by borrowing an Airtag for travel and the two settings to change on your iPhone to go to sleep faster.

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Your Next Yelp Reviews May Include an AI Video — With a Catch

Restaurant rating hub Yelp is now using AI videos to sum up restaurant reviews, but you may want to be careful what you post.

The next time you visit Yelp on your phone to check out reviews on the newest eatery, you may be greeted by an AI-generated video. Yelp is rolling out artificial intelligence videos to Yelp’s home page feed on its iOS app.

The AI videos use large language models to grab text from reviews on an establishment and turn it into an AI-voiced narration (courtesy of ElevenLabs) and captions (courtesy of Amazon Transcribe). Then Yelp uses uploaded photos from user reviews to create a slideshow-like display of what you can eat, drink or dance to.

As far as oversight of these AI videos goes, neither reviewers nor businesses appear to have any say. Companies can’t see the AI videos before they are generated or offer input, and users can’t decline to have their reviews or photos used, which raises a number of privacy questions.

Viewers of the AI videos will have the choice to report a video as inaccurate or containing offensive content. Yelp has said that it will conduct broad audits of the videos, which will be periodically updated for establishments as more reviews and photos come in.  

Speaking to The Verge, Yelp CPO Craig Saldanha said that the company wants to create as many videos as possible, although your own activity on Yelp will dictate whether you see the videos and which ones are shown. If we find any way for you to opt out of having your review content — possibly from years past — used in these videos, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Yelp didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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You’ll Never Catch Me Running Without These High-Performing Outdoor Headphones

The Shokz OpenFit wireless headphones are the ones I turn to every time I walk or exercise outside.

For anyone who walks, runs, cycles or does just about anything outside on a regular basis, I always give the same piece of advice: Ditch those noise-canceling headphones. Don’t get me wrong. I have a pair of big over-the-ear headphones that have spectacular noise cancellation, and I love them. But when I’m outside — especially if I’m close to fast-moving cars and heavy traffic — I need to be able to hear the world around me and not just my music or whatever podcast I’m bingeing at the moment. In those cases, I want something like the OpenFit true wireless headphones from Shokz.

I love a good pair of headphones, but I don’t love spending a ton of money on them. My threshold is about $100, which is why when all of my cycling friends started raving about bone-conduction headphones a few years back, I was more than a little hesitant because I would probably use them only when working out. However, now is a great time to get in on this innovative headphone technology.

These headphones are designed to be used in places where bone conduction may not be enough and, as a result, I’m rarely seen without mine on. You can grab these headphones at a great price in black and beige, both marked down to $160 right now — a $20 discount off the usual list price.

A week after I picked these up, I was nearly sideswiped by a pickup truck and the only thing that saved me was hearing it come up behind me. There’s a reason these are recommended on our list of the best running headphones you can buy.

If you’re looking for outdoor-friendly workout headphones, my first recommendation is always Shokz, formerly known as Aftershokz. Bone-conduction headphones sit just outside your ear, resting on the bone. Music vibrates through a set of pads into your skull and you hear those sounds as if they’re coming from a speaker a few feet away.

You can hear everything you’re listening to on your phone without interrupting the sounds coming from the rest of the world around you. For cyclists and runners — really anyone who does anything outside — this is a game-changing experience. It’s more accurate and pleasing than traditional headphones with «passthrough mode» and you sacrifice very little in audio quality.

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My favorite bone-conduction headphones — and I’ve tried them all — are the OpenRun Pro headphones from Shokz. They’re waterproof (which means they’re easy to clean when I’m all sweaty), the battery lasts me about 7 hours on a charge (perfect for those 70-mile riding days), and they’re comfortable enough that I can wear them all day and not feel them pressing on me. They charge magnetically with a proprietary charger but Shokz includes two cables in the box in case you lose things, as I do.

If these headphones are a little rich for your blood, no worries. Shokz also has cheaper OpenRun and OpenMove bone-conduction headphones with up to 6 hours of battery life and IP55 dust and water resistance. Whether you’re physically active outdoors or you just like exploring new things, I highly recommend giving these headphones a try.

HEADPHONE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

The Shokz OpenMove make a great gift for an outdoor runner

The Shokz make a great purchase, either for yourself or as a gift for the outdoor runner in your life. Not only are they the best of their kind, but giving these to a runner may also give you some peace of mind to know they’re a little safer when they’re out running alongside busy streets or other high-traffic areas.

For more discounted tech, check out our editors’ picks for the best headphone deals.

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How to Track Your Sun Exposure With This New App

Now in beta, the Sun Day app prompts you on how to prep for being out and about for your specific skin type and location.

Facing down a heat wave this summer? There’s a new beta app for iPhones from the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, that helps you track your exposure to the sun. The Sun Day app is free to testers and contains information like sunrise, sunset and UV index in order to assess your potential burn-limit time and, as the app description says, «track your Vitamin D from the sun.» 

Dorsey is currently testing UI updates and a solar noon notification, according to the app notes. In the app, you can describe the type of clothing you’re wearing, such as shorts and T-shirts or swimwear, and your Fitzpatrick skin type, which classifies how quickly you’ll burn.

The iOS app asks permission to connect to some Apple Health data when the app is installed.

Dorsey also recently released Bitchat, a private messaging client that uses Bluetooth as its communication platform. Although it’s meant to be a secure, private app, some users have flagged Bitchat for potential security flaws that are still being tested.

How to test the Sun Day app

If you’ve got an iOS device, download the Sun Day TestFlight app from the App Store and then follow the link to the app for Sun Day to join the beta test.

The effectiveness of an app such as Sun Day depends on giving it accurate information about your skin type and clothing, and while vitamin D levels are one way to gauge UV exposure, it’s not foolproof given that some people also take vitamin D supplements.

«Jack Dorsey’s new app Sun Day is exciting, not to detect vitamin D levels but really to help us understand our UV index which is so important in sun safety,» said Tanya Kormeili, an LA-based dermatologist. «The app does have an interesting promise as far as I am concerned, in that using the UV index can show you the risk for the level of UV exposure.»

The risks of too much sun exposure include sunburns, aging skin and skin cancer. Tracking UV levels is one way to help mitigate those risks.

People tend to think about sun exposure and protections like sunscreen most during the summer, when the sun is strongest and the days are long, and when you’re heading to the beach or out gardening, golfing or otherwise getting in quality sun time. But there is always a risk of sun damage to your skin while you’re outside — year round.

«Sometimes it is hard for patients to be convinced that there can be an excessive UV risk on a cloudy day,» Kormeili says. «The app would provide an objective measure of that UV index and guide you in safer sun practices.»

The dermatologist suggests that Dorsey putting the app out for public consumption without medical experts endorsing it might be a missed opportunity. «I am surprised that they have not involved actual dermatologists in pointing out the true value and limitations of this app,» she said.

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