Technologies

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.

Technologies

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.

Technologies

YouTube’s Age-Estimation Tech Will Spot Kids Pretending to Be Adults. Here’s How It Works

The streaming service will use various methods to make sure kids aren’t watching age-restricted content.

If kids are lying about their age, YouTube will know about it. Or at least will try its best to find out. The streaming service announced Tuesday it’s rolling out age-estimation technology that will use various data to determine if someone is under the age of 18, and then use that signal «to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections.»

Basically — assuming it works as it should — kids will not be able to access what YouTube deems as age-restricted content.

Google, YouTube’s parent company, announced in February that it would begin deploying this type of technology, which relies on AI, to determine users’ ages.

YouTube said it will test the machine-learning tech on a small set of users in the US to estimate their age. Some of the signals it will look at include «the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched or the longevity of the account.» After ensuring the age verification is working as intended, YouTube will then roll it out more widely.

Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of children’s online safety organization Enough is Enough, welcomed YouTube’s move toward age verification.

«It’s always encouraging to me as a veteran working in the internet safety space for over three decades to see big tech companies being proactive to better protect youth online,» Hughes told CNET. «Since the advent of social media, which began with age limits of 18 years and older then reduced to 13-plus with absolutely no age verification technologies in place, kids have learned to lie about their age to get on these platforms, including YouTube.»

Hughes said YouTube can take it a step further: «I also encourage YouTube to turn on safety defaults to block sexually explicit videos and advertising and other harmful content for all users under 18.»

YouTube’s age-verification move is another step in the growing age-verification push that is being hastened by the US and other governments trying to prevent children from accessing content deemed harmful, unhealthy and not appropriate for their age.

What happens when YouTube decides someone is under 18?

If its age-estimation system decides someone is under 18, YouTube will then:

Disable personalized advertising.
Turn on digital wellbeing tools.
Add safeguards to recommendations, including limiting repetitive views of some content.

People who are actually adults but who have been wrongly identified as children will be able to verify that they are 18 or older by using a credit card or a government ID.

Hughes of Enough is Enough said that strong measures are needed to protect kids when it comes to their online use of YouTube videos and more.

«At EIE, we have encouraged turning on safety defaults — including filtering, monitoring and time-limiting controls — on all internet-enabled devices and platforms,» Hughes told CNET. «This simple step by big tech companies would greatly empower parents, who now must do this themselves on every device and every social media platform, which is overwhelming.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 31, #311

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 31, No. 311.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is heavy on NFL clues, so football fans should do well. The purple category felt like an easy one for me today and it has nothing to do with the NFL. Keeping reading for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Starts with a break.

Green group hint: Part of one of two conferences.

Blue group hint: Special Philly.

Purple group hint: For the court.