Best Lifehacks for Your Phone

If there's one invention that truly revolutionized the way we live, it's the smartphone. Smartphones allow us to stay in contact with loved ones, give us the ability to use apps for micro-investing spare change, and even let us improve our smart home devices while we're out.

Considering how much of our lives can be found on a smartphone, it's not surprising that most of us really want to keep our phones in pristine condition. To help you get the most out of your favorite device, we found some epic lifehacks for your phone.

Do you have a touchscreen phone? If so, you probably lose your stylus on a regular basis. If you need a stylus for your phone, you're in luck. One of the best lifehacks for your phone that you can use in a pinch is creating a makeshift stylus.

Just cover a pencil with tinfoil, and use it like you would a phone stylus. Problem solved.

Let's say your phone case breaks, and you have an old phone that no longer has cases readily available for it (*cough* Samsung S6 *cough*). It happens, but you definitely should do something to protect your phone.

One of the best lifehacks for your phone is learning how to make a phone case out of a balloon. Just blow up a balloon, then use your phone to deflate it. The balloon will curl around your phone, creating a nice rubber cover you can use until you get a new case.

Whether it's from eating greasy chicken wings or just having a grimy person touch your phone, most of us have had moments where our phone just gets way too many smudges. When that happens, most of us will reach for a lens wipe.

Lens wipes are expensive, though, so you might want to try a cheaper alternative. Using an eraser is cheaper, and you can literally erase away those marks. This makes your school-style erasers accessories that can extend the life of your phone by preventing wear and tear. Who knew?

Love your phone, but hate the drab phone cases you're finding? Then one of the best lifehacks for your phone's style would be to DIY your own phone case art. To do this, you'll need a regular phone case and some nail polish.

You can use the nail polish on the case as you see fit. Go ahead. Draw doodles, add some cool designs, or even get some stencil art in, if you want to. For a really amazing case, give color changing nail polish a try!

Straight up, you can make some amazing gifts for people who always break their phones this way.

Black lights are incredibly useful, especially if you're trying to make sure that an area is clean. Making your own black light for your phone is surprisingly easy!

To do this, you're going to need tape, red marker, and blue marker. Place tape over your phone's flash. Then, color the tape blue, and add another layer of tape on top. Then, color that layer of tape with red. Then, add a third layer of tape.

When you need a black light, just use the phone's flashlight.

Love listening to Spotify on your morning commute, but hate having to deal with tangled earbuds in your purse? Not a problem. There are a few great lifehacks for your phone that can take care of that problem.

One of the easiest would be to attach two "hanging hooks" onto the back of your phone case. When you're done listening to music, just wrap your earbuds around the hooks.

Most of us have seen those fancy, schmancy projectors that allow you to view movies on a wall. What you might not realize is that there is a cheaper way to enjoy videos on your phone.

You'll need a shoebox and a magnifying lens for this. Cut a hole the size of the magnifying lens into your box. Place the lens in the hole, and put your phone in the box, using a small hole in the shoe box's top to keep the phone in place if necessary.

When you start streaming, the projector will magnify your phone's image.

Rough cities can mean serious problems for people that worry about safety. If you're worried about a mugger taking your wallet, you're in luck. One of the smartest lifehacks for your phone (and money) would be to tuck your emergency credit card and ID inside your phone's case.

Of course, you could also buy a phone case that does this.

One of the oldest lifehacks for your phone deals with audio. Most phones don't really have a loud speaker, but you can change that. Just drop the phone speaker-side down into a large paper cup. The structure of the paper cup will naturally amplify the sound.

You also can use a paper cup to create a phone stand, as this video shows. Who would have figured that this low-tech method would allow you to upgrade your phone's sound so easily?

That lock screen you have could be one of the easiest ways to make life easier in the event of an emergency. A good way to ensure that your phone can help you out is to change the lock screen to offer up information on who to call if your phone gets lost.

Smartphone users that may have medical issues might also want to note their blood type or medication allergies on their lock screen too. This way, if they are found unconscious, their phone can do the talking for them.