iPhone ideas, and does anyone know if this is available now or not?

[Pinback]

1. Interesting. I wonder if IFTTT would work for the conditional auto-lock settings.

IFTTT (If This, Then That) -- as you may already know -- is a service (or platform, or app depending on your point of view) that enables automating all kinds of things. It seems you could create an IFTTT applet that changes your phone's timeout setting based on whether you're at home or not. This could be based either on location or on connection to your home wi-fi network.

I've played around with IFTTT a bit just to see how it works, but I've never really found it all that useful in my life. I don't use a smart speaker, I don't have any "smart home" lighting or devices, and I just don't have all that many other things that I feel the need to automate. (A daily weather forecast is one exception.)

On the text message question, those little red numbers are called badges, in case you didn't know. Here's a good overview of Alerts, Badges, and Banners (from 2014, but I think it's still relevant): https://heresthethingblog.com/2014/01/22/ios-7-tip-whats-difference-alert/

You could just turn off Badges for Messages altogether, which would mean you'd never see any of the red numbers.