It's not a great feeling, realizing you've accidentally deleted an important photo or document on your phone. Maybe you've picked the wrong file, or you've tapped the wrong button, but it's easily done—and it's not the kind of mistake you're always going to notice right away, either.

The good news is that Android, iOS, and the apps that run on top of them now come with safety nets built in. There's a decent chance you're going to be able to get that deleted data back—it's just a question of knowing where to look, and that depends on the app you used to do the deleting.

If you can't get your files back using the methods we've described below, then you're going to have to dig deeper—perhaps into your phone backups (which you should have set up, in case your phone gets lost or stolen).

Google Photos (Android and iOS)

If you use Google Photos to manage photos and videos on your phone, open the Library tab, then tap the Trash folder. Tap on a file then Restore to undelete it; or, press and hold on one file, then select multiple items, then tap Restore. Google Photos will keep deleted photos and videos in the Trash folder for 60 days before erasing them completely.

Apple Photos (iOS)

Over on the default photos and videos app for the iPhone, deleted files can be found by going to Albums then Recently Deleted. Here, deleted files are kept around for 40 days (you can see the days remaining on each item). Tap a photo or video then choose Recover to bring it back, or use the Select button to pick multiple items to restore at once.

Samsung Gallery (Android)

If you're using the Samsung Gallery app found on its Galaxy phones to manage your photos and videos, open the app and tap the three horizontal lines (bottom right), then pick Recycle bin to view and restore files. You might also see photos and videos deleted by third-party apps here too, depending on how you've set up integrations on your phone.

Restoring files in Files by Google. Credit: Lifehacker

Files by Google (Android)

In the default file manager on Android, tap the three horizontal lines (top left), then Trash. Any files that have been sent here will be kept for 30 days before being erased completely, and they're listed in groups based on when they were originally deleted. To bring any of the deleted files back to their original locations, select them and tap on Restore.

My Files (Android)

If you're on a Samsung Galaxy phone, you might be using My Files rather than Files by Google to manage locally stored data. Open up the app and you'll see a Recycle bin link on the front screen for viewing and restoring files—as with the Gallery app, you'll possibly see files deleted by other apps in here, depending on the file type and syncing options.

Files (iOS)

If you've deleted something from your iPhone, you might find it inside the iOS Files app, up to 30 days afterwards: Open the Browse tab, then tap Recently Deleted to view and restore files. Note that the Files app can also manage your various cloud storage accounts (like iCloud), so there may be some crossover with the other options mentioned here.

Restoring files in Files on iOS. Credit: Lifehacker

Google Drive (Android and iOS)

Any file deleted from inside Google Drive or synced to it is recoverable for 30 days afterwards: From inside the mobile app, tap the three horizontal lines (top left), then Trash. You can browse through the files just like any other Google Drive folder, and if you tap the three dots to the right of any of the files listed, there's a Restore option.

iCloud Drive (iOS)

If you're using iCloud Drive in addition to the Files app on iOS, you've got an extra layer of protection when it comes to accidentally erasing your stuff. You can either get at your deleted files from the Browse tab in the Files app as described above, or through iCloud Drive on the web—just click on Recently Deleted in the side panel on the left.

Other apps (Android and iOS)

If you're using some kind of cloud-based storage alongside your phone, you should have an undelete feature to fall back on. Dropbox, for example, keeps deleted files for 30 days (or longer on paid plans), but you need to go to the desktop web interface to find them: Click Deleted files in the left-hand pane to see a list of files and bring them back if needed.

Microsoft OneDrive has a built-in safety net to make use of as well, and it's called—you guessed it—the recycle bin. From the mobile app, tap Me and then Recycle bin to see files that have recently been wiped from your OneDrive account. To restore any of them back to their original locations, tap the three dots (on the right-hand side), then Restore.

Google Calendar falls into that category of apps that you probably just load up and use without too much thought. It's designed to be clean, lightweight, and functional by default, and that's perfect when you need to quickly check up on your schedule.

However, you've got more options for changing the look of Google Calendar on the web than you might have realized. Dig a little deeper into the settings, and you'll find you're able to tweak what's on screen in a variety of ways, from the number of days you can see at once, to how recurring and past events are handled in the interface.

If Google Calendar is a key tool you rely on, it makes sense to get it set up in the way that will be most useful to you—providing less clutter, quicker access to the info you need, and less time wasted clicking through to additional screens. Here are all the different settings worth adjsuting.

Custom views

Whatever view you're currently using for Google Calendar on the web, you can change it by clicking on the drop-down menu in the top right corner, to the right of the gear button. It'll be labeled with the name of the current view, like Month or Week. The same drop-down menu features some basic view options, such as whether or not declined events and weekends are shown on screen.

To really take control over what you can see, you can create a custom view. Click the gear button (top right), then Settings and View options. In the Set custom view drop-down menu, you'll see you can choose everything from 2 days to 4 weeks as the time period displayed when you load up Google Calendar in your web browser.

Get Google Calendar to show a specific number of days on screen. Credit: Lifehacker

The setting is saved automatically, and will appear as the last option in the drop-down menu on the main Google Calendar screen (with the Month and Week options in it). Unfortunately, the same custom view option doesn't sync to the mobile Google Calendar apps—you have to make do with the default ones

Back on the View options page, there's another drop-down menu that lets you control what day the week should start on—Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. This changes the layout of any view where you're looking at more than seven days together at once. Last but not least, there's a keyboard shortcut you can make use of in the Google Calendar web app to quickly jump to your custom view: Just tap the X key.

Other view options

Click the gear icon (top right), choose Settings and View options, and you'll see there are several other ways to configure the look of Google Calendar, besides creating your own custom view. Use Reduce the brightness of past events to have older calendar entries look more faded on screen, for example—a handy way of helping you see where you're up to in your current schedule.

There are check boxes for showing or hiding weekends, showing or hiding events you've declined invitations to, and showing or hiding completed tasks. Getting some of these details off screen can reduce the clutter in Google Calendar, making your timetable easier on the eye. Number labels for the weeks can be shown or hidden too.

You can change the density of the layout and the color choices too. Credit: Lifehacker

Open up the Time zone tab on the Settings page, and you're able to get a secondary time zone displayed on the day and week views—this makes it easier to see how events are scheduled across different parts of the world. You can also enable several time zone clocks in the side panel on the left, via the World clock tab: You can see at a glance what time it is in a city (and what the weather's currently doing, too).

Then you've got the settings you can edit on the actual Google Calendar view itself. Click the three horizontal lines (top left) to show or hide the left-hand side panel, and in that panel use the check boxes to show and hide individual calendars—a quick way of focusing on what you really need to see. You can also click the gear icon (top right) then Density and color to tweak the text size and label colors used.

Getting the Windows experience on a Mac computer has become more difficult with the arrival of Apple's own chipsets: The Boot Camp Assistant developed by Apple that allowed dual-booting doesn't work at all with Apple silicon computers, while emulators like Parallels aren't quite as straightforward to use on these newer systems either.

With that in mind, if you do need to get a Windows program running on macOS, it's easier to just focus on that one app—rather than emulating the entire operating system. There are a couple of user-friendly tools for macOS that can help here, so you can bring over your favorite Windows apps to your Mac without too much trouble.

Wineskin

Wineskin is the free option here, and it uses the Homebrew package manager. You need to open up Terminal on macOS, type the following command, then hit Enter:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Once the Homebrew installation process completes, you'll see instructions to run the following commands to complete the setup, with your account name listed where is (hit Enter after each one):

(echo; echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"') >> /Users//.zprofile

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

With Homebrew set up successfully, you're ready to install Wineskin. At the Terminal prompt, enter the following text and press Enter:

brew install --cask --no-quarantine gcenx/wine/unofficial-wineskin

When you see the message telling you that Wineskin has been installed, you can close down the Terminal and open Wineskin from the Applications folder in Finder, or by looking for it in Spotlight.

Setting up Wineskin on macOS. Credit: Lifehacker

First up, you need to install an engine by clicking on the + (plus) icon—it's fine to select the default one that pops up, but sometimes different Windows apps need different engines, so you may need to swap if you're experiencing problems. Then, click Update Wrapper to get the latest master wrapper, which packages your app of choice in a way that means it can run on macOS.

With that done, click Create New Blank Wrapper. At this point you need to give your new wrapper a name to identify it and the program it's running. Your wrapper will be set up in Finder, in the Wineskin folder in your user applications list (you'll be asked if you want to jump straight to it when the initial setup process has been completed).

You'll need to point Wineskin to a Windows executable. Credit: Lifehacker

Launch this wrapper, and you're then ready to choose the Windows executable you want to run. Try Install Software first, as this is the easiest option: You can point Wineskin to a setup file, or a folder of files (for portable apps). Wineskin should handle the process of getting everything configured, and you can then run the wrapper whenever you like to use the Windows application.

If this doesn't work for the program you're using, click Advanced on the main Wineskin dialog to access more options—you can point the tool towards specific executables, change how Windows keys are remapped to macOS keys, and customize various other aspects of the way Wineskin tries to run this particular program.

CrossOver

CrossOver offers a library of Windows software to install. Credit: Lifehacker

CrossOver is the paid option: It'll set you back $74, but there is a free 14-day trial available so you can see if it's worth your while before parting with any cash. It's a little more user-friendly than Wineskin and gives you more help along the way, so some people will find it the better choice even with the cost attached.

Get the software installed and set up, then simply search for the Windows program you want to run—like Steam, for example, if you want to do some gaming. You'll see each app title is accompanied by a star rating that tells you how well the program works through CrossOver on macOS (which can save you some money buying apps and games that aren't going to work great).

Setting up a Windows app on macOS with CrossOver. Credit: Lifehacker

When you've got the program you want, click Install, and everything is handled for you. CrossOver gets the Windows application set up, and within a few minutes you should be enjoying your Windows software on macOS. CrossOver keeps a list of your installed programs as "bottles" in its main interface, and you can select them from there to run them and configure various aspects of how they're deployed on macOS.

If the program you want to run isn't listed in the Install screen in CrossOver, click the Install an unlisted application option on the right. The process here is a little bit more involved, but not overly so—you'll need to give CrossOver more details about the application that you're trying to install, and where the setup executable is.

Here at Lifehacker we're big fans of keyboard shortcuts, whether it's for your operating system, your web browser, or any of your web apps. They help you get more done in a shorter period of time, without having to lift your fingers from the keyboard or shift your gaze from whatever you're looking at (if your muscle memory is fully trained).

You can actually find keyboard shortcuts in more places than you might have realized, and that includes desktop and web apps for Windows and macOS. Sure, the desktop clients are easy enough to use without them, but when you need to skip a song or lower the volume, they can be really helpful.

We're going to mention some of our favorite ones for Spotify here, but you can see a full list by pressing Ctrl+? (Windows) or Cmd+? (macOS). Most shortcuts are the same across both operating systems, if you use Cmd in place of Ctrl (or vice versa), and they should work fine in both the desktop client and the web app player.

Basic playback controls

Playback can be controlled with Space. Credit: Lifehacker

Start and stop playback: Got a video call coming in? Someone shouting at you from another room? Hit Space to pause audio playback, then tap it again to carry on.

Shuffle and repeat: If you want to mix up the current playlist or hear the same songs over again (or both), Ctrl/Cmd+S toggles the shuffle mode, and Ctrl/Cmd+R toggles repeat.

Skip forwards and backwards: Navigating playlists is a key part of using Spotify, and Ctrl/Cmd+Right arrow and Ctrl/Cmd+Left arrow will skip forwards and backwards.

Seek forwards and backwards: If you want to jump around within a track, on Windows it's Shift+Right arrow or Shift+Left arrow. On macOS, hold down the Cmd key as well.

Raise or lower the volume: If some adjustment to the Spotify audio volume is required, use Ctrl/Cmd+Up arrow or Ctrl/Cmd+Down arrow to raise or lower it as required.

Like the current track: Sometimes you'll want to like the current track on Spotify without having to search it out—use Shift+Alt+B on Windows or Shift+Option+B on macOS.

Playlists and music

Use Ctrl/Cmd+N to create a new playlist. Credit: Lifehacker

Get to your playlists: You can use the Shift+Alt+1 (Windows) or Shift+Option+1 (macOS) shortcut to see your playlists; replace 1 with 0 to jump to the Your Library screen instead.

Create new playlists: The keyboard shortcut for creating a new Spotify playlist is Ctrl/Cmd+N; if you want to create a new playlist folder, hold down the Shift key as well.

Filter tracks in the current playlist: If you want to pick our tracks in the current playlist, use Ctrl/Cmd+F—a search bar then appears at the top of the playlist for you to fill out.

Search for something to listen to: If you want to run a search of the entire Spotify catalog, use Ctrl/Cmd+K to bring up the quick search box, then add your search query.

Search inside your library: For running searches that you want to limit to tracks that have been saved to your Spotify library, use Ctrl+Alt+F (Windows) or Cmd+Option+F (macOS).

Select everything: There will be a few screens where you want to select all the tracks on screen, whether it's an album or a playlist or something else—Ctrl/Cmd+A is the shortcut.

Layout and navigation

Get to the Spotify settings with the Ctrl/Cmd+, shortcut. Credit: Lifehacker

Open the context menu: If you need to access the context menu on a track or album or anything else selected in Spotify, you can use Alt+J on Windows or Option+J on macOS.

See the queue: Want to know what's coming up next in the Spotify queue? Use Alt+Shift+Q (Windows) or Option+Shift+Q (macOS) to see the queue on the right.

Jump to the currently playing track: If you've navigated away to the playlist that's playing and want to get back, tap Alt+Shift+J on Windows or Option+Shift+J on macOS.

See what's new: If you're in need of something new to listen to, the Shift+Alt+N (Windows) or Shift+Option+N (macOS) will take you straight to Spotify's new music page.

Toggle the sidebars: Use Shift+Alt+L and Shift+Alt+R (Windows), or Shift+Option+L and Shift+Option+R (macOS) to show or hide the left and right sidebars in the Spotify app.

Open up Spotify preferences: If you need to customize any aspect of your Spotify experience, tap Ctrl/Cmd+, (comma) to get straight to the main settings screen.

Despite the best intentions of the manufacturers, and the best efforts of consumers, tech still goes wrong on a fairly regular basis—and the PlayStation 5 is no exception to that. Sony has actually included a helpful troubleshooting tool built into its console: Safe Mode.

Safe Mode runs the PS5 with the bare minimum of functionality. The thinking is that you turn to it whenever you're having problems—and, in theory at least, whatever is proving problematic won't be enabled when Safe Mode is active. That means you can at least get into a limited interface to change key settings or even reset the console.

Some Safe Mode actions may wipe data stored on your console, so it's always wise to have a backup in place before something goes wrong—Sony offers a full PS5 backup guide you can refer to, if this is something you're not already doing.

Getting into Safe Mode

You'll need to connect a controller up via USB. Credit: Sony

To launch Safe Mode on your PS5, make sure it's turned off to begin with (if it's on, hold down the power button on the front for three seconds to turn it off). Turn it back on by holding down the front power button for seven seconds—as soon as you hear a second beep, release the power button.

Before you get into Safe Mode proper, you'll be prompted to connect the DualSense controller to the PS5 with a USB cable (one should've been supplied in the box with the console, but any will do). Wireless communication is one of the features disabled in Safe Mode, which is why you need a cable.

Once the cable and controller are connected, press the PS button on the controller and you'll find yourself at the main Safe Mode screen. You should see eight different options on screen, and you can navigate between them using the D-pad on the controller—use the cross button to make a selection, and the circle button to go back.

Safe Mode options

The Safe Mode menu. Credit: Sony

The options available in Safe Mode are all useful if your PS5 is crashing regularly, or exhibiting strange behavior, or refusing to start up at all. It might be worth trying them one by one to try and get a fix—or there might be a particular option that sounds like it matches up with the particular problem you're having.

Restart PS5: This simply restarts the PS5 normally, though if you've been having problems, you've already tried this.

Change Video Output: Select this to either Change Resolution or Change HDCP Mode (the DRM protocol used to connect to a bigger screen). Both of these options can be helpful if something is wrong with the way the PS5's output is being displayed.

Repair Console Storage: This won't erase anything on the drive inside your PS5, but it will try some resets and fixes to get the internal storage working again. Give this a go if you're having storage issues or the PS5 won't start up.

Update System Software: One to try if you can't apply updates in the normal way. The latest system software can be downloaded from the web or installed from a USB drive—Sony has details here of how to set up the USB drive.

Restore Default Settings: Returns the PS5 back to its factory state, without deleting any games, apps, screenshots, video clips, or saved data—so it's essentially just resetting the way the console is configured.

Clear Cache and Rebuild Database: There are two options here. Use Clear System Software Cache if certain system features aren't working properly, or you're noticing performance drops. Alternatively, select Rebuild Database to run a drive scan and rebuild the database of PS5 content—which is also helpful for fixing feature or performance issues.

Reset PS5: Now we're getting serious—this returns your PS5 to its factory state completely, wiping everything from the system so you can start again. You'll need to restore all of your games, settings, and saves.

Reset PS5 (Reinstall System Software): The same as the option above, only the system software gets wiped and reinstalled as well—as mentioned above, this can be done by downloading the latest version from the web or via a USB drive.

Hopefully, one of these options should fix your PS5 woes—maybe without even having to reinstall any of your games and your saved data.

Other troubleshooting options

Sony can direct you to somewhere you can get a repair. Credit: Lifehacker

If you've been through every single option in Safe Mode and your PlayStation 5 is still having trouble, there's not much else you can try: It's possible that a hardware component has become damaged, and will need to be replaced or fixed.

Bear in mind that the reset options available in Safe Mode return the console back to its factory state. If something is still going wrong at that point, it's likely to be a pretty fundamental problem—though hopefully not an insurmountable one.

If troubleshooting through Safe Mode doesn't work, Sony recommends booking a repair. If you can't get into Safe Mode at all, meanwhile, you might want to try experimenting with different HDMI and USB cables to see if it makes any difference.

Of all the new Android 15 features that Google has told us about so far, one of the most significant—and potentially most useful—is called Private Space. As you might have figured out from the name, it gives you a separate section on your Android phone for storing your most sensitive apps and files.

While there are already features like this available on Android, from the Safe Folder in the Files by Google app to Samsung's Secure Folder tool, Private Space is aiming to be the most comprehensive—and will be built right into the mobile OS. If you've installed the Android 15 beta, you can give it a try right now.

Here's how Private Space works on a Pixel 8, and the ways you'll be able to use it when Android 15 rolls out fully later this year. Do bear in mind, though, that Google may tweak the feature between now and then, so it may not look exactly like this when it does start appearing in the stable version of Android.

Setting up Private Space

Your private space is available at the bottom of the app drawer. Credit: Lifehacker

Private Space can be enabled from Settings, via the Security and privacy page. Tapping on Private space reveals an information screen explaining how it all works, and then there's a Set up button to get started. It's worth reading through the details provided by Google to make sure you fully understand what the feature involves.

You can use Private Space with or without a Google account—and it doesn't necessarily have to be the same Google account you're using with your Android device. If you use a second Google account, it means photos, browsing data, and other files can be synced to this account rather than your main one.

If you go without a Google account altogether, this limits what you can do in the private space. You will be able to capture and save photos and videos, but you'll need to back them up manually. You can still use Google Chrome, but you won't get any of the syncing features you get when you're signed in.

If you want to use any apps other than those that appear in Private Space by default—so that's Camera, Chrome, Contacts, Files, Photos and Play Store—then you'll need to sign into a Google account. This is the same if you use Android in general without a Google account: You can't then install any third-party apps.

Tapping on Set up takes you through a couple of configuration screens that take just a minute to work through: You can choose a Google account to use with the private space, if you want to, and you can set up a new screen lock for the space (such as a new passcode), or use the protections that are already in place for your phone.

Using Private Space on your phone

The private space can lock itself automatically. Credit: Lifehacker

To get to your private space, you need to load up the app drawer with a swipe up from the home screen. The locked space is down at the bottom, and you can open it up (and close it again) by tapping on the padlock symbol. Use the Install apps link to add new apps to the private space, and the gear icon to open up its settings.

Using Private Space is a bit like using a separate Android device—a separate smartphone on your current smartphone (though of course if you use the same Google account in both places, a lot of your files and settings are going to sync across). It's also similar to the profiles feature on Android, but without the hassle of having to switch between profiles.

Open up the private space settings via the gear icon, and you're able to change the screen lock used for the space, and set the automatic lock options: Your private space can lock itself every time the device is locked, or after five minutes of inactivity, or every time the device is restarted.

You can also enable Hide private space when it's locked, so other people can't easily see it if they somehow get at your phone. When the private space is hidden, you need to head up to the search bar at the top of the app drawer, then look for "private space." Tap the link that appears, and you're then able to open it as normal.

The settings screen also has a Delete private space option on it. This wipes everything in the space and puts your phone back to normal. The process can't be reversed—any files that haven't been backed up somewhere else will be gone forever.

Since macOS Mojave was launched back in 2018, users have been able to take advantage of dynamic wallpapers (originally called dynamic desktops)—backdrop images that shift in color as the time of day changes. So as night falls outside your window, night will also fall on the wallpaper on your desktop.

It's a neat idea, and if you load up the Wallpaper section of System Settings in macOS today, you'll find no fewer than 31 different dynamic wallpapers to choose from, courtesy of Apple—everything from landscape shots of nature to abstract pattern designs, enough to last you more than a year if you swap over to a new one every fortnight.

What you can't do natively in macOS is set up your own dynamic wallpapers. For this job, you need a third-party application, and there are a couple of really good ones you can check out: Equinox and Dynaper. There's also the Dynamic Wallpaper Club website, which features a gallery of many high-quality dynamic wallpapers, plus a tool for making your own through the web interface.

To get started, you need at least two images to make a dynamic wallpaper, and what they show and how you make them is up to you: They can represent the same place at different times, but they don't have to.

Creating dynamic wallpapers with Equinox

You can download Equinox for free from the Mac App Store, and once you've got it running, you need to choose how your new dynamic wallpaper will work: Solar (images change based on sunrise and sunset times in your region), Time (images change based on any other specific timings), or Appearance (images change based on whether macOS is in light or dark mode).

On the next screen, you need to add one or more pictures to form your dynamic wallpaper (if you add one that you later want to remove, right-click on it and choose Delete image). You can drag and drop images into the program window, or click Browse to pick them manually. For the Appearance option you just need two images, but there's no limit to how many you can use for the other modes (click and drag images to change their order once they've been imported).

Equinox can create dynamic wallpapers quickly for you. Credit: Lifehacker

In the Solar mode, you need to supply altitude and azimuth information, the position of the sun in the sky when the photo was taken. Use the Calculator button to work these out based on the time of day and your region, if you're not sure. In the Time mode, you simply need to supply times for each image to appear—Equinox will add some timings automatically, but you can change them if needed.

Click Create, and after a few moments of calculation, your new dynamic wallpaper is created. Equinox gives you plenty of options on the next dialog: You can save the new image to disk, share it to another app, or set the dynamic wallpaper directly inside Equinox. If you want to start again with a fresh batch of images, click New.

Finding and setting dynamic wallpapers

You've got plenty of options when it comes to creating dynamic wallpapers on macOS. You can go out into the real world with a camera and a tripod—maybe even setting up a time-lapse photo that you can pick out a few frames. Alternatively, if you only have one image, you can use your favorite image editor to manipulate the lighting and colors so you've got several versions.

If you'd rather use dynamic wallpapers made by someone else, check out the galleries available through the Dynamic Wallpaper Club website and the 24 Hour Wallpaper macOS app. The latter requires payments—$1.29 per wallpaper or $69.99 for all 125 images—but they're all of an impressive quality. No matter what your tastes are in terms of backdrops for your Mac, you should be able to find something you like.

MacOS recognizes files saved as dynamic wallpapers. Credit: Lifehacker

On the Dynamic Wallpaper Club website, you do have the option of building your own dynamic wallpapers, though you will need to sign up for a free account. Through the web interface you can choose your images and pick your timings. It's not quite as slick as Equinox, but it's there if you need it (make sure you uncheck the Public wallpaper box if you don't want to share your creation with the Dynamic Wallpaper Club community).

Actually setting a dynamic wallpaper is straightforward: Open the Apple menu, then System Settings, then select Wallpaper. Click Add Photo and Choose, then point macOS towards the dynamic wallpaper that you've made. You'll see that the picture type is set as Dynamic in the top right corner, and the pictures will be cycled through automatically, based on the timings you've provided.

As long as you've signed up for the ChatGPT Plus package ($20 a month), you can make use of custom GPTs—Generative Pre-trained Transformers. These are chatbots with a specific purpose in mind, whether it's vacation planning or scientific research, and there are a huge number of them to choose from.

They're not all high-quality, but several are genuinely useful; I've picked out our favorites below. To find them, just click Explore GPTs in the left-hand navigation bar in ChatGPT on the web. Once you've installed a particular GPT, you'll be able to get at it from the same navigation bar.

These GPTs have replaced plugins on the platform, and offer more focused experiences and features than the general ChatGPT bot. A lot of them also come with extra knowledge that ChatGPT doesn't have, and you can even have a go at creating your own: From the GPTs directory, click + Create up in the top right corner.

Kayak

Travel portal Kayak has its very own GPT, ready to answer any questions you might have regarding a particular destination or how to get there. Ask about the best time to visit a city, or about the cost of a flight somewhere, or some places you can get to on a particular budget. It's great for getting inspiration about a trip or working out the finer details, and when I tested it on my home city of Manchester, UK, the answers that it came up with were reassuringly accurate—it even correctly told me the price you'll currently pay for a beer.

Hot Mods

The Dall-E image generator (another OpenAI property) is built right into ChatGPT, so you get image creation and manipulation tools out of the box, but Hot Mods is a bit more specific: It takes pictures you've already got and turns them into something else. Add new elements, change the lighting or the vibe, swap out the background, turn photos into paintings and vice versa, and so on. The image transformations aren't always spot on—such is the nature of AI art—but you can have a lot of fun playing around with this.

Tweak and transform existing images with Hot Mods. Credit: Lifehacker

Wine Sommelier

Want to know the perfect wine for a particular dish, event, or time of year? Of course you do, which is why Wine Sommelier can be so helpful. Put it to the test and it'll tell you which wines go well with chicken salad, which wines suit a vegan diet, and which wines will be well-received at a wedding. You can also quiz the GPT on related topics, like wine production processes or vineyards of note. Whether you're a wine expert or you want some tips on how to become one, the Wine Sommelier bot is handy to have around.

Canva

You might already be familiar with Canva's straightforward and intuitive graphic design tools on the web and mobile, and its official GPT enables you to get creative inside the ChatGPT interface as well. Everything from posters to flyers to social media posts is covered, and you can be as deliberate or as vague as you like when it comes to the designs Canva comes up with. The GPT is able to produce text for your projects as well as images, and will ask you questions if it needs more guidance about the graphics you're asking for.

SciSpace

SciSpace is an example of a GPT that brings a wealth of extra knowledge with it, above and beyond ChatGPT's own training data—it can dig into more than 278 million research papers, in fact, so you're able to ask it any question to get the latest academic thinking on a particular topic. Whether you want to know about potential links between exercise and heart health, or whale migration patterns, or anything else, SciSpace has you covered. You can also upload research papers and ask the bot to analyze and summarize them for you.

Coloring Book Hero can create all kinds of designs for you. Credit: Lifehacker

Coloring Book Hero

This is a great idea: Get AI to produce custom coloring books for you, based around any idea or subject you like. Obviously you're going to need a printer as well (unless you're doing the coloring digitally), but there's a lot of fun to be had in playing around with designs and topics—you can even upload your own images and have them converted to coloring book format. Some of the usual AI weirdness does occasionally creep in to the pictures, but they're mostly spot on in terms of bold, black lines and big white spaces.

Wolfram

Wolfram Alpha is one of the best resources on the web, an outstanding collection of algorithms and knowledge, and the Wolfram GPT brings a lot of this usefulness into ChatGPT as well. This bot is perfect for complex math calculations and graphs, for conversions between different units, and for asking questions about any of the knowledge gathered by humanity so far. The breadth of the capabilities here is seriously impressive, and when needed the GPT is able to pull data and images from Wolfram Alpha seamlessly.