How a harmless iPhone feature is secretly helping people cheat on their partners

The iPhone Notes app might seem like the most innocent thing on your phone, a place for grocery lists, birthday reminders, or half-written poems. But a growing number of people are now using it for something completely unexpected: cheating on their partners.

The app’s “collaborate” feature lets users share a note with people. Once shared, both people can type in the same note, back and forth, almost like a private chat. Since there are no message notifications or chat bubbles, it’s easy to miss. To an outsider, it just looks like a regular note.

This sneaky method was exposed on social media, especially TikTok, where users and even private investigators are warning people about the trick. One such investigator, Cassie Crofts, called it “the iPhone hack that cheaters are obsessed with.” She pointed out that while most people check texts and DMs for signs of cheating, very few think to look inside the Notes app.

Her video sparked a wave of responses from people who had either caught their partners doing it or admitted to using the trick themselves. “My best friend found out her boyfriend was cheating because the Notes app was open on his laptop,” one user commented. Another confessed, “I’ve done it. You can even lock the note with a password so no one can open it.”