Typing on the keyboard is probably one of the most common things you do on your iPhone. You’re so used to the iPhone keyboard that you probably don’t even notice it anymore. In its constant effort to improve usability and come up with clever solutions, Apple has integrated many features into the iPhone keyboard. Often these features are obvious but sometimes they are a little harder to access. So here are 10 iPhone keyboard features that you should be using if you aren’t already!
Type a period efficiently with the iPhone keyboard
You may have noticed that the iPhone keyboard doesn't have a period key in its main display: you have to press the "123" button to see it appear.
Since the point is still regularly used when typing on the keyboard, we are entitled to wonder what has gotten into Apple. The reason is simple: Apple has come up with something even faster and more efficient for typing the point!
In fact, it is enough topress the space bar twice in a row on the keyboard to enter a period.
Slide your finger to type quickly
When Apple allowed third-party iPhone keyboards in 2014, swipe-to-type keyboards were immediately popular — Android users had been enjoying them for years.
With the release of iOS 13, Apple has finally added swipe typing to the iPhone's standard keyboard. Simply slide your finger over the letters to enter the word faster !
It's a method that requires a little practice, but once you've adopted it, it's hard to do without it.
Turn off autocorrect
Autocorrect is perhaps the most controversial feature of the iPhone keyboard. Sometimes it works wonders, but it can also be really annoying. If you're tired of people trying to "correct" your typing, you can simply turn off autocorrect.
For it :
- go to the app Settings from the iPhone
- and General > Keyboard
- disable the option Autocorrect
Shrink the keyboard for one-handed typing
iPhones have gotten really big, and unless you have gigantic hands, it's not always easy to type with one hand. So, if you want to improve your one-handed typing efficiency on the iPhone keyboard, you can condense it and position it to the right or left of the screen.
You just need tolong press the emoji key or the globe icon if you have multiple keyboards installed. You will see an option to move the keyboard to one side or the other!
TURN ON CAPS LOCK
You probably already know that you can press the Shift key—the up arrow—on the iPhone keyboard to capitalize letters. But unlike a traditional keyboard, there's no Caps Lock button.
But rest assured, Apple has thought of everything! By pressing the Shift key twice in a row you will activate caps lock. Press it again to deactivate it.
A line appears under the arrow when Caps Lock is on.
Undo mistakes with gestures
You might be surprised to learn that the iPhone keyboard has several gestures to undo and redo your typing. There are three different gestures, all of which require three fingers. In practice, these manipulations require a bit of dexterity, but with a little practice they work very well.
- Double-tap with three fingers to undo
- Swipe left with three fingers to undo
- Swipe right with three fingers to redo
Be careful to use 3 fingers!
You can also literally shake your iPhone to bring up a pop-up asking if you want to cancel. Personally, I find this option easier to use.
Quickly insert .com or .fr into web addresses
This trick only works in Safari and Chrome (maybe in other browsers but I haven't tested).
When typing a web address, you can speed things up by inserting .com, .fr, .us, .net, .edu, .org or .eu using a shortcut. All you need to do islong press the "period" key to choose the suffix of your choice. Easy!
Create custom text shortcuts
If you have words or phrases that you type regularly, you'll probably be happy to discover that there are ways to save time. You can create custom text shortcuts to automatically suggest longer words or phrases to insert. For example, you can have the keyboard suggest "hello" when you type "bjr." In fact, the iPhone defaults to "jrv" for "I'm coming!", which you can remove.
- go to the app Settings from the iPhone
- and General > Keyboard > Replacement
- Click on “+” to add a new shortcut
- enter the expression and the shortcut then do Save
For example, this is the trick I use to replace “@@” by my email address ! This way I save a lot of time!
Long press keys to access additional characters
Many keys on the iPhone keyboard have extra keys "underneath" them. Just long-press a key to see them appear.
For example, you can long-press the "a", "e", and "i" keys to see their accented equivalents. Long-press the euro sign to get other currency signs. If you want to find the degrees symbol on iPhone keyboard hold down the “o” or the “0”.
Long press the space bar to move the cursor
This is a bit of a variation on the previous trick, but did you know that by long-pressing the space bar you can control the cursor.
If you have ever tried to position the cursor by clicking on the text with your finger, you have certainly noticed that this manipulation is very annoying because the cursor never arrives where you want!
By long-clicking on the space bar, the letters on the keyboard will disappear and by sliding your finger you will be able to move the cursor wherever you want on the screen!
Install a third-party keyboard
Finally, if you don’t particularly like the iPhone keyboard, you can replace it with a number of third-party keyboards in the App Store. Google’s Gboard and Microsoft’s SwiftKey are two popular choices.
It is then very easy to switch from one keyboard to another on the fly once you have installed multiple keyboards on your iPhoneTo do this, simply click on the globe at the bottom left of the keyboard.
