We’ve been bringing you the best tips and tutorials for your iPhone and iPad for many years. The complexity of Apple’s operating systems offers an immense number of options and features that help to dramatically improve the user experience of your devices.
Without going any further, a little over a month ago we recommended a series of very useful tips to improve the battery of iPhone, iPad and Mac. This time we will focus on the functions that the keyboard of your smartphone will allow you to perform. from Apple. Although it is true that not all functions are available for all iPhone models or for all versions of the company’s mobile operating system with the bitten apple logo. Let’s see what keyboard tricks you can enjoy your iPhone. We have started!
Tips for your iPhone keyboard
The native iOS keyboard has evolved a lot since the birth of the iPhone: emojis, touch gestures, sounds, chat effects and even a hidden trackpad. There are tons of cheats available! Therefore, starting with iPadízate, we are going to recommend the most interesting functions of the iPhone keyboard. Maybe you won’t know any of these tips, or maybe we can refresh your memory with some functions that you didn’t remember.
Moreover, it is also worth mentioning that some of these tips will work for your iPad as well. That said, we are starting our compilation of tips, curiosities and functions for the iOS keyboard.
1. The search for emojis
Did you know that it is possible to search for a specific emoji via the iOS keyboard? If you have iOS 14 or later installed, this can become a really useful feature.
To search for an emoji from your keyboard, simply open the keyboard, press the emoji key and write the name of the emoji you want to search for in the search box from the top of the keyboard. You can search both by category of emojis like “food” and by specific emojis like “paella”.
2. Emojification
La emojificación es una función para iPhone y iPad que fue implemented en el system con el lanzamiento de iOS 10. Es una alternativa al truco de búsquedas de emojis que mencionábamos previamente, pero en este caso los emojis aparecerán automáticamente un tapre haanto the screen.
If you want to use emojification, what you need to do is type normally on your iPhone keyboard – as you normally would – then tap the emoji button. Once this is done, words related to emojis will be highlighted in orange. When you click on any of these orange words, they automatically turn into an emoji. Sometimes you can even choose between different emojis related to a word.
Unfortunately, iOS emojification is only available for use in iMessage, your iPhone’s native messaging app.
3. How to quickly slide between emojis
We continue with the emoji tricks section with a tip that many of our readers will probably be familiar with, but few people usually use in their day to day – we include ourselves as well – and it’s very handy when it comes to finding an emoji which we know is the fastest.
The iPhone keyboard provides the ability to quickly swipe (scroll) between emojis by sliding our finger across the screen. How come? Very easy. Open the keyboard, go to the emoji panel, then gently slide your finger over the icons of the different emoji categories which are located at the bottom of the emoji panel. It’s simple!
4. Hidden keyboard emoticons
Have you ever used hidden iPhone keyboard emoticons? We are not talking about secret emojis, but a series of emoticons created with characters of the ASCII code that form very cute and funny smileys. They might not be as visually appealing as iOS emojis, but hey, they’ve been around for a lot longer … practically since the birth of the internet!
To discover this secret emoticon panel, you will need to go to Settings> General> Keyboard> Keyboards and add the languages ”Kana” and “Romaji” in the “Japanese” language. Once done, press and hold the emoji button to select one of these languages and press the “^ _ ^” key.
5. How to unlock iOS secret trackpad
Apple incorporated a useful trackpad into the iPhone keyboard with the arrival of iOS 12. All iPhone models compatible with this version of the operating system have a trackpad hidden in the keyboard.
To find it, all you have to do is keep your finger pressed on the space bar on the keyboard until the keys disappear. Once that’s done, you can slide your finger on the trackpad to move the text cursor to any position. This is particularly useful for very long texts!
6. Select text with the trackpad
In addition, using the iOS secret trackpad, you will also have the option to perform other editing actions such as selecting text.
Follow the steps you took to activate the trackpad – remember, keeping your finger pressed on the keyboard space bar – and use two fingers to select the text you want. As Gadgethacks points out very well, this is a very intuitive and dynamic feature, you will have no problem mastering it.
Optionally, there is another very useful method of selecting text. But not by using the keyboard, but by tapping on the screen. If you double click on a word, it will be selected. If you click three times, the entire paragraph will be selected.
7. How to turn off your iPhone keyboard
If you keep your phone with the default keypad options, you will have noticed that each time you press a key, the speaker will make a sound. A sort of “click”. If you don’t want these sounds to play every time you type on the keyboard, for whatever reason (you might be saving a small percentage of battery), you just need to access Settings> Sounds and vibrations and scroll down to turn off the “Keyboard Clicks” option.
8. How to move the keyboard to the side for easy one-handed typing
We come to the last tip, which is particularly useful for many users. Especially for those users who have iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max, as the screen of these terminals can be a bit big for some users when trying to type on the keyboard with one hand.
This trick offers the possibility of moving the keyboard slightly to the left or the right to facilitate typing with one hand. Moreover, its activation is really simple and you can go back to the normal keyboard in a few seconds. The trick only has a small downside, which is logical and natural, when you move your iPhone’s keyboard to the side of the screen, the keys reduce their size slightly. But as soon as you get used to it, you can write normally.
If you want to move the keyboard to the side, you just need to press and hold the button icon located in the lower left corner of the keyboard and select one of the keyboard shaped icons at the bottom of the drop-down menu. There is a left-handed option and a right-handed option.
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