Even though we are seasoned tech editors, we too are still discovering new aspects of hardware and software we test. And while these two keyboard features on your iPhone were familiar to us, you may well not have heard of them yet.
We often write about special options on your iPhone that you may not have known existed. For example, a “secret button” allows you to use numerous functions suddenly by tapping the back.
The iPhone keyboard can do more than you think
Earlier we reported that completely typing in your email address is no longer necessary. In fact, you can easily create a shortcut for this in your settings.
So the most convenient option is an easy hack. All you have to do is shorten your entire e-mail address for ‘@@’, for example. You do this in your keyboard settings. To do this on your iPhone, go to Settings, General and Keyboards. Here you will find the Text Replacement option.
But your keyboard has another nice shortcut. One of the first tricks is double-tapping the space bar. This can save you a little time if you really want to type a long message quickly.
This is, of course, if you are someone who prefers to send one long message rather than a whole series of individual messages, making the recipient’s phone make a sound and light up over and over again.
You really do need to set up this feature. To do this, go to Settings, then General, and under Keyboards, enable the Shortcut Key for dot. If you now press the space bar twice, you will immediately get a period and a space.
The iPhone 14 Pro. (Image: Unsplash/Omar Al Ghosson)
Your keyboard is also a very fine mouse
No doubt you will have made a mistake in a text once that you want to correct. But getting the cursor in the right place by clicking on the text can be pretty darn handy.
Fortunately, Apple has come up with an incredibly fine solution for that. Your keyboard is also a trackpad. You don’t have to go to settings for this feature.
Simply hold down the space bar. You will now see that all the letters turn gray. Then hover over the blank keys and you will see that you can super easily place your cursor where you want, or select a piece of text. Little tricks like this make your iPhone even nicer to use.
