If you’ve been using an iPhone for a long time, you probably think you’ve got it all figured out. However, as with every technology product, there are definitely many more hidden features that you probably don’t know about. Take your iPhone’s keyboard, for example. You may know that you can long press the space bar to turn the keyboard into a mini trackpad. You also know that you can double-tap the space bar to add a period to the end of a sentence. But there’s a much more subtle trick that can change the way you type on your iPhone.
Let’s start with the problem: accessing certain secondary characters on iOS can be annoying. Many Android keyboards have common characters like commas or periods, along with a number row on your main keyboard. But that’s not the case on the iPhone: when using apps like iMessage, the main keyboard consists almost exclusively of letters, apart from the space bar, delete, shift and return keys. Of course, you don’t need the period key when you double-tap the space bar, but you do need to tap the 123 key first to access other secondary characters.
This isn’t actually a bad thing: There are plenty of keys here, including question mark, exclamation mark, comma, and numbers. However, it can be a little annoying. You tap 123, select your character, then tap 123 again to go back to typing letters. This isn’t so bad when you finish the sentence; you can select a question mark, then press send your message, which will automatically return you to the main keyboard.
But when you’re in the middle of typing something, you have to constantly switch between these different menus to type properly. If you want to add a comma to a sentence, you tap 123, tap your comma, tap 123 again, and then continue. But there is a better way.
Instead of tapping and releasing the 123 key, press and hold it. When you hold your finger on the 123 key, you have one of two options: Using the same finger, you can slide it over the character you want to insert, release it, and insert the character into the text field while automatically returning to the main keyboard. Or you can use your other finger to tap the secondary characters you need, then release 123; In this case, you will automatically return to the main keyboard.
Once you get used to this trick, you’ll notice how much faster it is to type longer messages without having to manually switch between keyboards. For example, you can hold down 123 to type some money, press $ followed by the numbers you need, release 123, and return to your letters to continue your message.
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