You must know this hidden iOS keyboard trick

Image: Stan Schroeder / Mashable

What if I told you that editing and selecting high-precision text is not only possible, but easy, on all Apple gadgets running iOS 12?

If you, like me, have trouble modifying this typo in a block of text that you have just written on your iPhone, you may have missed a feature that allows you to turn your keyboard into a trackpad and to move the cursor with your text. perfect precision.

Until now, this feature was only available for 3D Touch devices (new iPhones) and iPads (but with a different, more complex implementation), but iOS 12 changed everything. Continue reading.

I've also missed this feature until recently, probably because it's hard to name. Apple says it allows you to "turn the QuickType keyboard into a trackpad", but that does not really translate its usefulness. I think the best way to do this is to describe how to use it in its last iteration: Tap and hold the spacebar for precise text selection.

It works on all Apple gadgets running iOS 12. While tapping Apple's built-in keyboard, hold down the space bar and the keys disappear. Now you can move your finger around this new empty area to move the cursor precisely to the text you just wrote. It's so much better than any other precise method of cursor placement, you'll never come back to tapping words and waiting for the small magnifying glass to appear.

Image: Stan Schroeder / Mashable

Now, on 3D Touch compatible devices, such as the iPhone X, XS and XS Max, you can launch this operation by pressing anywhere on the keyboard. But I suggest you get used to using the space bar – it's just as good, and it works on devices that do not have 3D Touch, like the iPad or the iPad. IPhone XR.

It becomes even more useful. On 3D Touch devices, in the touchpad mode of the keyboard, you can select a word by pressing it deeply. press deeper to select the entire paragraph. And on iOS 12, you can do something similar without 3D Touch. Tap and hold the space bar to enter trackpad keyboard mode. Then press anywhere on the keyboard with another finger (do not hold, press and release) to enter the text selection mode. Now move your thumb up and down to select the text.

Check out both variants of the feature in the video below.

This is especially useful on the iPad, which for some reason does not have 3D Touch in any of its variants. If for some reason you have not updated your iPad to iOS 12, you can still access the feature in a slightly different form: Press the keyboard with two fingers to switch to trackpad mode, then move a other finger) to move the cursor.

The new version of this feature is also ideal for owners of contactless 3D iPhone and the sixth generation iPod Touch, which had no way to access it before the release of iOS 12.