This little-known iOS feature makes typing on your keyboard so much easier. And it works on your iPad too.
Your iPhone and iPad are packed with a bunch of neat hidden features, including on iOS 16, which features the ability to connect your Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers and easily view and share all your saved Wi-Fi passwords from your settings.
However, interesting hidden features have always been around on iOS, and even if you’re running an older software version, like iOS 15, there is always something new to find — like the secret trackpad in your iPhone keyboard.
When you’re editing text, you probably hold your finger down on the screen and move the cursor around all the letters, numbers and punctuation to get to where you want. A magnifying bubble provides some help, by enlarging the text underneath your finger, but there’s another way to move your cursor.
Here’s how to find your iPhone’s hidden trackpad.
If you’re looking for other ways to optimize how you use your iPhone, check out two quick tips that’ll change how you read articles and the feature that brings Instagram-like comments to your shared photo albums. You can also take a look at CNET’s biggest hopes for iOS 16.
How to bring up the secret trackpad on an iPhone or iPad
Here’s how to discover the hidden trackpad on an iOS device.
- Anywhere you’ve written a block of text, bring up your keyboard and press and hold your finger down on the space key until the keyboard goes blank. You should feel a bit of haptic feedback and see the cursor enlarge for a second, which means you can now use the keyboard as a trackpad.
- With your finger still pressed down, move it around the entire keyboard to move your cursor, just like you would on your Mac’s trackpad.
- To place the cursor, simply lift your finger off the screen. You can then use any of the other keys, like Delete, to make any edits in the text. If you want to move the cursor once again, press your finger down on the space key to bring up the hidden trackpad.
Check out the video below to see the hidden feature in action.
If you’re interested in more tips and tricks for the iPhone, check out how to unlock this hidden iPhone feature to quickly ID songs and how to have a secret conversation in the Notes app. And if you’ve got an Apple computer, here are seven of the best hidden features on your Mac.