Weird Hidden IPhone Gestures You Probably Never Knew About
Remember when we were shocked when we found we could move the cursor on our iPhones by holding down the space bar ? Well, there are other hidden shortcuts, some of which are admittedly more useful than others, but all of which are worth a test drive to see if they can become your new favorite shortcuts.
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If your iPhone is running iOS 14 or later versions of iOS, you can double-tap or triple-tap the back of your iPhone to perform certain tasks. This action is fully customizable, so you can set things like launching Control Center with a double-tap and taking a screenshot when you triple-tap the back of your iPhone.
To set this up, go to Settings > Accessibility > Tap > Press Back .
Use Reachability to open apps
If you’re having a hard time reaching the top half of your iPhone’s screen, you can make it easier with the Reach feature. This allows you to swipe down from the bottom edge of the screen to open the top half of the page. You can enable this by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Accessibility .
If your iPhone has a Home button, accessibility is already on. You can double-tap (but don’t press) the Home button to activate this feature.
Three-finger swipe gestures for cut, copy, and paste
You already know how easy it is to select a single word (double tap) or an entire block of text (triple tap). But once you’ve done that, if you’re having trouble displaying the copy/cut/paste menu, try this:
- Copy : Use three fingers to pinch them inward once. This will automatically copy the text, and if successful, you will see a small ” Copy ” notification at the top of the screen.
- Cut : Use three fingers to pinch inwards twice.
- Insert : Use three fingers to pinch out.
Faster way to “undo”
If you accidentally type something or perform an action that you want to undo, you can firmly grasp iPhone and shake it several times to undo the text or action. However, if you’re afraid of dropping your phone while shaking it vigorously, you can try using three fingers to swipe left instead to undo the action.
Similarly, if you want to repeat , you can use three fingers to swipe right.
Two-finger drag to select messages
If you’re trying to select multiple message threads in the Messages app, simply press down with two fingers and then drag up or down to select multiple messages at once. This also works in other Apple apps like Notes and Reminders. This may work on apps like Telegram, but you may have to select “Select Messages ” before you can start dragging.
Drag multiple items
If your iPhone is running iOS 15 , you can select multiple text messages to quickly drag them into a new note. We previously wrote a guide on how to drag and drop items on your iPhone and shared some fun examples of what you can do with it.
Swipe to return or search
Another useful hidden gesture allows you to quickly return to the previous page. You can swipe right from the left edge of the screen to go back. This works in Safari, Settings, and most other apps.
You can also swipe down from any blank area on your iPhone’s Home or Lock screen to open Spotlight, which lets you search for apps, content in apps, contacts, word meanings, and more. For example, if your iPhone is crammed with apps, Spotlight search makes it easy to find what you need without having to search for it.