How to swipe type on an iphone or ipad
By Daniel Kim
Swipe typing arrived with iOS 13 on iPhone for the default keyboard, but did you know you can do it on the iPad as well? Read on for how to use one-handed swipe typing on iPad.
If you haven’t gotten in the habit of using swipe typing yet, it can be really efficient once you get in the rhythm of it. Better yet, it allows you to type easily with one hand.
With iOS 13 and iPhone, swipe typing, or QuickPath, as Apple calls it, is enabled by default on the built-in keyboard. However, on iPad with iPadOS 13, swipe typing doesn’t work with the full-size, default keyboard, so you’ll need to switch to the floating keyboard.
How to use one-handed swipe typing on iPad
- On the full-size default on-screen iPad keyboard, pinch with two fingers to switch to the floating keyboard (you can also long-press the keyboard icon in the bottom right corner and select “Floating”)
- Start swiping in a continuous movement to spell and type
- You can do a two-finger expand gesture to return to the full keyboard
Check out how these steps look in this short video from Apple:
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While third-party options were required to bring swipe or glide typing to iPhone in the past, as of iOS 13, swipe typing is now a default feature with Apple’s iOS keyboard.
Update 9/19/19:
Now that iOS 13 has arrived, there’s no need for a third-party keyboard to bring swipe typing to your iPhone. After updating to iOS 13 the QuickPath is automatically ready to use.
Swipe texting has been around for quite a while, but Apple still doesn’t offer it with its default keyboard in iOS 12. Besides being able to type with increased speed, swipe typing is really useful for one-handed typing and texting.
While there are a variety of third-party options on the market, two of the most popular to offer swipe typing are Google’s Gboard and the Microsoft owned SwiftKey.
How to use swipe typing on iPhone
- After updating to iOS 13 swipe on the keyboard in a fluid motion to type, you can also type normally at any time
- If for some reason you want a themed keyboard or want to use a third-party option that supports swipe typing, download one from the App Store
- Next open Settings, swipe down if needed and tap on Keyboard
- Tap Keyboardsat the top and then select Add New Keyboard…
- Now tap the keyboard in the list below that you just downloaded
Now Gboard, or whichever third-party keyboard you’ve decided on will show up in the list of active keyboards and is ready to use.
Privacy
You can tap on Gboard and toggle on/off full access. As shown below in the image on the left, all third-party keyboard will have access to what you type, but turning the toggle off for Allow Full Access means that third-parties will be breaking Apple’s terms and conditions if they collect or transmit that data.
From a privacy and convenience perspective, using Apple’s QuickPath swipe keyboard in iOS 13 is great in that your data isn’t being shared with a third-party and you don’t lose the dictation button in the bottom right corner.
To use a third-party keyboard with swipe/glide functionality, tap the globe icon in the bottom left-hand corner until you see the third-party keyboard you installed.
For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide as well as the following articles:
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Android users have been enjoying the swipe keyboard for years now. And it’s now time for iOS users to use it on their devices. Yes, you heard that right! The latest update of iOS 13 and iPadOS has now got swipe keyboard with a feature named as QuickPath. It works on gestures provided by you on the keyboard.
Of course, it was possible to use swipe keyboard feature on iOS devices but it was only possible with third-party keyboard apps. But now, the feature is built-in in the latest version of iOS 13 and iPadOS as well. In this post, I will guide you on how to enable and use QuickPath keyboard on your iPhone and iPad running on iOS 13 and iPadOS respectively.
How to Use QuickPath Keyboard on iPhone and iPad
Let me breakdown this guide into two parts. One for those who are using the iPhone and the other one who is using an iPad. But before if you aren’t aware how this swipe keyboard works, you’re missing out something important. Here’s how it works.
How Does QuickPath Swipe Keyboard Work
Usually, you type by placing your finger on each letter on the keyboard to complete a work or a text. But when swipe keyboard is enabled and if you want to type a word, say igeeksblog, you must start from ‘i’ and then swipe towards g,e,e and so on to complete the word.
Once you complete typing a word, lift your finger, it will give a space automatically and then you can start typing the next word and so on to continue. This will surely improve your typing speed, in fact, it’s swiping speed now after the addition of QuickPath.
This is how simple it is to use the swipe keyboard on your devices. Now let’s see how you can set up and use it on your iPhone and iPad both.
Quick Links:
How to Enable and Use iPhone Swipe Keyboard in iOS 13
With the release of iOS 13, there are a plethora of features that makes me impressed and one of them is QuickPath swipe keyboard. Here’s how to use it on your iPhone.
Step #1. Launch Settings app and head over to General from the list.
Step #2. Now tap on Keyboard and look for Slide to Type option from the list. Toggle Slide to Type to ON.
Step #3. Now open any app that pops up the keyboard and type by swiping on the keyboard at a glance.
That’s how simple it is to set up the swipe keyboard function on your iPhone running on iOS 13. Let’s now see how to enable QuickPath in iPadOS.
How to Enable and Use iPad Swipe Keyboard in iPadOS
Step #1. Open Settings app on your iPad.
Step #2. Next, tap on General → tap on Keyboard and toggle Slide on Floating Keyboard to Type to ON.
Step #3. The swipe keyboard is ready to use but the laptop-sized keyboard isn’t comfortable for swiping. In order to solve this issue, simply pinch the iPad keyboard to make it as small as possible.
Step #4. You can now start swiping once the keyboard is small just like your iPhone. The best thing is, you can float the minimized keyboard to any corner of iPad’s screen so that you can choose a comfortable part to start swiping on the keyboard.
Step #5. Once you’ve used the keyboard, pinch out the mini keyboard to make things normal on your iPad.
If you ask me, I would love to use QuickPath swipe keyboard on my iPad rather than my iPhone as it gives the floating keyboard option. This gives me a chance to pick my comfortable spot to start typing (swiping) on the keyboard.
How to Disable QuickPath Swipe Keyboard in iOS 13 and iPadOS
Not many would like to disable the QuickPath feature looking at the speed it gives you while typing on the iPhone and iPad but a few might prefer the traditional way to use the keyboard. So here’s how to disable QuickPath in iOS 13.
Step #1. Launch Settings app on iPhone or iPad → Head over to the General settings.
Step #2. Tap on Keyboard and toggle Slide to Type to OFF on iPhone and toggle Slide on Floating Keyboard to Type to OFF on iPad.
That’s how simple it is to disable QuickPath swipe keyboard on your iPhone and iPad running on iOS 13 and iPadOS respectively.
QuickPath Supported Languages
Often, the features are released keeping English native users in mind. But that’s the case with QuickPath. It supports multiple languages as well. Here are the languages that are supported on QuickPath both for iOS 13 and iPadOS.
- English
- German
- Portuguese
- Simplified Chinese
- Italian
- Spanish
- French
Summing Up…
Sometimes QuickPath may not work as iOS is still in beta version. Once the full version is launched, we can expect it to work at its best! Do let us know in comments if you face any issues while using QuickPath swipe keyboard on iPhone or iPad.
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In iOS 13 and iPadOS, Apple has augmented and enhanced textual manipulation features available to iPhone and iPad users to make working with text a whole lot easier.
One of these new features is a native swipe-based keyboard called QuickPath, and anyone who has used a third-party keyboard extension like SwiftKey should be instantly familiar with it.
alt=”ios13quickpathkeyboard” width=”800″ height=”639″ />
QuickPath allows you to type a word without removing your finger from the keyboard when entering individual letters. If you were typing “Apple,” for example, you’d start with your finger on A and then swipe your finger across the onscreen keyboard from P, to P, to L, and so on.
Once you’ve spelled out the word (and finished with a full stop if it’s the end of a sentence) simply lift your finger off the screen and iOS will automatically add a space, ready for you to type another word or start a new sentence.
Another advantage of QuickPath is that it’s intelligent enough to deal with words that have double letters in them. If you swipe across the letters “cal,” for example, the word “call” will appear when you remove your finger from the screen.
QuickPath can take a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve got the hang of it you’ll be inputting words in no time. It’s particularly handy for composing text with your thumb if you’re holding your iPhone in one hand.
You can use QuickPath on iPad, too. However, note that it’s only available on the floating keyboard that’s revealed when you pinch inward on the full-width virtual keyboard in iPadOS.
How to Disable QuickPath
If you don’t like using QuickPath, don’t worry – you can easily disable it. On iPhone, launch the Settings app, select General -> Keyboard, then toggle the switch next to Slide to Type to the clear OFF position.
alt=”how to use quickpath ios” width=”1200″ height=”766″ />
On iPad, the option is in the same settings screen, it’s just worded differently: the switch to turn it off is beside Slide on Floating Keyboard to Type. You can also toggle the switch next to Delete Slide-to-Type by Word to enable or disable the action that deletes a QuickPath word when backspace is selected.
Apple’s latest operating system is full of intuitive new features that make the iPhone even more powerful than ever before. Their new swipe type feature lets you shoot off texts quicker than ever before, assuming you can figure out how to use it.
We have everything you need to know about how to use swipe type, including how to take advantage of this feature with third-party keyboards and on older iPhones.
Feel like you’re missing out on the action? You’ll need Apple’s latest OS, so here’s how to download iOS 13.
How to use Swipe Type
Apple
So how do you turn on Swipe Type? Here’s the good news — you don’t need to. Swipe-typing is enabled by default in iOS 13, and you don’t need to dive into your settings to change anything. All you need to do to get swiping is just… start swiping. Place a finger on your screen and drag it across the letters of the word you want to type. So if you wanted to type “play”, you would tap on the “p” key, then drag your finger over the “l”, “a”, and “y” keys in that order. The keyboard will then predict the word you’re typing.
The benefit of swipe-typing is that it’s generally much faster than tapping on each key in succession. Once you’ve gotten to grips with the technique, you’ll find yourself swiping through sentences in record time. The downside is that swipe-typing can be less accurate than normal typing, but there are ways to alleviate that. After swiping, the keyboard will offer up three options for your swiped word, so you can tap to select the one you want. Or if the center prediction is correct, start swiping your next word to auto-select it.
Those predictions will get more accurate the longer you use your keyboard, but if you’re using unusual words then you’ll probably need to tap-type them out. However, you can swap between tapping and swiping at any time, and there’s no need to alter any settings to change.
How to use swipe typing in third-party keyboards and in earlier iOS versions
But even in Apple’s walled garden, you don’t need to stick with iOS 13’s default keyboard. If you’re a fan of third-party keyboards, then it’s probable you’ll be able to use swipe-typing on many of the best iPhone keyboard apps. You’ll need to check each keyboard’s feature to be sure, but two notable examples that do include swipe-typing are Google’s Gboard keyboard and the SwiftKey Keyboard. Both of those apps have swipe-typing enabled by default, so you’ll be able to start swiping right out of the gate.
Most interestingly though, the ability to install a third-party keyboard with swipe-typing means you don’t have to be restricted to tapping if you’re not able to install iOS 13. The ability to use third-party keyboards was introduced in iOS 11, so any iPhone or iPod Touch with iOS 11 or iOS 12 can experience swipe-typing by using a third-party keyboard, you just won’t be able to use swipe-typing on Apple’s default keyboard — which probably isn’t too much of a problem.
William Gallagher | Mar 09, 2021
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It takes some getting used to, but if you dislike typing on an iPhone, you can slide your finger across the keyboard to enter text instead.
Apple is oddly inconsistent over what this helpful typing feature is called. At times, it’s known as QuickPath, at others it’s about swiping to type. And the setting on your iPhone refers to it as slide to type.
Whatever you call it, it’s the ability to just slide your finger over the iPhone keyboard and have it figure out what you want to type. How to use it is definitely not as obvious as a regular keyboard where you already know to tap on each letter you want, but it can be fast.
In fact, it’s so not obvious how you do this that Apple just leaves the feature switched on. You’re that unlikely to come across it by accident.
However, once you do know it’s there, you have options for turning it on or off. So if it isn’t working, you have to set it up again.
How to set up slide to type
- Again, iPhones default to this being on so you may not need to do anything
- Go to Settings, General
- Tap on Keyboards
- Scroll down to Slide to Type and make sure it’s on
- If it is, an extra option appears called Delete Slide-to-Type by Word
Notice the difference in those last two steps. Even a few pixels above one another, one is spelt Slide-to-Type with hyphens, and one is not. Given that this is specifically a typing accuracy feature, it’s an unusually odd choice by Apple.
How to use slide to type
In any text editor, any word processor, or just any app whatsover, if you can type, you can now slide to type. There are no further settings to adjust, there are just three things to keep in mind.
- Trust that your iPhone will figure out what you want
- Swipe quickly between letters and don’t lift your finger from the keyboard
- Pause for just a fraction of a moment after the word, then move on to the next
Note that this works on the main iPhone keyboard — and also when you aren using the one-handed keyboard too.
It does not work on third-party keyboards, unless they’ve implemented their own version. And Apple says that slide to type is not available in every language.
Plus, it doesn’t appear to work at all on an iPad — not on the regular keyboard. You can, however, pinch on that keyboard and turn it into a mini-one. When you do that, you immediately get the ability to use slide to type.
How to make slide to type accurate
Type quickly. Speed is important because if you hesitate, the iPhone suspects you’ve finished and so tries entering its best guess at what you wanted to type.
You’re likely to hesitate at first just because you want to see that a word has been entered correctly, but train yourself to keep going and make corrections later.
You’ll also typically find that you hesitate when a word has the same letter twice in a row. Don’t. Pretend the word only has one such letter and press on to the next one.
If a word is wrong, the quickest way to fix it is to tap the letters out like you always used to. If you tap inside the mistaken word and then try to slide to type a correction, it will treat that as a new word.
Speaking of corrections, as you use slide to type it does appear at first as if the regular predictive text appears above the keyboard. However, this is not a prediction of what word you’re going to want to type next.
Instead, it’s a prediction of what the current word is going to be. You can tap to select it if it’s right, but in practice you can just keep sliding and the iPhone catches up.
About deleting word by word
The option to delete whole words at a time solely exists when you have turned Slide to Type on. When you have, Delete Slide-to-Type by Word appears as an option, but it defaults to on.
What it means is that once you’ve typed a word by sliding, if you slide on over to the delete key, it no longer just deletes the last letter. It deletes the last word, as if a word were one entity instead of a collection of separately-typed letters.
Your mileage is free to vary
You may love slide to type, and you may find it a pain. What’s unusual — and excellent — is that you don’t have to decide between sliding and regular typing.
Unlike every other keyboard alternative you can get for iOS, you can switch back and forth without even tapping a button to say so. Just slide to type half a word and then if you change your mind, tap the keys to finish entering it.
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Keyboards that offer a swipe feature are handy, helpful, and let you type faster than ever. Instead of hitting each key separately, you simply use your finger to swipe through the letters to create your words. These types of keyboards are great if you haven’t yet mastered the two-thumb typing.
If you’re in the market for a new keyboard and are interested in swiping, these are the best swipe keyboards for iPhone and iPad.
SwiftKey Keyboard
SwiftKey Keyboard is definitely one of the best swipe keyboards for iPhone and iPad. The app learns from you over time so that words or phrases you use most often will appear in the toolbar for you to pop right in.
SwiftKey Keyboard notable features:
- Customize your keyboard with the styles, layouts, and themes.
- Enable up to two languages at once with over 150 to choose from.
- Send GIFs, stickers, and emojis easily.
SwiftKey Keyboard gives you plenty of free themes, some with animation, and an easy swipe typing experience.
- Availability: iPhone, iPad, and Android
- Cost: Free with in-app purchases for specific themes
Gboard – the Google Keyboard
Not only can you swipe easily with Gboard but access Google Search which is built right into the keyboard. Find anything you need as you type like weather, sports scores, news, and more.
Gboard notable features:
- Share stickers and search for GIFs and emojis easily.
- Choose from tons of supported languages.
- Customizable keyboard settings.
Gboard is a good swipe keyboard option for iPhone and iPad, especially if you like the idea of Google Search along with it.
- Availability: iPhone, iPad, and Android
- Cost: Free
FancyKey
FancyKey is a cool keyboard that lets you swipe, type, and use different themes that fit your personality or mood. The keyboard also uses autocorrect, autosuggest, and one-handed support for iPhone.
FancyKey notable features:
- Choose from up to 100 unique fonts.
- Add emotion to your messages with the emoji and emoji art keyboard.
- Customize your keyboard with over 50 nifty themes.
FancyKey is a neat keyboard with extra features for fonts, emojis, and themes. So, if you’re looking for a swipe keyboard with more than the others, check it out.
- Availability: iPhone, iPad, and Android
- Cost: Free with in-app purchases for custom themes, additional emojis and GIFs, and ad-removal
Wrapping it up
If you haven’t tried a swipe keyboard for iPhone or iPad, these three options are great places to start. Try them all and see which one you like best. And if you already use one and love it, let us know in the comments below.
QuickPath is your iPhone’s version of gesture typing, and it’s pretty great.
To type on iOS 13, just swipe between the letters to spell out a word.
A new iOS 13 feature called QuickPath is going to change the way you type on your iPhone , including the new iPhone 11 . Even after Apple began to allow third-party keyboard apps on the iPhone and iPad , its own keyboard lacked the option for gesture typing.
If you’ve used an Android phone or one of the Google keyboards on your iPhone, you already know how much quicker it can be to just glide your finger across the keyboard to spell out a word as opposed to tapping on each individual key when typing.
You don’t have to be terribly accurate when it comes to gesture typing.
The first time you see the keyboard after installing iOS 13 , you’ll see an alert letting you know you can now swipe across the keyboard to type. If you skipped past the alert or didn’t quite catch what it was trying to tell you — that’s all right. Below is everything you need to know about iOS 13’s QuickPath feature.
If you haven’t installed iOS 13 yet, make sure to get your phone ready for the update before taking the plunge. Should something go wrong with the installation, you’ll be glad you took the time.
QuickPath is enabled by default after installing iOS 13. You don’t have to do anything other than place a finger on the keyboard and swipe.
For example, if you want to type “avocado,” you start by placing a finger on the “A” key and then drawing a line to the “V” followed by “O” and “C” and so on until you’ve connected every letter in the word. Once you’re done, lift your finger off of the keyboard.
As with traditional typing, you don’t have to be precise with your gestures — iOS will predict what you’re trying to say as you swipe across the keyboard. As long as you get in the general area of a letter before moving on to the next, odds are iOS will either get it right or at least give you the right option in the QuickType bar.
The more you use QuickPath Typing, the faster you’ll get.
As you can see in the GIF, I was able to type “How are you” with three quick swipes across the keyboard, two of which were back and forth on the same row of keys, and iOS 13 got it right.
Again, the more you use QuickPath, the better you’ll get at it, and the better iOS 13 will get at determining what you’re trying to say.
If you absolutely hate QuickPath and don’t want it to even be an option, you can turn it off in Settings > General > Keyboard > Slide to Type.
Make sure to check out our complete guide to iOS 13 for more tips and tricks like this one, and even some hidden iOS 13 features .
Do you want to know how to add, use and manage emoji on an iPhone?
In this tutorial, I will guide the readers to access emoji, manage, and enable the functionality on the iPhone, and iPad. Apple added universally supported emojis that is compatible with cross-platform devices.
How to enable emoji in the keyboard?
As the title suggests, Apple added emojis in the keyboard and you can access it anytime using the inbuilt virtual keyboard. iOS enables the function by default, and you don’t have to perform multiple actions to use it. However, you might have disabled it by mistake or someone might have disabled it. In this short tutorial, I will show you how you can enable emoji on the keyboard.
- Fire up “Settings” and tap on “General” settings.
- Swipe down and tap on “Keyboard” options.
- Tap on “Keyboards” to add a check and add a new one.
- Click on “Add New Keyboard” to continue. Remember, the “Emoji” keyboard should show up below the “English” language, and that’s how you know that it is enabled.
- Click on “Emoji” to add it to the keyboard.
- The Emoji option should appear in the list.
Remember, it is removable by tapping on the “Edit” button and swipe right to view more options and then tap on the “Delete” button to remove it. Coming to the performance review, I never had a performance decline while using the keyboard. Apple-designed the keyboard for a smooth experience, and I used it in an old iPhone.
How to use Emojis on an iPhone and iPad
I want to remind you that you can use the keyboard emojis on multiple applications including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and more. Apple added universally recognized elements in the phone, and don’t worry about the compatibility issues.
- Fire up iMessage and open “Keyboard” to type.
- Tap on the emoji icon in the left bottom of the keyboard to view more.
- Tap to add one element, and tap on the “Send” button to send it.
You can add multiple elements from the keyboard, and there is a wide range of collection of elements that you can use to improve the conversation. Every single emoji is supported by the cross-platform, and remember, they might look slightly different on the other phones.
Predictive emoji
Apple phones are designed for modern consumers that don’t want to spend plenty of time navigating the device. The predictive technology evolved over the years in the keyboard, and now, you can add an emoji using specific keywords. Let me demonstrate it and then try to comprehend how it works.
Type “Happy” and related elements will show up on the predictive area. That includes word correction and emojis, and tap to use them in the conversation.
Now, you can type common words such as Map, Car, Vehicle, Bulb, Mango, Tree, Money, and more. The predictive tool offers multiple word correction and emojis in the area, and you have to tap on them to add it to the conversation.
Replace any word with emoji
Did you know that you can replace any word with emoji? Yeah, you can do it, and I will show you how you can accomplish the task without spending additional time on figuring it out. Follow the guide, and it works on iOS 12.1 or above.
- Open the keyboard and type whatever you want to express in words.
- Tap & hold on the word that you want to replace it with an emoji. A quick toggle shows up on the screen and tap on “Select” to select the word.
- Once the specific word is selected, the predictive function kicks-in, and now tap on the emoji available in the predictive area.
- Replace all words with emojis, and I have demonstrated in the snapshot below.
- Tap on the send button to deliver the message.
Remember, you cannot change every single word because the majority of them are not available in the market.
Make sure to use the words that have dedicated emojis in the library. Do not use random words or select random words, and expect iOS to cover for you.
Bottom Line
You can install a third-party package from the Apple app store, but they might not support cross-platform and they may end up having an error. Your phone or iPad needs to run iOS 12.1 or above for modern functions, and further support.
