Roger Fingas
Although most recent iPhones aren't as friendly to one-handed users as the iPhone SE, Apple's new iOS 11 does offer a special one-handed keyboard that compresses buttons into one corner of the screen. Here's how to use it.
For most people, the simplest option is likely just turning it on while the regular keyboard is visible. Long-press on a globe icon at the bottom, and options should appear to shift the keyboard to the left, to the right, or return to full size.
Note that it's also possible to return the full-size keyboard at any time by tapping a white arrow in the unused gray space.
The globe option requires that multiple keyboards already be added through the Settings app's General > Keyboards menu. That same menu includes a dedicated "One Handed Keyboard" section, however, where people can skip extra keyboards to pick the alignment they want — the only catch being that without more keyboards, returning to Settings may be mandatory.
On Plus-sized iPhones, rotating into landscape mode will temporarily bring back a full-sized keyboard.
The iOS 11 one-handed keyboard is available on all 4.7- and 5.5-inch phones, and presumably will also work on the new iPhone X. The software update is available to the public now.
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8 Comments
Being one who really enjoyed the smaller phones, this feature is AMAZING! I absolutely love it and will be using it all the time. I got the Plus size phone, obviously for more screen estate. But the major trade off was the one handed use that those smaller phones provided. I didn’t care for Reachability. I think I used it about 2 or 3 times.
This is the Feature ,that made me Love iOS 11. I have been using it since the the first Beta.
I have an iPhone 7 that just upgraded to iOS 11. A one handed keyboard is not an option. When I press the globe the options to change the keyboard left right or center are not there.
Question for AI re the clip 30 seconds in to the video 0:30 I believe you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get to app switcher.. I cant replicate that on my 6s.. How do you do that ?