Six Colors:
Over the past few days, I’ve seen a ton of people on Twitter (including plenty of folks I’d describe as pretty tech savvy) have their mind blown by a tweet explaining how to move the cursor on the iOS keyboard.
It is a handy tip, for sure, but not one that I, or probably most people who read this site, would consider particularly obscure. But there’s a confluence of reasons why this is making waves at this particular moment, and I thought it might be interesting to break down why as well as what it might mean for Apple and iOS.
We talked about this on the Your Mac Life show three weeks ago but, as Moren rightly points out, this has been a feature for years. So why are people only just now “discovering” it?
The problem is most people don’t even bother to look at the built-in “Tips” app. That app has a nice collection of iOS features that a lot of average users probably aren’t aware of. But they can’t even be bothered to do that.
I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be fantastic if every single function and every single workflow were implemented in a transparent 100% discoverable manner. But thats just not realistic. As iOS gets more functionality, these things are going to happen.
Back in the 90s/00s, people used to have to pay for books/classes to learn how to take advantage of their PC/Mac better (Windows for dummies etc.) Apple now provides a free tool to help you take better advantage of their devices. I don’t think its unreasonable to ask users to maybe take a peek for 5 mins. I’m sure this “hidden” feature is in the Tips apps.
The article makes a good point. It is not a feature that is easy to discover oneself, you have to be told or shown. I didn’t know mainly because I spend 99% of my time on the Mac desktop in some part because the cursor is a lot easier to move around. Maybe I’ll put more time on the iPhone now that I know this trick. 🙂
I never heard about it, because why would I force-touch the farkin’ keyboard, and why would I expect THAT to let me move a cursor?
I’d like to be able to do that by force-touching THE TEXT FIELD, but of course THAT doesn’t do anything, that I can see.
“So why are people only just now “discovering” it?”
Because people don’t explore new versions of the OS for new features. Most people simply use the features they’ve always used and might use new ones if they’re right in front of them. Few, comparatively, explore. In this case, we all ‘know’ that selecting text on iOS is a pain in the ass so we don’t do it… or look for ways to do it better.
The problem Apple has is that it’s VERY hard to make things like this obvious without making the UI a complete mess. So, while it’s nice to say “this should be more discoverable” the question is… how? And how to do that for not just this one feature but for all of the new features. Or they pick which ones are easily found and which are only ever known by power users.
I don’t know, but it’s probably the same reason Mac and Windows tip sites exist. Like did you know that there’s batch rename built into macOS now?
I didn’t.
The tips app has 34 ‘tips’ with basic navigation, etc. Nothing like this.
I downloaded the iPad user guide which 567 pages. It’s probably buried in there somewhere.
Perhaps Apple should create an “Apple Tips” twitter account.
I think they (Hair force 1) mentioned it during the WWDC keynote while presenting the updated Finder.
Same about this iOS cursor selection feature, it was highlighted during a keynote, demoed on an iPad Pro. (maybe that same keynote)
I’m not saying this to be against you or Apple, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people to get features from WWDC keynotes. Apparently I missed at least the file rename — and I’m a developer, too!
I don’t know what the answer is. Tips isn’t doing it.
Apple Today has frequent and free in-store sessions now, too. I’m half tempted to go to one just to see if they say anything I don’t know.
My experience with those sessions is (depending on how knowledgeable you already are) you aren’t likely to learn much you don’t already know.
This might be helpful – https://www.macstories.net/stories/my-today-at-apple-experience/
Discoverability’s a bastard, ain’t it?
Yeah – we often get “punished” for living where we do. 🙁 If I lived in the city, I’d try to get to some of the Apple Store sessions.
A few years ago Apple had one of their rolling topic-specific developer chats in Seattle. The topic wasn’t quite relevant to me, but I wanted to learn anyway. (Maybe AppleTV? I don’t remember.) I almost went, but snow was forecast for that night and I just wasn’t interested in trying to make it from Seattle back to Abbotsford in the snow.
I wish I’d gone, though. I might have met some interesting people.
And it didn’t snow that night.