What features does the iPhone have?. What are the Features of the iPhone?
The iPhone is an incredibly versatile device. Besides keeping you connected, it also lets you surf the web, listen to music, play video games, takes photos and videos … the list goes on and on. If you’ve just got an iPhone, you’re in for a ride. However, you must first master the “gestures”. But what are gestures on the iPhone?
Gestures are various finger gestures that you can perform on the iPhone’s touchscreen. They help you interact with iOS (the operating system that the iPhone runs on) and the apps that run on it. Basically, everything you do on your iPhone starts with a gesture.
Below you will find all the standard iPhone gestures, as well as how and when to use them.
Tap
Tap is the simplest (and most frequently used) of all iPhone gestures.
Every time you want to select or activate an item that you see on the screen, just tap it with your finger.
Opening an app on the iPhone home screen or selecting letters from the onscreen keyboard – all it takes is a touch.
Swipe
Swiping involves short dragging and dropping your finger across the iPhone screen. This gesture is mainly used for navigation, and like touch, you will use it frequently.
For example, swiping left or right from the home screen allows you to navigate between pages. The same applies when flipping through a photo album or e-book. In addition, swiping up or down allows you to view apps and websites.
The swipe gesture also helps launch various actions and features in iOS, mainly iPhones with Face ID. They consist of the following:
- Swipe up from the bottom to go to the home screen when using any application.
- Swipe from the bottom left corner to the center of the screen to open the app switcher.
- Swipe left or right at the bottom to navigate between open applications.
- Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to open Control Center.
- Swipe down to activate Accessibility Mode.
- Swipe down from the center of the front of the screen to open the Action Center.
Tap & Hold
A tap and hold gesture (which requires pressing and holding your finger) can reveal various useful options depending on where you are performing it. You can also see it as a long press or long-press. In some cases, the gesture provides haptic feedback from the Taptic Engine on the iPhone.
For example, tapping and holding the Camera app icon on the home screen brings up a nifty contextual menu that has links to Portrait and Video modes. When following a hyperlink in Safari, the same gesture opens a preview of the site it is pointing to.
There are many other types of touch and hold, some of which are as follows:
- Press and hold an empty space on the Home screen to enter wiggle mode.
- Press and hold keys on the onscreen keyboard to display alternate characters.
- Press and hold files and folders in the Files application to display context menu actions such as copy, move, and rename.
- Press and hold the text in applications and web pages to display selection handles.
- Tap and hold messages in the Mail app to view them.
Drag
As the name suggests, the drag gesture helps you move objects. It involves clicking and holding an item and then dragging it to a different location. For example, you can use this gesture to rearrange home screen icons, stack widgets, organize files and folders in the Files app, reorder lists in apps like Notes and Reminders, and more.
Pinch
The squeeze gesture lets you zoom in and out on items such as photos and web pages. Slightly squeezing a pair of fingers, just spread them apart to increase, or together to decrease.
Depending on the image or web page, you might want to repeat the gesture multiple times.
Double-Tap
Double-tap, which includes a double-quick tap, is another gesture that lets you zoom in and out. While it is faster compared to the squeeze gesture, it is mostly limited to images. In addition, squeeze provides more zoom control compared to double-tapping.
If you’re using an iPhone with Touch ID, you can use the double-tap gesture on the Home button to activate Accessibility Mode.
Rotate
iPhone also has a gesture to rotate elements such as images. To do this, put a couple of fingers on the screen and then rotate it clockwise or counterclockwise in the direction you want to rotate.
Three-finger Pinch
A three-finger pinch allows you to copy the selected text to the clipboard. At first, this gesture is a little more difficult to secure, but for this, you just need to spread three fingers and slide them together at the same time.
As confirmation, you will see the Copy icon flashing at the top of the screen. Then you can paste the copied text elsewhere by pinching it with three fingers.
Three-finger Swipe
Three-finger swiping is a gesture for text. Swipe left with three fingers to undo the text you entered. Conversely, swipe right with three fingers to repeat the text.
Shake
Shaking is a special iPhone gesture that does not involve a touchscreen. Instead, you briefly shake the device itself to undo the last action. For example, if you accidentally deleted or archived an email, just shake your iPhone and then hit “Undo†to get it back.
The gesture also extends to undo text, but three-finger swiping is much more convenient for this.
Gesture Your Way Through
Most of the gestures above are common on the iPhone and should be very helpful in dealing with just about everything you come across while using it. Some gestures involve a lot more (swipe, touch, and hold, drag, etc.), so don’t stop experimenting. Plus, be prepared to stray into custom gesture territory in apps like video games.
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