The little known iPhone keyboard hack that is hugely satisfying

THIS little known hack unlocks a hidden iPhone mouse, giving you more precision when dealing with text boxes. It’s so, sooooooo satisfying.

There’s a good chance you missed it but this iPhone keyboard hack is very satisfying. Picture: Kiichiro Sato

WHEN typing on your iPhone, do you ever get annoyed when you make a mistake and you can’t quite get the cursor where you want by tapping the screen with your finger?

Well, good news.

If you’ve got a relatively new iPhone there’s a little known hack you can use to bring up a dormant mouse cursor, giving you more precision when dealing with text boxes on your phone.

Apple iPhones with 3D touch have a hidden track pad inside the keyboard. Press and hold your finger on the keyboard until it disappears, then simply slide your finger around the screen and the cursor will follow, exactly like a trackpad on a Macbook.

You’ll need to have an iPhone 6s or newer to be able to access the hack but the little trick can prove useful — and you’ll actually be able to drop the cursor in the middle of words.

Of course the feature was announced by Apple last year but unless you’re paying close attention to product announcements, it likely passed you by.

There are plenty of other so-called hidden features on your iPhone. Here are some of our favourites:

Get an accurate signal reading

If you’re struggling for signal then you can change your settings to temporarily show you a signal reading in numbers rather than bars.

Dial *3001#12345#* on your iPhone then press Call to enter Field Test mode.

In the top left of your screen you’ll see a number between 0 and -100, which represents your exact signal strength, with zero meaning perfect signal and -100 indicating terrible signal.

Turn off red bubble notifications

Having a homepage full of notification bubbles can be seriously annoying for the obsessive among us.

If that’s you, go to Settings > Notifications to turn off the red bubbles, called Badge Icons, for good.

Shake to undo a mistake

One thing Android phones have over their Apple competitors is the easy-to-reach undo button.

On iPhones, there isn’t a back button — but you can undo a texting mistake by shaking your phone from side to side.

Just go to the Settings app > General > Accessibility > Shake to Undo to choose between turning this feature on and off.

Use the built-in spirit level

Many people have no idea that their phone has an accurate spirit level hidden in an app nobody uses.

Open the Compass app and swipe left to start levelling.

— with The Sun