While Apple is renowned for the sexy new features it introduces with every new model of iPhone, design shortcomings like a tiny keyboard might seem to have been overlooked.
To be honest, the size of the screen limits how big the keyboard can be. But luckily, there are ways to enlarge your keyboard, so you don’t have to squint or develop RSI using the keys.
There are a couple of tweaks you can easily make, including activating the iPhone’s Display Zoom feature or downloading third-party apps designed to give your eyes and fingers a break.
How to enlarge your keyboard?
The iPhone keyboard was revolutionary when it first came out in 2007. It was the first touchscreen keyboard on a cell phone that you didn’t need a stylus to operate.
Since then, it’s only gotten better, although those who have trouble reading the tiny symbols and pressing the tiny keys might not agree.
And that’s not just older cell phone users (3 in 5 seniors are confident about their technological abilities), but everyone with less than perfect vision or dexterity.
Fortunately, there are ways to fix the problem and make the keys as large as they can possibly be, bearing in mind that it’s a cell phone, and the keyboard will never be as big as that of a laptop or PC.
Display Zoom
While there are a lot of keyboard settings in iOS, there’s no specific one for increasing the size of your keys. So the easiest way to increase key size on your iPhone is to increase the size of the keyboard.
You can do this by activating the Display Zoom feature, which magnifies everything displayed on the screen, including the keyboard. Every iPhone 6 model and later has this feature built-in, and to activate it, you simply;
- Go to the Settings menu and select Display and Brightness
- Under Display Zoom, select View and choose the Zoomed option
- Select Set to enable Display Zoom.
This feature is found under the Accessibility settings on later iPhone models. It will be listed as Zoom, and you simply use a slider to adjust the level of zoom you want.
When the Zoom feature is activated, you can zoom in and out by double-tapping the screen with three fingers.
Third-party apps
Another way to enlarge your iPhone keyboard is to download one of the third-party apps available online. Changes to iOS mean you can now add different types of keyboards to your iPhone, and the good news is, as well as adding extra functionality, some of these keyboards offer larger, more user-friendly keys;
- Big Keys Keyboard - offers keys up to 40% larger than the iOS standard, displayed with 100% more contrast. You simply resize the key and emoji sizes to the size that suits you best.
- XL Keyboard – resembling a standard keyboard with extra-large keys, it allows you to choose the size and layout of the keyboard you prefer.
- TuneKey – offers easier and more accurate typing, thanks to finger scope technology, which allows the spaces between the keys to be enlarged, reducing typos.
Other quick fixes
If you’re looking for a quick way to make your keyboard more accessible, simply rotating your iPhone to landscape mode will give you a larger keyboard. And if you have an iPhone Plus, you can even use the extra space created to add additional formatting buttons.
Or, for one thumb-typing on iOS 11 or later, go to Settings, General, Keyboards and select One-Handed Keyboard for an accessible keyboard that's ideal for one-thumb use on the go.
Cell phones are a modern marvel, with all that functionality packed into such a mobile device. But the price of that mobility is that they must also be small and compact, and while that’s fine for sharp eyes and nimble fingers, those with less than perfect faculties can struggle.
Display Zoom is a big step in the right direction for the iPhone, and hopefully, as the new models continue to roll off the assembly line, one of them will soon have a feature that makes them even easier to see and to use.