Today / Tip #1 · Phone · Oct 16

Hold the spacebar to move your cursor precisely

Stop poking at the middle of a word. Your phone keyboard has a hidden trackpad.

• iPhone
• Android (Gboard)

How to do it

1. 1iPhone: press and hold the spacebar until the letters go blank, then slide your finger. The keyboard is now a trackpad.
2. 2Still holding, tap a second finger on the keyboard to start selecting text.
3. 3Android with Gboard: swipe left or right along the spacebar to nudge the cursor one character at a time.

I lost years of my life tapping on a typo, landing one letter off, and tapping again. Then someone showed me this and I felt a bit silly.

On iPhone the whole keyboard turns grey once you hold the spacebar, and you can glide the cursor anywhere in the text, including up and down lines. On Android with Gboard it's a swipe on the spacebar instead of a hold. Samsung's own keyboard does the same swipe.

If it doesn't work on Gboard, check Settings > Gboard > Glide typing and make sure 'Enable gesture cursor control' is on.