Hello all:
need to use my Iphone with my external bluetooth keyboard like a macbook or something.
each time i tried doing that, i feel that there is a problem.
how can i study the keyboard usage to be easy to navigate etc?
i tried the VOice over tutorial, but i did not get what i need exactly,
One of my friends was having her Ipad, i tried it with A bluetooth keyboard, and it was amazing, i feel that am inside a mac Environment.
so, any tips and tricks will be highly appreciated. or i should purchase an Ipad to do so?
Comments
Advice
If you want to learn keyboard controls for using VoiceOver on iOS, I would recommend you go to Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Commands, Keyboard Shortcuts. From there you can study and edit the keyboard commands to your heart's content. 🙂
A lot of the shortcuts are the same.
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-voiceover-with-an-external-keyboard-iph6c494dc6/ios
Also, for an extensive discussion of using an iPhone in place of a computer, see:
https://www.applevis.com/guides/third-edition-personal-power-getting-most-ios-totally-blind-user
Some things won't work like they do on an iPad. For instance, I'm pretty sure you can switch between two apps with cmd-tab, if they're both on the screen. You can't do that on the iPhone because, honestly I'm not sure, it could just switch through whatever's open in the app switcher. I don't think it does though. My guess is that the phone screen isn't large enough to support multiple windows, so they didn't implement it.
Also, there's a setting in settings/accessibility/keyboards and typing. It's "full keyboard access". Supposedly you want to keep this off, because it can interfere with Voiceover. I think it's off by default, but in case you run into issues, it might be worth checking, or if you want to turn it on to see what it's supposed to do and you run into problems, you'll have an idea why.
The last time I tried using a phone with a keyboard, it worked fairly well. You'll probably want the phone out though, because you do run into issues. For example, focus used to get stuck in parts of web pages, and the only way I could find to get the keyboard moving through the page like it was supposed to would be to touch the screen to get Voiceover back into the actual page.
This is all under iOS 18 BTW, my phone is old, iPhone XR, and can't run 26. So I don't know what changes, if any, have happened past the latest version of 18. But Personal Power, if nothing else, will show you that somebody's doing what you want, so you know it's possible, depending on the kinds of things you want to do with your phone. Good luck!
concure
I started in my apple journey with a mac. later, got an iPod Touch, and had no problem using it with a bluetooth keyboard. on an iPhone, most commands are the same. just as with the old iPod were. If you are a power user of macOS, you'll be fine on the iPad.
There are differences.
By default I think, the iPhone doesn't interact. So if you want grouping behavior like a Mac, you probably have to turn it on. I use Firefox as a browser, and apparently cmd-enter doesn't open a link in a new tab, like it does on Mac. That's just what I noticed today after finally pairing my new Bluetooth keyboard with the phone and playing with it for a bit.
Oh yeah, and I think this has changed in iOS 26, while you can toggle on single letter quicknav with VO-q, it doesn't do anything unless single arrow quicknav is also on. On the Mac, these can be separate, and I think they are in 26 as well. So on Mac I never use the arrows for quicknav, but I do use single letter, e.g. 'h' for headings on web pages, all the time. So I can just hit VO-q, and then 'h' or whatever on a web page. On iOS 18, the only way this works is if single arrow quicknav is also active.
None of these things are a huge problem or anything, just things to be aware of, in case you're familiar with the Mac. Every once in a while, you run into these things. Oh another one, cmd-q doesn't close apps. You do VO-h twice quickly, which brings up the app switcher. I just VO-arrow to close and then activate that option, then VO-h to go home. There might be an easier way to do it, I really need to dig into using iOS with a keyboard again.
Anyway, you might hit little differences like that, but by and large, particularly for the Voiceover specific commands, it works a *lot* like a Mac. I don't think you'll have many problems figuring it out. In fact, I wonder if you can add keyboard shortcuts, like cmd-q to close the current app? Another thing I should dig into. Oh, here's what full keyboard access does, in case you want to play with it. Doesn't look like you get a whole lot, nothing that Voiceover can't do already with the keyboard, but you can always try playing with it.
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/control-iphone-with-an-external-keyboard-ipha4375873f/ios
And while I'm at it, here's yet another short article, about using cmd-space to search and text replacements.
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-shortcuts-iph3da414515/ios