Let’s be honest: you probably pick up your iPhone a hundred times a day. We check emails while waiting for coffee, doom-scroll through social media during commercials, and text our friends while walking the dog. But despite how glued we are to these devices, most of us are still interacting with them like it’s 2015.
If you are still hunting for the tiny "back" arrow in the top-left corner of the screen or tapping the home button (if you still have one) to switch apps, you are working harder than you need to. Apple has baked a language of fluid gestures into iOS that can make your experience feel like magic—once you know the spells.
Ready to speed up your workflow and impress your friends? Let’s dive into the essential navigation tricks that will turn you from a casual tapper into a swiping pro.
1. The Art of App Switching
Since the disappearance of the physical Home button, the "Home Bar"—that little horizontal line at the very bottom of your screen—has become the command center of the iPhone. Most people know that swiping up takes you home, but the bar can do so much more.
Have you ever been writing an email, needed to check a date in your Calendar, and found yourself swiping up, finding the Calendar app, opening it, and then repeating the process to get back to Mail? There is a much faster way.
- The Quick Switch: Place your finger on the Home Bar and swipe horizontally to the right. This instantly pulls over the last app you were using. You can keep swiping right to go back through your history, or swipe left to return to the most recent app.
- The Arc Swipe: If you find the horizontal swipe a bit finicky, try moving your finger in a small arc (like a rainbow) over the bottom bar. It often registers more accurately for rapid switching.
Pro Tip: This gesture works universally across the operating system. It is the absolute fastest way to copy and paste information between two different apps.
2. Text Editing Without the Headache
Nothing is more frustrating than spotting a typo in the middle of a long paragraph and trying to tap exactly the right spot to fix it. We have all been there: tapping furiously, missing the cursor placement, and eventually deleting the whole sentence just to start over.
Apple included a hidden trackpad feature in your keyboard that changes everything. It turns your entire keyboard area into a mouse pad.
- Activate the Trackpad: Press and hold the Spacebar. After a second, the letters on the keyboard will blank out.
- Move the Cursor: Without lifting your finger, slide it around the grey area. You will see the cursor in your text box moving in perfect sync with your thumb.
- Select Text: While holding the spacebar with one finger, tap the keyboard with a second finger (like a different finger on your other hand) to enter selection mode, then drag to highlight text.
But what happens if you accidentally delete that perfect paragraph you just wrote? Please, do not shake your phone like a polaroid picture. While "Shake to Undo" exists, it makes you look a bit ridiculous in public. Try the swipe gesture instead:
- Swipe to Undo: Swipe three fingers to the left anywhere on the screen to undo your last action. You will see a small "Undo" bubble appear at the top.
- Swipe to Redo: Changed your mind? Swipe three fingers to the right to redo what you just undid.
3. Mastering Safari Navigation
Web browsing on mobile has come a long way, but navigating through tabs and history can still feel clunky if you are tapping buttons. If you are browsing on a larger device like the iPhone Plus or Pro Max, reaching for the navigation bar at the top or bottom can be a stretch.
Here is how to browse the web with just your thumb:
- The History Swipe: Instead of tapping the back arrow to go to the previous page, simply swipe from the far left edge of the screen toward the middle. It acts exactly like a "Back" button. Conversely, swipe from the right edge to go "Forward."
- Tab Bar Swiping: If you have the address bar set to the bottom of your screen (the default in modern iOS), you can swipe left or right directly on the address bar to cycle through your open tabs. It works exactly like the app switching trick mentioned earlier!
- Close Tabs Fast: In the tab overview view (the grid of open pages), you can swipe a tab to the left to close it instantly.
Did you know? You can long-press the "Tabs" icon (the two overlapping squares) in Safari to see an option to "Close All Tabs." It’s a lifesaver when you realize you have 400 windows open.
4. Reachability: conquering the Big Screen
Screens are getting bigger. Hands, generally speaking, are staying the same size. If you have an iPhone "Max" or "Plus" model, you likely struggle to reach the Control Center or the top row of apps with one hand. You might even perform that dangerous "phone shuffle" maneuver where you loosen your grip to slide the phone down your palm—which is the number one cause of cracked screens on sidewalks.
Apple solved this with a feature called Reachability, but many users have it turned off or trigger it by accident without knowing what it is.
To enable it, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Reachability. Once it is on, here is how to use it:
- Bring the Screen Down: Swipe down on the very bottom edge of the screen (the Home Bar). The entire top half of your screen will slide down to within thumb's reach.
- Use Control Center: Once the screen is lowered, swipe down from the top-right corner of the lowered screen to access Control Center easily.
- Reset: Tap the empty space at the top of the screen or swipe up on the Home Bar to send everything back to normal.
5. The Hidden Menu Gestures
Beyond the standard navigation, there are micro-gestures hidden inside specific apps that save seconds here and there. Over a year, those seconds add up to hours.
Here are three "hidden" swipes that will make you feel like a true power user:
- The Calculator Backspace: The iPhone calculator doesn't have a backspace button. If you type "1000" instead of "100", you don't have to hit "C" and start over. Simply swipe left or right on the numbers display area. Each swipe deletes the last digit you typed.
- Mail & Messages Management: In your list of emails or texts, you can swipe a message all the way to the left to delete it, or all the way to the right to mark it as read/unread. But the real trick is the two-finger drag. Tap two fingers on your list of emails and drag down; you will instantly enter "Select" mode and start highlighting multiple emails to delete or move them in bulk.
- Spotlight Search: You don't need to find the specific app icon to open an app. On your Home Screen or Lock Screen, simply swipe down from the middle of the screen. This opens Spotlight. Type the first letter of the app you want, and hit go. It is often faster than swiping through five pages of folders.
Quick Tip: You can also use Spotlight to do quick math or currency conversions without opening a browser. Just type "50 USD to EUR" or "15 * 42" directly into the search bar.
Start Swiping Today
Muscle memory is a funny thing. At first, trying to use the spacebar to move your cursor or swiping with three fingers to undo might feel awkward. You might even forget and go back to your old tapping habits.
Give it a week. Commit to using the "Quick Switch" gesture on the bottom bar for one day. Once your thumb gets used to the flow, you will wonder how you ever used a smartphone any other way. It makes the device feel less like a computer you are poking at, and more like a fluid extension of your hand.
So, go ahead—unlock your phone and give that Calculator swipe a try. We promise it’s satisfying!