How to Use the New Slide-to-Type Keyboard in iOS 13 and iPadOS

As Android and third-party keyboard users will tell you, swiping to text is often easier and quicker than individually tapping out letters. Luckily in iOS 13, swipe-to-text is now built in.

The feature is called QuickPath in Apple’s new operating system and it basically works exactly how you’d expect. Because it’s a native capability, it means you don’t need a third-party keyboard app. That’s great for both ease of access, usability and security. Here’s what you should know about the feature.

How to Use QuickPath

QuickPath is baked-in to iOS 13 and iPadOS and on by default, meaning you won’t have to enable any settings or do anything special to access it.

• Just swipe across letters on the iOS keyboard to activate the feature.
• To type “iDrop,” you would just place a finger on the letter i and quickly swipe to d, r, o and p. That’s really all there is to it.
• Each word will require its own swipe. To type “iOS 13,” you’d quickly swipe between i, o and s in one swipe, lift your finger, and swipe 1 and 3 in another motion.

You don’t have to be exactly spot-on with your swiping, either. iOS will try to intelligently predict what you’re typing as you’re doing so. As long as you’re close, there’s a good chance that the feature will guess what the word you’re swiping out is.

On the occasions when iOS gets it wrong, you can always tap the one you’re looking for in the Predictive text bar above the keyboard. This will automatically change your word to the correct one.

And, as with the standard Predictive text in iOS, QuickPath will get more accurate the more you use it.

If, for some reason, you don’t want to use QuickPath on your own iOS device, you can disable it by going to Settings > General > Keyboard > Slide to Type.

How to Get iOS 13 Now

iOS 13 is currently in beta testing. Developers can get the beta through the developer’s portal, while everyone else can sign up for the public beta on Apple’s website.

The new update will launch to the general public sometime in the fall.