Last Updated on June 9, 2022 by srinivas
Even since the introduction of the Taptic Engine in the iPhone 7, Apple has been all-in on excellent haptics. It’s surprising, then, that it took so long for the iPhone’s keyboard to get haptic feedback. With iOS 16, Apple is finally catching up with Android and many third-party iPhone keyboards by providing haptic feedback as you type.
Disabled by default, keyboard haptics use the Taptic Engine to produce a slight “tick” feeling when you touch a key on the keyboard. It’s different from keyboard sounds (which many users turn off right away) and unlike those annoying keyboard sounds, it continues to work even if your iPhone is on silent mode.
While this feature has been available in some third-party iPhone keyboards and many Android phones for years, it feels “new”. That’s the power of default settings: if you’ve been an iPhone user for years, you’re probably do not use any third-party keyboard and you probably never experienced this feature on android. To hundreds of millions of users, this will feel like a brand new Apple feature, and it’s something you never knew you needed until you got it.
How to enable keyboard haptic feedback in iOS 16
In iOS 16 beta, haptic feedback for the keyboard is disabled by default. That might change in the final shipping release, but you’ll at least want to enable it to try it out. Here’s how.
- Open Settings.
- Tap on Sound and haptics†
- Scroll down and select keyboard feedback†
- Here you will find separate switches for Sound and haptic feedback. Switch haptic (and Sound also if you want).
While keyboard sounds obey your iPhone’s Silent Mode switch, Haptics doesn’t — they’re always enabled as long as the switch is set in Settings. The subtle and clear taps of the Taptic Engine add a great tactile feel to typing on your iPhone, and you’ll find that even if you’ve used keyboard sounds in the past, turning on haptics will give you the feedback you crave without it. sound.