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A Better Way to Copy, Paste, and Undo Text on iPhone

by Kaushal
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The iOS 13 comes with many awesome features, including system-wide dark mode, sleek volume interface, controller support for Arcade games and much more. But one feature that doesn’t get enough attention is the improved copy-paste gestures. While the usual copy-paste method still exists, you can do it much effectively with new gestures option in iPadOS and iOS. Let’s see how those work on the iPhone.

A Better Way to Copy, Paste and Undo on iOS 13

1. Copy text on iPhone

The usual method to copy the text on your iPhone goes something like this, you tap on a word, wait for the pop-up to appear and then select a portion of the text. Once done, again tap on Copy option.

screenshot of the notes app, the cursor is between words and a pop-up with select and select all options highlighted.

Now, if you were to use the new gesture to copy the text, you would tap on the text to select the text as usual and then use three fingers and do a pinching motion like you’re grabbing salt with your fingers like the Salt Bae.

You may find it jarring at first but as you start using it along with other gestures, you’ll get the hang of it.

GIF of the copy gesture by pinching three fingers on the screen like salt bae.

2. Paste text on iPhone

Now, you’ve copied the text by doing the picking up gesture using your three fingers, to paste the copied text simply use your three fingers and act like you’re sprinkling salt on the screen. I use the salt example to keep the gesture easy to understand but if it makes more sense try and pinch out with three fingers on the screen and that’s the new paste gesture on iOS 13. The best part of this gesture is that you don’t have to wait for any pop-up if you have a cursor blinking on the screen, the gesture will work just fine.

GIF of paste gesture which is like sprinkling salt on the screen with three fingers.

3. Undo Gesture on iPhone

Shaking your iPhone like a mad man to undo whatever you just entered as a text was just weird, and too much, not to mention full of false positives. I never use this feature like ever but like I said false positives, I was texting last night and accidentally shook my iPhone and unlike the regular undo pop-up, I got the pop-up to use the gesture. If I’m being honest, it makes much more sense to double-tap with three-fingers to undo what I just typed.

Here is what it looks like in action, doesn’t it feel more natural?

undo gesture on iPhone which is just double tapping three fingers on the screen.

This is all you need to know about the new gestures for the iPhone. I admit there is a slight learning curve but using these gestures is so much more efficient in the long run. What do you think of these gestures, do you like it or hate it, let me know in the comments below?

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