How to get vibration or haptic feedback when typing on iPhone

Do you want soft vibrations when you’re typing on your iPhone? This tutorial shows you how to get haptic feedback on key presses in iOS 16 and even iOS 15 or earlier.

An iPhone keyboard while typing with vibrations pattern in the background

Haptic feedback while typing

For a long time, Android phones have had vibration feedback while typing. If your phone has a good vibration motor, it feels great to get soft feedback when tapping a key. And iPhones have an excellent Taptic Engine, yet this simple feature was missing on iOS until now!

iOS 16 introduced a handy feature that lets you enable haptic feedback when typing. It’s off by default, but we will show you how to enable it.

How to get haptic feedback while typing on iPhone

Follow the steps as per the iOS version you’re running on your iPhone.

In iOS 16

Here’s how to enable haptic feedback for your iOS keyboard:

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone running iOS 16.
  2. Tap Sounds & Haptics.
  3. Scroll down and select Keyboard Feedback.
  4. Enable the switch for Haptic.
Enable Haptic Keyboard Feedback on iPhone

From now on, whenever you type something on your iPhone, you’ll receive soft haptic feedback on each keystroke.

If you ever feel bored of this, follow the same steps to turn it off.

In iOS 15 or earlier

iOS 15, iOS 14, and previous versions of iOS don’t offer an inbuilt way to enable haptic feedback while typing. Therefore, you’ll have to use third-party iOS keyboards.

Two popular iOS keyboard apps that I use and love are Microsoft SwiftKey and Google Gboard. Both these apps are excellent alternatives to the iOS keyboard.

Here’s how to get haptic feedback while typing on an iPhone running any version of iOS:

  1. Get SwiftKey or Gboard for free from the App Store.
  2. Open the keyboard app and finish the simple installation.
  3. Next, enable haptics feedback in:
  4. SwiftKey keyboard: Open SwiftKey and tap Settings. Next, enable Key Haptic Feedback.
  5. Gboard keyboard: Open Gboard and tap Keyboard settings. Turn on the switch next to Enable haptic feedback on key press.
Key Haptic Feedback in SwiftKey and Gboard on iPhone
Left image: SwiftKey | Right image: Gboard

That’s it! Open Notes, Messages, or an app where you can type. Press the globe key and select SwiftKey or Gboard. After this, start typing, and you’ll feel soft vibrations on each key press.

If you take a few minutes to tweak the settings for these keyboard apps and try them out for a few days, you’ll almost certainly start loving them. I have been using SwiftKey for many years, and I can’t return to the regular iOS keyboard!

Useful keyboard tips: