If you have trouble using the small keys of your iPhone keyboard, there are several simple methods to make them bigger and enhance visibility, ensuring a more comfortable typing experience.
Apple provides no clear button or slider to adjust the iOS keyboard size. However, by tweaking a few system settings or using third-party apps, you can enlarge the on-screen keyboard and ensure it’s easier to see each key and type without straining your eyes or adjusting your glasses.
This change is obviously more helpful for people with vision problems and anyone who can’t accurately hit the small virtual keys.
1. Make your keyboard bold
Enabling bold text will make these keys thicker & darker and thus easier to see. Here are the before and after screenshots:
To turn on system-wide bold text:
- Go to iPhone Settings and tap Display & Brightness.
- Switch on Bold Text.
2. Always show the UPPERCASE keys on the keyboard
All keys of the iPhone keyboard switch between showing lowercase (a, b, c) and uppercase (A, B, C) letters depending on the caps lock setting you use while typing. To make the identification of each key prominent, you can configure your iPhone to always show the uppercase keys. This will make its appearance like a physical keyboard where all the keys are printed in capital letters.
It’s just a visual change. You can obviously type in lowercase letters with this setting enabled.
Here’s how your keyboard will look:
Go through these steps to show only uppercase keys on your iPhone keyboard:
- Open the Settings app and tap Accessibility.
- Tap Keyboards.
- Turn off the switch for Show Lowercase Keys.
3. Use system-wide Larger Text
You can quickly set your iPhone to use slightly larger text and zoomed elements throughout the operating system. Once you do this, the overall height of the iOS keyboard also increases along with everything else. Here’s how it looks:
Follow these steps to turn on display zoom for your iPhone:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Display Zoom.
- Choose Larger Text.
- Tap Done from the top right and confirm by tapping Use Zoomed.
4. Type in landscape mode
One of the easiest ways to make the keyboard bigger is to type in landscape mode.
Here’s how you can do that:
- Open the iPhone Control Center and tap the screen rotation button so that its symbol appears white (and not red).
- Go inside an app like Notes, Messages, or WhatsApp.
- Rotate your iPhone in landscape mode, and the screen will also turn sideways.
- Now start typing with the enlarged keyboard.
5. Use a combination of the above settings
You’re not limited to following just one of the above suggestions.
You can use all the above methods to have a keyboard that’s larger, bolder, and shows bigger uppercase keys in both portrait and landscape orientations.
6. Install and use third-party keyboard apps
You can try some third-party keyboard apps if none of the above tweaks to make your stock iPhone keyboard bigger do the trick.
My all-time favorite iOS keyboard apps are Microsoft SwiftKey and Google Gboard. But they do not have options to increase the onscreen keyboard size. Therefore, you will have to use one of the less popular apps to get a large keyboard on your iPhone.
Note: There may be security implications with using third-party keyboard apps.
That said, I tried several apps that add a big onscreen virtual keyboard to your iPhone. You can download them for free from the App Store, get a hands-on experience, tweak their settings, and settle on the one that seems most comfortable to you.
The steps to set up all these apps are identical to any third-party iPhone keyboard.
Here are seven iPhone apps that offer large onscreen keyboards:
Viskey
This keyboard can also speak every letter you type.
Big Keys Keyboard
Drag the A slider to increase the keyboard key size.
1C Keyboard Lite
Using this, you can add a huge virtual keyboard on your iPhone with almost circular keys, helping you see and type with fat fingers.
Reboard
When typing with this keyboard, tap the settings key and use the plus (+) button to increase the iPhone keyboard size.
TuneKey
This app’s ‘Slide to adjust Key Size‘ option lets you customize the width of your iPhone keyboard keys.
Typewise
The hexagon keyboard provided by this app seems large and can appeal to some.
Type Nine – T9 Keyboard
Finally, if you or an elderly family member like your grandparents want to use the T9 typing which was omnipresent on older phones, then you can use the Type Nine app. You can also make the keyboard huge by tapping the menu icon from the bottom left and choosing Resize.
7. Other suggestions
Besides the above options, here are a few things you can do to type comfortably.
Get a physical keyboard
You can pair an actual keyboard with your iPhone and use it for longer typing sessions. Here are two greatly reviewed options from Logitech:
Upgrade to the Plus or Max model
For obvious reasons, the keyboard of an iPhone mini will be smaller than that of an iPhone Plus or iPhone Max. So, if you constantly have difficulty typing, consider buying a bigger iPhone the next time you decide to switch.
Type on iPad
Even the iPad mini (8.3-inch screen) has a larger keyboard (and more screen area) than any iPhone. If you write a lot of notes or send many messages every day, you can do all that comfortably from your iPad’s big keyboard.
Other keyboard tips: