Question :

A friend told me I could speed up my interaction with my iPhone by doing things like swiping with multiple fingers at the same time…

How do I do that ?

Answer :

The 2-finger gestures that you can use on your iPhone :

• the basics : put 2 fingers on the screen next to each other, then spread them (‘pinch’ gesture) to zoom in on a picture or map
• the basics : put 2 fingers on the screen apart of each other, then bring them together (‘reverse pinch’ gesture) to zoom out on a picture or map
• the extras : when the onscreen keyboard is shown, long-press the spacebar (with one finger) to get a cursor that you can move though the text (‘trackpad-mode’), then add a second finger and with 2 fingers you can now select parts of the text
• the extras : when in a list (like in Mail.app or Notes.app) use 2 fingers to tap one item, then drag down (or up) to select multiple items together – if needed you can still deselect individual items using only one finger

The 3-finger gestures that you can use on your iPhone :

• the basics : put 3 fingers on the screen and swipe to the left to undo any action you just did
• the basics : put 3 fingers on the screen and swipe to the right to redo anything (especially if you just did an undo action)
• the extras : after having selected a text, put 3 fingers on the screen and spread them (‘reverse pinch’ gesture) to copy the selected text
• the extras : after having copied some text (when it’s in the invisible clipboard), put 3 spread-out fingers on the screen and move them together (‘pinch’ gesture) to paste the text into your document
• the extras : when in any text app, tap 3 fingers on the screen to bring up a menu that enables you to copy & paste

that’s just a few of the very handy gestures that you can use… enjoy 😉