Hello everyone, and welcome back to my tutorial! Today, I’m going to show you how to navigate VoiceOver in iOS using the two-finger gestures. This is a great way to interact with your device more efficiently, so let’s dive right in!
Swipe Up or Down with Two Fingers to Scroll and Automatically Read Items
One of the easiest ways to navigate with VoiceOver is by swiping up or down with two fingers. This gesture allows VoiceOver to automatically scroll through the content and read it aloud for you.
Example: If you're reading a book or an article on a website, after positioning the VoiceOver cursor where you want it to start, simply swipe up or down with two fingers. VoiceOver will then begin reading the text without you needing to swipe for each new line. It’s very convenient for long reads!
Tap with Two Fingers to Pause and Resume Speech
If VoiceOver is reading something and you want to pause the speech, just tap the screen once with two fingers. VoiceOver will stop talking immediately.
Example: Imagine you receive a notification or VoiceOver starts reading something long that you don’t need to hear right now. Instead of listening to everything, you can stop it with a quick two-finger tap. To resume the speech, tap again with two fingers. This trick works in any app or part of your device.
Answer or End Calls with Two-Finger Double Tap
Now, let’s get to the really cool part—answering or ending phone calls using two fingers! When you receive a call, instead of having to search for the answer button, you can just double tap with two fingers anywhere on the screen to answer. To hang up, you can double tap again in the same way.
This works not only with regular phone calls but also across apps like FaceTime or social media apps that support calling. For example, on YouTube, you can use this gesture to pause or play a video with the same two-finger double tap! It’s a huge time saver.
Tip: Even if the screen doesn’t display the answer button right away, you can still use the double tap anywhere on the screen to answer calls. So, there’s no need to panic if you can’t find the button quickly—it’s like magic!
Tap three times with 2 fingers to Enter Item Search
If you need to find a specific button or element on the screen, use a Tap three times with 2 fingers. This will activate VoiceOver’s search function, allowing you to easily locate items within an app. You can either type in what you're looking for or swipe through the options VoiceOver presents.
Explanation: This is helpful when dealing with apps that have many buttons and elements, and you need to find a specific one quickly. For example, if you’re using a media player app and want to jump directly to the "Play" button, the search feature makes it faster.
Tap four times with 2 fingers for Quick Settings (iOS 13 and Later)
If you want to access VoiceOver’s quick settings, a Tap four times with 2 fingers will get you there instantly. Quick settings let you adjust various VoiceOver settings like speech rate or verbosity without having to go through the full settings menu.
Note: This feature is only available on iOS 13 and later. If you're using iOS 12 or earlier versions like iOS 10, you might still be able to access some VoiceOver settings but not as quickly as with this gesture. Unfortunately, iOS 9 does not support this feature.
Works on Both iPhone and iPad
Lastly, even though I’ve mostly referred to using these gestures on an iPhone, everything I’ve mentioned also applies to the iPad. The gestures work exactly the same, so you can use your iPad just as easily as your iPhone with VoiceOver.
I hope this tutorial has been helpful for you! These two-finger gestures can make a huge difference in how you interact with your device, making things faster and easier. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in the next tutorial!
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