So, there you are, typing a long note on your iPhone or iPad, when you suddenly realize that you need–gasp–a special symbol or accented character. Perhaps you want to use the £ (British pound) symbol, or the é symbol when sending an email to a business associate or family member.
No, you don’t have to use the Emoji keyboard (unless you want a copyright (©) symbol), but there is a bit of a trick to it. Here’s how.
To get any accented character, you simply tap and hold a key on the iOS keyboard. To get an accented e, for example, tap and hold on the E key, then swipe to the specific accent you want. There are a ton of hidden symbols on the iOS keyboard, with the Y, U, I, A, S, and N keys all getting into the act.
For even more special accents, tap the 123 key to get the secondary iOS keyboard, and hold an tap on different keys to get different results. For example, tap the dollar sign key for other currency options, the question mark key to get the Spanish upside down question mark, and the quotation mark for several other quotation marks. Swipe up to the special accent character you want, and your iOS device will type the character when you release your finger.
The best way to find all the ones you want is to experiment around; not all the keyboard keys have extra characters on them, but many of them do. Have fun!
