BASIC HAND GESTURES
S wiping and tapping gestures are at the center of Apple's touchscreen experience, giving you access to all of your iPhone and iPad's basic functions. Check out this simple guide to learn the main controls you'll be using on a daily basis.
Tap: Tapping your touchscreen is like clicking a desktop mouse. To open an app, tap its icon. When browsing online, tap highlighted words or images to visit linked webpages.
Double Tap: Tapping twice in succession zooms in on or out of text and images. This is useful for inspecting images or enlarging text for easy reading. If you have the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, double tapping the Home button will activate Reachability, which shifts the device's larger screen down so it's easy to access the top corners.
Hold: Pressing and holding lets you select text or images you'd like to cut, paste, or copy to another location. For text, just press and hold your finger until a blue highlight appears over your selection. Drag the edges of the blue area to adjust your selection, and release for the option to copy, cut, or paste. For images, press and hold until the option appears to copy the image or save it to your Photos app.
Swipe: Swiping is increasingly useful for everything from handling notifications to sorting mail. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access Control Center; swipe down from the top of the screen for Notification Center. To open Spotlight Search, place your finger at the top of the screen but still within the app field and swipe down. Swipe down on a banner notification to respond to a text, accept an event invitation, or to delete a message. Many third-party apps use swipe gestures too; just follow the on-screen instructions after you've installed it.
Swiping is also useful for reading books and articles. Swipe gently to scroll slowly while you read; flick to fling the contents of the page up or down quickly. To halt a natural scroll, tap anywhere on the screen. You can also tap the top of the screen to instantly return to the top of a page.
Pinch: By pinching your thumb and forefinger and spreading them apart, you can zoom in to enlarge areas of your screen. To return to a zoomed-out view, pinch your fingers together again.
Rotate: Take two fingers and turn them clockwise or counterclockwise to rotate elements, such as maps.
IPAD- ONLY GESTURES
The Flick: To summon the multitasking bar and see your most recently used apps, press four fingers into a claw against the screen, and flick them upward. To exit the multitasking view, claw-swipe down.
The Squeeze: This gesture lets you return to the Home screen instantly, no matter what app you're using. Just place your spread-out fingertips on the screen, and pinch them into a claw.
The Page-Through: Have a bunch of apps open? Pretend you're paging through a book, swiping left or right with four or five fingers to find the app you're looking for.