Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Two iOS 12 features nobody has noticed

canesalato

canesalato

Cancelled
Original poster
Jan 31, 2010
1,387
1,321
1) Mobile Safari supports HTML 5 fullscreen API. Translation: the youtube website will finally play fullscreen videos on your iPad

2) Text selection in Safari has been redesigned to work more similarly to how it works on a Mac with a mouse cursor: double tap over a word to start selecting and drag your finger to extend the selection (sometimes it only works after pinch-to-zoom, i hope it’s a bug).
Works with text you are typing, like in Notes AND with text displayed on webpages in Safari (but a bit buggy currently in Safari).
Tested on an iPad, not sure about the iPhone. Works with finger AND Apple Pencil.

It might seem like a small change, but if you are an iPad power user, this is huge, as it makes text selection as powerful and fast as on a laptop, but actually better, because you can still use the handles to subtract selection, if needed, which you cannot do on a Mac.

Very cool =)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: johnscully, afir93, rafark and 3 others
canesalato said:
1) Mobile Safari supports HTML 5 fullscreen API. Translation: the youtube website will finally play fullscreen videos on your iPad

2) Text selection has been redesigned to work more similarly to how it works on a Mac with a mouse cursor: double tap over a word to start selecting and drag your finger to extend the selection (sometimes it only works after pinch-to-zoom, i hope it’s a bug).
Works with text you are typing, like in Notes AND with text displayed on webpages in Safari (but a bit buggy currently in Safari).
Tested on an iPad, not sure about the iPhone. Works with finger AND Apple Pencil.

It might seem like a small change, but if you are an iPad power user, this is huge, as it makes text selection as powerful and fast as on a laptop, but actually better, because you can still use the handles to subtract selection, if needed, which you cannot do on a Mac.

Very cool =)
Click to expand...

Text selection has worked like that for me for a long, long time now. I double tap the word and then start dragging till I want.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MyopicPaideia
macintoshmac said:
Text selection has worked like that for me for a long, long time now. I double tap the word and then start dragging till I want.
Click to expand...
On the iPad? Interesting.
It definitely doesn’t work for me my iOS 11 safari (iPad Pro 10.5) but works on my iOS 12 12.9 iPad.

Edit: I see what you mean. Indeed, it is already implemented in iOS 11 but not in Safari (or my safari is bugged). With 12 they just added this modality of selection to any text that you can select in Safari.
 
Last edited:
canesalato said:
Text selection has been redesigned to work more similarly to how it works on a Mac with a mouse cursor: double tap over a word to start selecting and drag your finger to extend the selection
Click to expand...

My iPhone 3GS that’s running on iOS 6.1.6 has the same mentioned feature, I just tested it. Definitely not a new or a redesigned feature.
 
JayJohnPaul said:
My iPhone 3GS that’s running on iOS 6.1.6 has the same mentioned feature, I just tested it. Definitely not a new or a redesigned feature.
Click to expand...
I’m convinced you are mistaking. Both my iPad and my iPhone under iOS11 don’t have it.
[doublepost=1528994349][/doublepost]This is iOS11 when you double tap text
And this is how it behaves in iOS12. As you can see it behaves completely differently, similar to how it works with a trackpad. Note that i’m not using the handles, i’m just double tapping and dragging my fingers, without lifting my finger after the second tap.
 
Last edited:
Hmmm, I can do the same this with 3D Touch in Safari on iOS 11.4.

A single tap and hold selects the word, keep your finger on the screen and 3D Touch to select multiple words or lines or text.
 
canesalato said:
I’m convinced you are mistaking. Both my iPad and my iPhone under iOS11 don’t have it.
[doublepost=1528994349][/doublepost]This is iOS11 when you double tap text
And this is how it behaves in iOS12. As you can see it behaves completely differently, similar to how it works with a trackpad. Note that i’m not using the handles, i’m just double tapping and dragging my fingers, without lifting my finger after the second tap.
Click to expand...

Is this a fair summary?

In iOS 11 Safari, if you "tap, hold and move around", it selects one word at a time. This is mode 1. You can also double tap a word to bring up the two handles. This puts you into mode 2. In mode 2 you can "tap [a handle], hold and move around" to extend the word selection.

In iOS 12 Safari, "double tap, hold and move around" immediately goes into mode 2 without having to bring up the handles first.
 
GreyOS said:
Is this a fair summary?

In iOS 11 Safari, if you "tap, hold and move around", it selects one word at a time. This is mode 1. You can also double tap a word to bring up the two handles. This puts you into mode 2. In mode 2 you can "tap [a handle], hold and move around" to extend the word selection.

In iOS 12 Safari, "double tap, hold and move around" immediately goes into mode 2 without having to bring up the handles first.
Click to expand...
There's also the 3D Touch aspect to it as well, as was mentioned a few posts ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GreyOS
C DM said:
There's also the 3D Touch aspect to it as well, as was mentioned a few posts ago.
Click to expand...
So is this another fair statement? iOS 12 removes the need for 3D Touch to jump straight into mode 2?

Apple definitely don’t talk about 3D Touch these days and since they enabled long press in Control Centre to do the same thing as 3D Touch, it does feel like they don’t really want to expand it.
 
GreyOS said:
So is this another fair statement? iOS 12 removes the need for 3D Touch to jump straight into mode 2?

Apple definitely don’t talk about 3D Touch these days and since they enabled long press in Control Centre to do the same thing as 3D Touch, it does feel like they don’t really want to expand it.
Click to expand...
Hard to say as I'm not sure what the experience is in relation to that (3D Touch) and text selection is in iOS 12 (so far).
 
Doz007 said:
Hmmm, I can do the same this with 3D Touch in Safari on iOS 11.4.

A single tap and hold selects the word, keep your finger on the screen and 3D Touch to select multiple words or lines or text.
Click to expand...
So you cannot do the same. You can do a different gesture to achive the same result of the one I described, but only on 3d touch iPhones. Ironically, I was the first to talk about this feature on this forum, when it appeared back in the day, and a lot of people came commenting “what are you saying? There is no 3d touch involved in text selection, it’s just the old tap and hold!” =)
iPads have no 3d touch, but the new gesture doesn’t require it.
[doublepost=1529029771][/doublepost]
GreyOS said:
Is this a fair summary?

In iOS 11 Safari, if you "tap, hold and move around", it selects one word at a time. This is mode 1. You can also double tap a word to bring up the two handles. This puts you into mode 2. In mode 2 you can "tap [a handle], hold and move around" to extend the word selection.

In iOS 12 Safari, "double tap, hold and move around" immediately goes into mode 2 without having to bring up the handles first.
Click to expand...
Almost correct. :) With iOS 12 it’s not “double tap, hold and drag”. It is just “double tap and drag”. After the double tap, without lifting the finger or holding, you can immediately start dragging your finger and text selection will follow it. The handles appear but you don’t actually use them, they are there in case you want to edit your selection after the drag.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: afir93 and GreyOS
I'll try the text selection feature out when 12 comes out. It looks useful.
 
It does work as @canesalato describes for me on most pages but some, like MR forums, it does not work on the body of the page. It does work in the comment box. I assume it’s because of the crappy JavaScript quote menu thing. Also, it seems impossible to select text at all in the body of the page after typing in the comment box, until after posting the reply.

Apart from the problems here, I really like the new selection behavior.
 
cmaier said:
I can’t do it on either of my test devices (iPhone X or iPad Pro). Behavior I am seeing is identical to ios11.
Click to expand...
Uhmm, the feature is still pretty buggy and some sites work better than others. I'm sorry you haven't got it working yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back