Quite a lot of people like the idea of a floating keyboard that they can move around on their iPads. Small-sized floating keyboards open up a lot more screen real estate than when using the docked, full-size on-screen keyboard.
But if that smaller sized keyboard just isn’t your thing, there is a quick and painless way to get rid of it!
Just pinch it with two fingers and zoom out to get back to a docked and full-sized keyboard on your iPad.
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For many, the most exciting feature is the iPad floating keyboard
This floating keyboard is pint-sized Phone QWERTY keyboard, taking up a lot less screen space than the standard iPad keyboard. Plus, you can position it just about anywhere you want to on-screen, making it easier to see what’s behind.
For folks who regularly use iPhones, this mini-keyboard is familiar and perfect for typing with just one finger.
How to enable iPad’s floating keyboard
- Just pinch with two fingers and zoom in on the full-sized keyboard to shrink it to a keyboard that’s about the size of an iPhone’s on-screen keyboard
Pinch on your iPad’s full-size keyboard to show floating keyboard - You can also tap the keyboard icon on the full-size keyboard and selecting Floating
Pressing the keyboard icon gives you an option to choose a floating keyboard - Drag your floating keyboard to wherever you want it by pressing and holding the bottom handle
How to disable iPad’s floating keyboard
- Pinch the mini-keyboard with two fingers and zoom out until the keyboard expands and docks
Pinch out to get back to the full-sized iPad keyboard - Or grab the floating keyboard’s bottom handle and drag it towards the Dock and the bottom of your iPad’s screen and the keyboard should spring back into its full size
drag the floating keyboard’s handle to the bottom of your screen
Other iOS 13 and iPadOS new keyboard features
New to iOS13 and iPadOS are a host of further keyboard improvements and offerings, which help the native Apple keyboard rival many third-party keyboard options for both iPad and iPhone (and let’s not forget iPod.)
- QuickPath swipe to type
- Alternate word options appear in the predictive text bar
- Automatic dictation language recognition
- New keyboard languages and dictionaries
- Enhanced text editing options for scrolling, moving the cursor, selecting your text
- For iPadOS, a bunch of new keyboard shortcuts
QuickPath swipe to type
For quite a long time now, Android keyboards and some third-party keyboards for iOS offered a quick swipe type feature (called swyping,) where you slide over letters to form words instead of tapping them.
Starting with iOS13 and iPadOS, this feature is finally available in the native Apple iOS and iPadOS keyboard. And for folks who loved Swype, that’s a potential lifesaver.
QuickPath works on iPhone, iPod, and with the mini floating keyboard on iPad. It does not appear to work on the iPad’s full-size keyboard.
So if you’re a swyper, you no longer need to use any third-party keyboards. Just swipe from one letter to the next without lifting your finger. QuickPath is integrated with iOS and iPadOS, so you don’t have to switch anymore.
What’s particularly special about iOS and iPadOS QuickPath is that it learns from you!
With swyping now part of the native iOS/iPadOS ecosystem, it can take advantage of all that iOS offers. That means it can learn to recognize your swipes and auto-complete your words or even sentences or offer up suggestions in the QuickType bar.
And if you have multiple devices signed in with the same Apple ID, all that learning should sync so you don’t need to teach it twice. Pretty awesome.
Advantages of an iOS integrated QuickPath
- Learn your writing style
- Recognize and fill in frequently used words
- Sync what it learns between devices
How to enable or disable QuickPath
- Go to Settings > General > Keyboards
- Toggle Slide to Type on or off
Toggle Slide to Type on or off to enable or disable QuickPath keyboard features
Currently, QuickPath is available only for the languages that also support QuickType.
How to enable swipe typing on your iPad using iPadOS
Currently, swipe to type (or slide to type as Apple calls it) is only available on the smaller, floating keyboard for iPad AND not available on the full-sized keyboard.
Pinch in on the regular iPad keyboard until the floating keyboard appears. It’s about the size of an iPhone keyboard. Or tap the keyboard icon and choose Floating. And then try swipe typing.
Like swyping and typing on your iPhone or iPad?
The good news is that with iOS 13 and iPadOS, you can swipe or tap to type interchangeably even when mid‑sentence.
So that makes it very convenient indeed!
For most of her professional life, Amanda Elizabeth (Liz for short) trained all sorts of folks on how to use media as a tool to tell their own unique stories. She knows a thing or two about teaching others and creating how-to guides!
Her clients include Edutopia, Scribe Video Center, Third Path Institute, Bracket, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Big Picture Alliance.
Elizabeth received her Master of Fine Arts degree in media making from Temple University, where she also taught undergrads as an adjunct faculty member in their department of Film and Media Arts.
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Thank you for your clear and concise directions on how to fix my iPad keyboard!!
How do I get my keyboard back , I can’t see this funny little one
And it covers up what I’m writing on some pages .
Hate it, please help . I’ve disabled it in iPad settings but it won’t go ! Switched off and on, still there !
HI Karen,
Try closing all your open apps and then restarting.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
5. Repeat for all apps
6. Restart
If the keyboard is still floating, look for the bar at the bottom of the floating keyboard and press & hold it and drag it down to the bottom of your screen–it should bounce into the full-sized keyboard.
If you can’t see that bar at the bottom, tap and hold the keyboard icon at the bottom right corner, then select Dock
I cannot get it off my pad. It prevents me from chatting in games. Cause the screen to go blank. I’m frustrated. I wish I never had automatic update.
Liz:
Thanks so much for your lucid, helpful article. Maybe not a lifesaver, but definitely a day-saver!
I had an upgrade to the OS for my iPad Pro and the keyboard is now much smaller than it was prior to the upgrade. Any help in restoring the keyboard to the previous size would be most welcome as I am registered partially blind and depend on my iPad for communication.
HI David,
Are you using the full-sized keyboard or the smaller, iPhone like keyboard?
To return the iPhone sized keyboard to full size, press the grab bar at the bottom and move it to the bottom of your screen–it should spring into full size.
If this doesn’t work or it’s stuck, use two fingers and pinch open inside the floating keyboard.
Extremely helpful
Thanks very much
l need help Turn off screen time l don’t how to tun off screen time
HI Jasmyn,
You turn off Screen Time by going to Settings > Screen Time and scroll down to the option Turn Off Screen Time.
If you set up a passcode for Screen Time (or for what used to be called Restrictions), enter that code.
If you don’t know the passcode for Screen Time, see this article for more information on how to recover or reset it.
Liz