If you want to navigate your smartphone at top speed, single-finger tapping just won’t cut it. As device manufacturers ditch physical buttons for huge, bezel-free screens, specific hand gestures have become vital shortcuts for powering through emails, notifications, maps, and more. But how can you tell when to make specific motions? The correct swipe isn’t always obvious (especially if you’ve recently upgraded your years-old iPhone to one without a Home button or swapped iOS for Android). Here are the gestures you should add to your repertoire.
Useful iPhone gestures
Hide the keyboard
When you’re typing a message, but decide to check something on the lower half of the screen, that keyboard gets in the way. To hide it, swipe down on its top border; restore it by tapping inside the text-entry box.
Go back (and forward)
Certain iOS apps, such as Safari and Messages, offer a back button somewhere on the left side of the interface. Instead of hunting for it, you can use a gesture to return to the previous screen: swipe right from the very left edge of the display. To go forward again, swipe left from the very right edge of the screen. This should work in most, but not all, apps.
Delete digits on the calculator
In the iOS Calculator app, you can remove one digit at a time by swiping either left or right on the main number display at the top. For example, if you’ve typed “8011” when you wanted to enter “801,” swipe left or right on that 8011 to erase the final 1. Then carry on with your calculation.
Select multiple photos
When you use the Photos app for iOS, you normally select multiple photos by hitting Select and tapping each image you want to highlight. For a faster process, tap Select and then swipe across the photos you want to choose. This action will select everything between the first and last images you touch—not each individual one you run your finger across.
Open the Control Center
The iOS Control Center includes shortcuts for many iPhone settings, including rotation lock and Do Not Disturb. To easily pull it up on screen, swipe down from the top right corner of the display up from the bottom of the display on the iPhone X or later, or up from the bottom of the screen on other phones.
Run a search
To look up anything—whether that’s a contact stored on your iPhone or a Wikipedia article on the web—place your finger in the middle of the home screen and then swipe down. This will bring up a comprehensive search option.
Useful gestures on Android phones
View open Google Chrome tabs
Speaking of swiping down, when you perform that single-finger gesture on the address bar in the Google Chrome browser, it will pull up all of your open tabs. Long press on a tab to select it and move it on top of another tab to group them together. Back on the address bar, swipe left or right to jump between tabs—no matter if they’re grouped or not.
Zip through notifications
When notifications appear on the lock screen, you can tap each one to open it. Or, to quickly sort through a long list, do a hard swipe left or right to dismiss individual alerts. If you do a slow swipe left or right, you’ll reveal two icons: Tap the clock to snooze the alert or the cog to change the notification settings for that particular app. To really cut down on the number of notifications you receive, do a long press on an alert you don’t care about. This will hide that app’s notifications in the future.
Swipe to uninstall
To uninstall an app on Android, you don’t need to open the Google Play store. Instead, find its shortcut in the app drawer (the master list of apps) or on the home screen. Press and hold that icon, then drag it up to the Uninstall button at the top of the screen. Tap OK to confirm you want to get rid of it.
Switch between apps
To jump from your current app to the one you were using previously, swipe left or right on the pill button—the line at the bottom of your screen. This particular gesture is handy for checking details between apps. To scroll slowly between apps, swipe right on the pill button and hold your finger down. Then move that digit left or right.
