In iOS 16.4, you can flip through virtual pages while reading in the Books app on your iPhone or iPad by swiping from one corner to another.
- What’s happening? iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 bring back the classic page-turning animation to the standard Apple Books app for iPhone and iPad.
- Why care? Apple upset supporters by removing this long-standing feature in iOS 16.0 without explanation. The change should appease those people.
- What to do? Find this feature in the Themes & Settings section of the Books app.
iOS 16.4 reintroduces the page flip effect in the Books app
The redesigned Books app for iOS 16.0 has replaced the much-loved page flip animation with a much simpler slide animation, and some people didn’t take the change very well.
If you too were annoyed by the removal of the traditional page curl effect, you’ll love both iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 as these updates bring back page flip animations to the Books app for iPhone and iPad!
To get this feature, please install iOS 16.4 when it goes public.
Apple is currently testing iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 with its registered developers and public beta testers. When the updates are published, you can update your iPhone and iPad by going to Settings → General → Software Update.
A skeuomorphic page-rolling animation is one of the features that Steve Jobs highlighted when he unveiled the original iPad in 2010.
Steve Jobs demonstrates the classic page curl effect in the Books app during the 2010 iPad presentation pic.twitter.com/XbkCCjA2Sp
— iDownloadBlog (@iDownloadBlog) March 2, 2023
In fact, Apple owns a patent for digital page turning.
Part of the reason this effect has won so many users is Apple’s attention to detail: the page-turning algorithm accurately maps how a physical page flips when flipped. In fact, Apple patented this solution in 2011.
A document filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, titled “Animated Graphical User Interface Display Screen or Part thereof”[ PDF download], describes how to flip the pages of an e-book using devices such as the iPad and iPhone.
In other words, Apple owns the page turn. The invention is credited to Apple engineers Elizabeth Caroline Cranfill, Stephen Lemay and Mikio Inose.
How to Use the Page Turning Effect in Apple Books
If your iPhone is running iOS 16.4, go to Themes and Customizations in Apple Books to select Curve, Side, and None options.
- Launch the Apple Books app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap the screen to display the icons, then tap the Menu button in the bottom right corner (it looks like two horizontal lines above three dots).
- Select “Themes and Settings”from the menu.
- Click the page turn icon, which looks like a page with a folded corner.
Choose one of the following options:
- Slide: Touch the right margin or swipe from right to left to move from one page to another. This is the default option in iOS 16.
- Curl: The default setting in iOS 15 and earlier. Swipe from the bottom left or right corner to the other edge, as if you were trying to turn over a physical page.
- None: No animation when moving from page to page in an eBook.
The iPhone maker may have moved away from skeuomorphic design a long time ago, but it’s one of those classic features that a lot of people have fallen in love with. In this regard, Apple did the right thing by restoring the page-turning animation.
Other goodies in iOS 16.4
Speaking of classic features, we wish Apple would bring back the old double-tap bookmarks gesture because it’s so much faster than hitting the bookmarks menu hidden in the menu. And while we’re at it, please give us back the Proxima font!
iOS 16.4 brings other improvements such as a new Coverage section in Settings, the ability to sign up for iOS betas via a software update and track your orders with the new Wallet widget, offline 5G support, 31 new emojis, and tons of new actions. with labels for “Always”. -On display, Stage Manager and so on.