Did you know that your iPhone, iPad, and Mac keyboards have many hidden special characters? The standard keyboard at first glance provides only a few character options. But you can enter special characters such as characters with diacritics (e.g. é in cafes), extended punctuation marks (…), special characters (°), ligatures (ae), etc., as well as characters ©, ™ and ® on your iPhone.
Also, it allows you to access glyphs, glyphs, and characters from the keyboard on iOS. So, how to get special character characters? Don’t worry! You don’t need to download any additional apps; just read on to learn how to add custom characters to iPhone or Mac keyboard and type special characters.
- How to enter special characters and symbols on iPhone or iPad
- List of hidden special characters on your iPhone keyboard
- Access emoji, glyphs, and other symbols on the iOS keyboard
- How to Insert Special Characters on Mac
How to enter special characters and symbols on iPhone or iPad
The English (US) keyboard in iOS 15 and 16 and iPadOS has over 115 hidden characters and symbols. You can use other characters such as emoticons in other language keyboards.
- Touch and hold a letter, number, or symbol with hidden characters when entering text in messages, notes, mail, and other apps. (Find a complete list of special characters on iPhone below)
- Here you will see a popup menu with all the extra characters.
- Now drag your finger to insert the special character. Note. The popup will disappear if you move or lift your finger.
Diacritics
This character set uses diacritics, i.e. independent characters with accent marks, and consists of 93 special characters. It will help you to write phrases like resume, expose, rose and other words with English accent. Typically, an uppercase letter has the same diacritic as a lowercase letter.
| Character on the iOS keyboard | Available diacritics |
|---|---|
| O | ô ö ò ó œ ø ō õ |
| A | a b c d æ ã å ā |
| With | ß ś š |
| e | è ê ë ē ė ę |
| at | ÿ |
| You | û ü ù ú ū |
| I | o p n ī m m |
| G | ž ź ż |
| With | ç ć č |
| n | ń |
| l | ł |
Special symbols
In keyboard options “123”and “#+=”there are 25 special characters hidden behind certain keys. It includes the degree sign (o), many forms of quotation marks, and various dashes such as the en dash (-) and the em dash (—). You can also use inverted punctuation like some Spanish words like ¡feliz cumpleanos!
| Character on the iOS keyboard | Available characters |
|---|---|
| 0 | ° |
| – | – – • |
| / | \ |
| $ | € £ ¥ ₩ ₹ ¢ |
| & | § |
| “ | “”””” |
| . | … |
| ? | ¿ |
| ! | ¡ |
| % | ‰ |
| = | ≈ ≠ |
| ‘ | ` ” |
So far, I have only mentioned the list of special characters that you can type on a regular English (US) iPhone keyboard. But that is not all! Apple offers several iOS keyboards in other languages with many hidden characters. Consider the emoji buttons on kana or romaji keyboards. It has funny emoji-like text faces. Keep reading to find out how to get special character characters.
Access emoji, glyphs, and other symbols on the iOS keyboard
You can get built-in emojis, glyphs, and more by adding an extra keyboard. ^_^ To do this:
- Go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards.
- Now click “Add a new keyboard”. Then find Japanese in the list of languages.
- On the next page, check both the Kana and Romaji options.
- Finally, click “Done”to save your changes.
To access emoji, first change your keyboard to Japanese. If you select Kan’s keyboard, you will see a “^_^”button. Click on it and click on the down arrow to get a list of emoticons. For the Romaji keyboard, first open the number view by pressing the “123”button. Now you will see the same button ^_^.
Interestingly, these keyboards can also type the Apple logo. Just write “appura”(Apple’s Japanese translation) from the Japanese kana keyboard. It will be replaced by the Apple logo.
How to Insert Special Characters on Mac
- Launch a text editing application.
- Press and hold the key. If any special characters are associated with this key, it will appear in the selection popup.
- Each special character has a number listed below it. Press the number key while pressing the character key to enter the desired special character. You can also use the arrow keys to select one character and add it with the spacebar.
emoji
The Mac lacks an easy mechanism for writing emoji characters in online browsers or non-Apple programs. However, you can add an emoji to your text. Use the keyboard shortcut Control + Command + Space or the globe icon to open the emoji window. You can learn more special characters here. Just click on the double arrow in the bottom right corner.
Quick Access Tips
Who wants to open the emoji window every time and spend hours looking for the right one? Nobody, right? I have memorized a few abbreviations for commonly used special characters. And all the credit goes to the complete guide to Mac keyboard shortcuts. (Shh! That’s the secret of my professional typing skills: p)
| Symbols | Keyboard shortcut |
|---|---|
| Degree sign ° | Shift + Option + 8 |
| Pound £ | Option + 3 |
| Euro € | Option + Shift + 2 |
| Penny ¢ | Option + 4 |
| Copyright © | Option + G |
| Registered symbol ® | Option + P |
| Trademark ™ | Option + 2 |
| Checkmark √ | Option + B |
| Apple Logo | Option + Shift + K |
These keyboard shortcuts may not work in some macOS keyboard languages. To change this, go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Input Sources → click the plus (+) button → add a new keyboard.
You can choose any like English, American, British, Australian, Canadian English, Irish, etc. After that, click the A icon or the flag icon in the menu bar and choose one of these keyboards. Try pressing Option + Shift + K; it should work flawlessly.
So everyone guys!
I love typing special characters, especially emojis, during text messages to spice up a conversation. You can easily access glyphs, glyphs, and symbols with the keyboard on iOS. If you’re having trouble finding hidden special characters on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac keyboard, let me know in the comments below!