Using iOS with a bluetooth keyboard

Whether your keyboard has navigation keys or not it does not matter. VoiceOver uses the already available qwerty keys to perform navigation tasks using the combination of keys. For your use case, press VoiceOver+Q to enable single letter navigation. Using this command enables you to navigate websites normally using the traditional navigation commands such as H for headings, L for links, C for combo boxes and so on. You may need to consult AppleVis guides on using iOS/iPadOS with a physical keyboard.
HTH

I use a Logitech K380, which doesn't contain any special iOS keys, and I'm able to interact with my iPhone for 99% of what I need to do. I never learned the keyboard shortcut for scrolling, for example, so I just reach over to the screen and 3-finger swipe up or down when I need to do that. The rest of the time, I'm on the keyboard for navigating, interacting, and typing.

Have you read this article? You might find it helpful.

Ya, I use the touch gestures and the keyboard together too. I have one of the older Logitech keyboards that are pretty much a full sized keyboard, and it makes things much easier for iOS. That is if I'm not too lazy to get out the keyboard. I have trouble remembering some of the key commands until I'm in the correct brain mode. One of the issues with iOS, unless they've changed it, is that the help feature is not context or app specific, ie all the web browsing commands with single letter turned on and all that. Switching between screen readers and platforms is my other problem, and I haven't gotten around to changing some of the VO commands to jive better with the other screen reader I use.

Let's make it 100%!
•Shift + VO + "s", then arrow keys to scroll. Escape to finish. VO will announce.

You're welcome. 😁

I get a ding sound when I press these keys. I believe scrolling is done with the Option_Arrows, depending on the orientation of the scrolling; up, down, left or right.

It's possible the command is a little different on iOS. I don't see why it should be, but who knows. For me, on my Mac, when I press Shift + VO + "s" I hear VO say, "Start scrolling". And when I press Escape VO says, "Stop scrolling". 🤷🏻‍♂️

I think you were looking for app switching like with 4 finger swipe, I use VO shift left and right brace for this. it works great. pretty much like alt tab on big boy computers and the iPad a bit although thats really unreliable. anyway. Scrolling is done with option up and down arrow while in quick nav mode which you get to with left and right arrows together. VO FN up and down also bring up notification and control centres which is nice. you’ve already got single key web navigation so that rocks.

On iOS, the winner is Andy Lane, with quick nav enabled plus option up or down arrow. Thanks Andy!

VO+Shift+S should allow scrolling on macOS. Press those keys, then up/down arrow, or PageUp/PageDown. This works in Scrivener, though VoiceOver only says "up a page" or "down a page" and otherwise provides no feedback about where I'm at in the document. I have to press escape, bring the mouse cursor to the text area, invoke a click, then move the text cursor to hear where I am. Then back to scroll mode .. Consequently, it's kind of useless. iOS is better, as you can tap the screen as you scroll to find out where you are.

Ok, deep breath. I can do this. i’d like to first of all thank my mummy without who’m this could never have been possible. Even though she once spent months wondering why her phone wasn’t making any noise until I was at her house and she asked me to look at it for her. After carefully assessing the situation and taking my time with a number of advanced diagnostic procedures I eventually tracked the problem down. Yes, you got it. She had the mute switch flicked to silent. i’d also like to thank my Father who’s contribution can’t be under estimated. and I definitely don’t want to think about that faitful night in early 1979 Eeeewww, shudders, that would eventually culminate in me receiving this auspicious award.

Anyway, thats enough of me trying to be mildly amusing. Auto correct is annoying me far to much to spin this jape out much longer.

As for scrolling on iPhone, yeh I just use 3 fingers teehee. I’m reliably informed, its the perfect number, 8 out of 10 cats agree and you can’t argue with that, its science.

Scrolling on Mac is wayyyy back in my past and the person I sold my last Mac to can deal with that now because Voiceover sucks too hard for me to feel comfortable using it any more so I gave up before I did myself an injury I’d find it difficult to explain in A & E.

Andy Lane for President.

Truth. 🤨

No point trying to wind him up, He doesn’t seem interested in Bluetooth keyboards.

Anyway, I can’t even be trusted to make sure my socks match. Nobody in their right mind should be trusting me with the nuclear codes. I did hear they were 00000000 until fairly recently, I hope I didn’t just make a major security faux pas before they even showed me where the toilets and fire escape are in the presidential office but either way, I can’t do it. I’m too busy with Be My AI trying to match up 2 socks that aren’t my Ex’s and covered in kiss marks or little hearts.

You need to look elsewhere, seeing as trump did such a bang up job, might I suggest campaigning for Myrah Hindley, the Yorkshire ripper or El Chapo. You know, someone community minded and with a winning smile.

Oh, just in case any moderators are eying this comment up as off topic, I typed it with a Bluetooth keyboard so my behind is covered.

***Update***
Little & Lane - Your next President and Vice President.

And I typed this out on my rusty ole MacBook Pro. So there! 😜

Thanks Andy for the tip on switching between apps with a BT keyboard. I've been trying to figure out how to do that on the phone for a while. You can do the normal CMD+Tab on an iPad, but not an iPhone. Seems most of what I turn up googling for keyboard commands is either macos, or iPados stuff. Like how you can press and hold the command key to get a list of keyboard shortcuts. I don't have an iPad though, so no idea of VO will read those when they pop up.

I've also looked through VO settings and found some keyboard commands I didn't know about, but can't get them to work on mine. Like how you can do VO+FN+F8 to bring up VO settings like on a Mac. I'm wondering though, if my BT keyboard (logitech keys-to-go), doesn't actually have an FN key. The bottom key does seem to switch between system keyboards though, which I don't find useful. I have both control option, and caps lock set as VO modifiers, but find the caps lock key not very reliable. Anyone got any insight?

Supposedly you can also do VO+Shift+L to get an item description, but it does nothing for me. I would love to see the day when you could find an image, press a key command like that, and get a BMAI description. Here's hoping for iOS 18 or 19. lol

I wasn’t aware of that one. I’m using a K380 which when FN is held does send the F8 key through instead of a media control. I have a keys to go I’m going to go try now, please hold for update.

Thanks for holding. We value your call and will be with you just as soon as possible.

Okay so after Be My eyesing the Keys to go and it not finding an FN. I did a bit of googling. And found a Reddit post from Logitech saying the Keys to Go doesn’t have a function row. So that key in the corner is only for switching keyboards etc. There is no FN key after all.

I also checked in keyboard settings in iOS to see if you could change Caps Lock to an FN key and you can’t. You can change it to a globe, command, control or option but not FN. I guess this makes sense because FN is something the keyboard handles and the OS doesn’t know anything about.

Sorry but looks like you don’t get an FN key. The K380 is a great keyboard though and very affordable if you wanted to splash out.yu

It’s a bit mean of Logitech to tease us with that row that feels just like a function key row and not allow it to be anything but media etc. seems like a waste of potential.

Command tab does work on the iPad except it used to work perfectly and quickly but since about mid cycle iOS 16 its unusable. You press command tab and it gets frozen up and won’t scroll past the first app it lands on then even that gets dodgy.

Similar with holding command for available hotkeys. That disappeared a year or more ago. It did work but now it doesn’t. VO won’t read it.

Update to last line, I just tried command to view hotkeys and it worked fine. I don’t know when that came back but seems like I missed it and it’s there again now. Which is great.

Would you be able to type on a QWERTY keyboard? The reason I ask is that it’s so so much easier than a touchscreen. It must take you so long to compose your posts. If you could use the keys on a keyboard, I think it would make things a lot easier for you. You can also use a keyboard to get around the OS a bit although most people use the screen too. If you wanted to get the industry standard keyboard for iOS and voiceover, the Logitech K380 is the one to go for. They do make more luxury models which work well but the K380 is everything you need and nothing you don’t. The batteries last about 5 years, never need charging even with pretty heavy use and it really should speed things up for you. In another post you also mentioned being nervous of Face ID As you move around the site, you’ll start to notice everyone who was nervous of it to start with, even thought it was witch craft and thought it wasn’t for them, all standing up for it and saying how great it is now they are used to it. Honestly it’s so easy to use, you just wave the phone in the general direction of your face and it usually gets you. It’s not as bomb proof as Touch ID but then again, it works in the shower which Touch ID doesn’t so the lord giveth and the lord taketh away. Point is, if you want to stay on SE phones with Touch ID then feel free but also don’t be too nervous of Face ID. People seem to do well with it. Oh and that goes for the swipe gesture too, again not as bomb proof as home button but also works fine. Unless you already know something about your own capability that means you won’t be able to use the gesture easily that is.

Re the thread, it has been a fun one hasn’t it. lol.

VO+Shift+left/right bracket must be an iPadOS thing. The only way I've found to do this on iOS is to invoke the app switcher with VO+H twice, then arrow left and right through the apps.

Yep, that is a bug because it lists the command in the Settings app for Voice Over keyboard commands as switching to the next/previous visible app: left/right bracket. I thought, that's it! They don't have a shift, and no such command can exist! So I added a command with a shift bla, bla. It did nothing. Then I carefully read what the command said. It is for a visible app, and iOS can only have one app visible at a time. This must be a ghost-like relic from when iOS and iPadOS were both iOS or something like that.
Still, there should be a keyboard command for every touch gesture in Voice Over for iOS, and that is a flaw on Apple's end.
* Yes, I got the names mixed up.

Interesting. VO+shift+[ or ] move to the next or previous app just like a four finger left/right. Taking away the shift key is supposed to move to the next or previous visible app, which I'm not sure what that is. Maybe it's an iPadOS thing for when you have two apps in split screen?

If you look at settings>accessibility>VoiceOver>commands>keyboard shortcuts, there are a lot of different ones, many of which are the same as VO uses on a Mac. Perhaps I need to splurge and get a magic keyboard. Also kind of makes me want a mantice braille display. lol

I got the names mixed up, going down the wrong circular path, but the underlying gist still stands. You can't switch apps with the bracket thingies, that visible app command has no business on iOS anymore, and Apple should make a switch to next or previous app keyboard command because there is a touch gesture for it.
My non-Apple screen reader calls them brackets, rather than square brackets, and I mistakenly assumed that the square bracket part comes from shifting them. It turns out that makes a brace. After all, if you aren't accurate to within half the thickness of a sheet of typing paper, you'll miss the moon by a million miles... at least.

I use VO shift and the 2 keys to the leftof the top of the enter key. They are named Left brace and right brace and they do exactly the same as the 4 finger swipe left and right. If you aren’t sure if you’re getting left brace and right braces, try VO k to start voiceover help then play around with shift and the keys around the enter key. It’s possible they may be elsewhere on other keyboards but pretty unlikely. I think every keyboard I’ve used has them there. Next to the top of the enter key.

I think Old bear is going to the moon after all.

Those key combinations, and I've checked several times to be sure they are correct, make a ping sound, but do not switch to another app. I use the latest iOS on a SE 3G
I'm really, really tired of Apples issue with the same software being inconsistent between iPhones.

Sorry mate, that really sucks. I’m doing it right now. I did it to get into safari to write this. TBH theres no reason alt tab shouldn’t work on the phone and the iPad. I honestly think it’s to push you to the next product. The phone is definitely capable of app switching because they allow it in voiceover on some phones apparently. I’m using a 14 Pro Max BTW.

I've been testing a bunch of things on the phone/bluetooth combinations. They do not work on my 2022 SE, and are not listed in the key commands for Voice Over in settings. The good news is I can switch with the four-finger swipe gesture, so it almost doesn't matter to me. Its one of those things where Apple ends up pitting one device user against another, and both are asking, "What world are you living in?" Maybe Paul Martz will tell us which iPhone model he is using.
I considered it might be my keyboard, but any other shift/VO/key-command works correctly. I tried the Caps lock as VO thing and got the same ping. I have no idea what that ping sound means.

I wonder what happens if you turn on voiceover help with VO + H and then try shift VO left brace and right brace. For me it says. Switch to previous app and switch to next app. If I just press shift and those keys it says left brace and right brace.

OK, Andy Lane, I had to do a bunch of fooling around and checking for this one. I even put fresh batteries in my keyboard, just in case.
The help mode seems to not say the shifted character when the other modifier keys are being pressed, like control+option for VO. I had to find another shifted key command that does not include the command key, just to make sure it isn't the keyboard not handling the shift and control or option correctly.
The end result, the VO+shift+left/right-square-bracket has no function output in the help mode, nor anywhere else on my phone. The VO+shift+M does name a function, the correct function, so Vo+shift is working correctly.
By the way, VO+right-square-bracket in the help mode states that it switches to the next visible app, but that isn't a thing on iOS, and does nothing. So I have to just chalk it up to iOS not working the same on my phone as your phone. :P

What happens if you go into commands and assign the next/prev app command to different keys? Something that preferably doesn’t use shift or brackets? ☺️

That's the problem. There is no next/previous app option in the keyboard commands in VO settings, only next/previous visible app, which isn't a part of iOS. It's for iPadOS, as far as I can tell.
Maybe there's some other setting somewhere else that has to be turned on before it magically appears, but I have no idea.

If you go to all commands, can you see it? I mean, if you’re using the four-finger command to do it it has to be in there somewhere. Editing it in there should let you assign it a keyboard command, I’d think.

You beat me to posting it, but I was wondering why I couldn't find three-quarters of the commands, and went hunting. I don't understand what that keyboard shortcut section is there to do, other than to confuse things.
I'm also not sure why you all got the key command already set up on your phones, but mine didn't... Like I said, being off half the thickness of a sheet of paper is all it takes.
*It's in System*

Well, it’s there to show you what keyboard commands actually exist, which is why the fact it wasn’t there makes sense, since for whatever reason on your phone it wasn’t set. As for why, I have no idea. Possibly resetting to defaults might be useful here, although that depends on how much you’ve already customised your commands as to how much of a mess that’d be, 😏.

Think I might know. I cloned my phone from my last phone, and it might not have had that set up.
On the other hand, restoring to default would probably be a catastrophe... I'm not sure because I don't exactly remember what I've changed.

Or, "problem exists between keyboard and chair".

VO+Shift+brackets, or VO+braces, really does switch between apps. I was confused before. Maybe I read the word "bracket" and mistakenly used Command instead of Shift. I'm getting old. Just about at that age where I should switch from a morning cup of coffee to a morning injection of adrenaline directly to the left ventricle.

It does seem a bit sluggish though. Press the key, wait a second, hear some kind of chirp, then maybe VO will announce the app name, but hearing the app name seems to be a coin toss. I'm on an iPhone SE 2020, if that matters.

I do occasionally get a beep and no app switch. I bet this is because the apps are in a non-circular list, and I've reached the end of the list.

Yeah, I don't usually hear the app I've switched to either, but glad I can do it anyway.

I also remapped a couple of commands on my Braille display to do the same thing.

Thanks for the help with getting that working on my phone. It seemed like you have had to recently visit or open the app for it to cycle through it. In other words, it doesn't seem to cycle through the apps that are listed in the app switcher, but if you open Safari, then open Mail it will switch between those.
A couple of things I despise about doing iOS commands with my bluetooth keyboard are there is only one control key--on the left side only, and the keyboard handles the caps lock function, rather than the iPhone. On one hand, having to hold down all those keys because of VO as two keys is too much fumbling around. On the other hand, having to hit the caps lock as VO key again after every use to turn off caps, or forgetting to turn it off pretty much defeats the convenience of having a single key.

I got my little brain to thinkin. Now why shouldn’t I just assign command tab to next app and shift command tab to previous thus circumventing apple’s rediculous limitation of appearing to reserve that command for the iPad even though the phone is perfectly capable of it. Well I toddled off to do my evil bidding but looks like apple got up earlier than I did. You can assign that keyboard command but it does nothing. How rude.