Hiding virtual keyboard on iOS devices

For me on ipad there is always a "hide keyboard" button on
the bottom right of screen. Last thing on there.

Jhe button is there for me too! And I make use of it VERY FREQUENTLY!!
I can tell from experience that it's there. But, I al have found that it's hard to find if the device is in portrait mode. I have a few apps that run or have ran in portrait mode. Maybe others opinions will be different on this. But this has been my experience. If all else fails, you can put your device in landscape mode find the button do whatever you need to do, and then put the device back in portrait mode. Or if you want to leave it in portrait mode, then you could go to the space bar, and swipe right with 1 finger until you hear the hid keyboard button. I find I do a lot of swiping and typing in portrait mode. As I find it hard to work/type in portrait mode. But that's just me. Hope this helps.

There is either the Done button/bar (context dependent - at least in this box where I'm typing right now it is present) or on URL bar, for example, one has to start dragging down above the keyboard and drag (the whole page) down long enough, to the bottom.

This interests me as well, and no the done button is not the solution, since it will complete the given task which is not exactly what I want to achieve. Additionally, in many edit fields such as the Facebook example, this button just inserts a new line. This is one thing I like about Android, you just press the back button and the keyboard is gone.

I agree, this omission is bizarre given how mature iOS is, and it frequently creates a frustrating experience, especially with apps from smaller developers. I can’t imagine that Apple has an affirmative reason for the omission, especially since the option is included on iPad’s version of iOS, but the inclusion also suggests that Apple has considered the problem, making its absence on iPhone, etc., even stranger. Hopefully Apple will notice this and update accordingly, ideally in a quick minor update.

There is also a bug where the on-screen keyboard isn't visible sometimes after a braille display becomes disconnected. So, for example, you cannot enter text in a text field or dictate unless you reboot your device. If there was a gesture to make this happen, even if it was one that had to be enabled by customizing it, this would be helpfpul for this situation also. I think I made Apple aware of this about 5 years ago, but they never fixed the bug or took the suggestion.

Apple did not leave this option out, but I have noted a few times when the button is not there. I can confirm that the button is present when writing a reply here.

The ”Done-button” mentioned above is not the Enter/Ok-button in the lower right corner of the virtual keyboard. The ”Done-button” is located above the right side of the virtual keyboard. For example, if I put my finger on the letter ”P” and slide my finger up I hit a button called ”Done”. This button stops the interaction with the current text field and closes the virtual keyboard.

Hope this helps.

To hide it, slide your finger down from above the text-entry box and the keyboard will start to disappear. Carry on until only the text-entry box is left. To make the keyboard reappear, tap the text-entry box and it will shoot right back up so text can be entered again.