Two iOS 12 features nobody has noticed

[canesalato]

1) Mobile Safari supports HTML 5 fullscreen API. Translation: the youtube website will finally play fullscreen videos on your iPad

2) Text selection in Safari has been redesigned to work more similarly to how it works on a Mac with a mouse cursor: double tap over a word to start selecting and drag your finger to extend the selection (sometimes it only works after pinch-to-zoom, i hope it’s a bug).
Works with text you are typing, like in Notes AND with text displayed on webpages in Safari (but a bit buggy currently in Safari).
Tested on an iPad, not sure about the iPhone. Works with finger AND Apple Pencil.

It might seem like a small change, but if you are an iPad power user, this is huge, as it makes text selection as powerful and fast as on a laptop, but actually better, because you can still use the handles to subtract selection, if needed, which you cannot do on a Mac.

Very cool =)

 

[macintoshmac]

1) Mobile Safari supports HTML 5 fullscreen API. Translation: the youtube website will finally play fullscreen videos on your iPad

2) Text selection has been redesigned to work more similarly to how it works on a Mac with a mouse cursor: double tap over a word to start selecting and drag your finger to extend the selection (sometimes it only works after pinch-to-zoom, i hope it’s a bug).
Works with text you are typing, like in Notes AND with text displayed on webpages in Safari (but a bit buggy currently in Safari).
Tested on an iPad, not sure about the iPhone. Works with finger AND Apple Pencil.

It might seem like a small change, but if you are an iPad power user, this is huge, as it makes text selection as powerful and fast as on a laptop, but actually better, because you can still use the handles to subtract selection, if needed, which you cannot do on a Mac.

Very cool =)

Text selection has worked like that for me for a long, long time now. I double tap the word and then start dragging till I want.

 

[canesalato]

Text selection has worked like that for me for a long, long time now. I double tap the word and then start dragging till I want.

On the iPad? Interesting.
It definitely doesn’t work for me my iOS 11 safari (iPad Pro 10.5) but works on my iOS 12 12.9 iPad.

Edit: I see what you mean. Indeed, it is already implemented in iOS 11 but not in Safari (or my safari is bugged). With 12 they just added this modality of selection to any text that you can select in Safari.

 

[JayJohnPaul]

Text selection has been redesigned to work more similarly to how it works on a Mac with a mouse cursor: double tap over a word to start selecting and drag your finger to extend the selection

My iPhone 3GS that’s running on iOS 6.1.6 has the same mentioned feature, I just tested it. Definitely not a new or a redesigned feature.

 

[Nikhil72]

Re: HTML5 fullscreen API, this is such a great improvement. See also Instagram stories.

 

[canesalato]

My iPhone 3GS that’s running on iOS 6.1.6 has the same mentioned feature, I just tested it. Definitely not a new or a redesigned feature.

I’m convinced you are mistaking. Both my iPad and my iPhone under iOS11 don’t have it.
[doublepost=1528994349][/doublepost]This is iOS11 when you double tap text

And this is how it behaves in iOS12. As you can see it behaves completely differently, similar to how it works with a trackpad. Note that i’m not using the handles, i’m just double tapping and dragging my fingers, without lifting my finger after the second tap.

 

[Doz007]

Hmmm, I can do the same this with 3D Touch in Safari on iOS 11.4.

A single tap and hold selects the word, keep your finger on the screen and 3D Touch to select multiple words or lines or text.

 

[GreyOS]

I’m convinced you are mistaking. Both my iPad and my iPhone under iOS11 don’t have it.
[doublepost=1528994349][/doublepost]This is iOS11 when you double tap text

And this is how it behaves in iOS12. As you can see it behaves completely differently, similar to how it works with a trackpad. Note that i’m not using the handles, i’m just double tapping and dragging my fingers, without lifting my finger after the second tap.

Is this a fair summary?

In iOS 11 Safari, if you "tap, hold and move around", it selects one word at a time. This is mode 1. You can also double tap a word to bring up the two handles. This puts you into mode 2. In mode 2 you can "tap [a handle], hold and move around" to extend the word selection.

In iOS 12 Safari, "double tap, hold and move around" immediately goes into mode 2 without having to bring up the handles first.

 

[C DM]

Is this a fair summary?

In iOS 11 Safari, if you "tap, hold and move around", it selects one word at a time. This is mode 1. You can also double tap a word to bring up the two handles. This puts you into mode 2. In mode 2 you can "tap [a handle], hold and move around" to extend the word selection.

In iOS 12 Safari, "double tap, hold and move around" immediately goes into mode 2 without having to bring up the handles first.

There's also the 3D Touch aspect to it as well, as was mentioned a few posts ago.

 

[GreyOS]

There's also the 3D Touch aspect to it as well, as was mentioned a few posts ago.

So is this another fair statement? iOS 12 removes the need for 3D Touch to jump straight into mode 2?

Apple definitely don’t talk about 3D Touch these days and since they enabled long press in Control Centre to do the same thing as 3D Touch, it does feel like they don’t really want to expand it.

 

[C DM]

So is this another fair statement? iOS 12 removes the need for 3D Touch to jump straight into mode 2?

Apple definitely don’t talk about 3D Touch these days and since they enabled long press in Control Centre to do the same thing as 3D Touch, it does feel like they don’t really want to expand it.

Hard to say as I'm not sure what the experience is in relation to that (3D Touch) and text selection is in iOS 12 (so far).

 

[az431]

Text selection has worked like that for me for a long, long time now. I double tap the word and then start dragging till I want.

Doesn't work like that on my iOS 10 or 11 devices.

 

[canesalato]

Hmmm, I can do the same this with 3D Touch in Safari on iOS 11.4.

A single tap and hold selects the word, keep your finger on the screen and 3D Touch to select multiple words or lines or text.

So you cannot do the same. You can do a different gesture to achive the same result of the one I described, but only on 3d touch iPhones. Ironically, I was the first to talk about this feature on this forum, when it appeared back in the day, and a lot of people came commenting “what are you saying? There is no 3d touch involved in text selection, it’s just the old tap and hold!” =)
iPads have no 3d touch, but the new gesture doesn’t require it.
[doublepost=1529029771][/doublepost]

Is this a fair summary?

In iOS 11 Safari, if you "tap, hold and move around", it selects one word at a time. This is mode 1. You can also double tap a word to bring up the two handles. This puts you into mode 2. In mode 2 you can "tap [a handle], hold and move around" to extend the word selection.

In iOS 12 Safari, "double tap, hold and move around" immediately goes into mode 2 without having to bring up the handles first.

Almost correct. With iOS 12 it’s not “double tap, hold and drag”. It is just “double tap and drag”. After the double tap, without lifting the finger or holding, you can immediately start dragging your finger and text selection will follow it. The handles appear but you don’t actually use them, they are there in case you want to edit your selection after the drag.

 

[dannyyankou]

Text selection has worked like that for me for a long, long time now. I double tap the word and then start dragging till I want.

I have an old phone on iOS 6 and it worked.

 

[cmaier]

I’m not seeing this double tap behavior on iOS12

 

[rjp1]

I'll try the text selection feature out when 12 comes out. It looks useful.

 

[canesalato]

I’m not seeing this double tap behavior on iOS12

You mean you are not able to do it on your test device? Might be a bug.

 

[cmaier]

You mean you are not able to do it on your test device? Might be a bug.

I can’t do it on either of my test devices (iPhone X or iPad Pro). Behavior I am seeing is identical to ios11.

 

[Feenician]

It does work as @canesalato describes for me on most pages but some, like MR forums, it does not work on the body of the page. It does work in the comment box. I assume it’s because of the crappy JavaScript quote menu thing. Also, it seems impossible to select text at all in the body of the page after typing in the comment box, until after posting the reply.

Apart from the problems here, I really like the new selection behavior.

 

[canesalato]

I can’t do it on either of my test devices (iPhone X or iPad Pro). Behavior I am seeing is identical to ios11.

Uhmm, the feature is still pretty buggy and some sites work better than others. I'm sorry you haven't got it working yet.