Writing the Definitive Guide For Using an iPhone With a Bluetooth Keyboard
Tags: ios, keyboard, iphone, collaboration
Published: 2021-04-21 02:18:46

---
title: Writing the Definitive Guide For Using an iPhone With a Bluetooth Keyboard
published: true
description: An open call for collaboration/feedback regarding the creation of a reference guide for iPhone Bluetooth keyboard use.
tags: ios, keyboard, iphone, collaboration
//cover_image: https://i.snap.as/DwWLDmo1.jpeg
---
![iPhone 12 Pro Max and Magic Keyboard](https://i.snap.as/DwWLDmo1.jpeg)

When I graduated high school in the Spring of 2012, my mom offered me a choice: I could go to Community College with a new laptop, or a new iPhone. I was still on the kick that'd started with my first-generation iPhone, four years earlier, and decided to take the bet. Instead of a new laptop, I entered my first vaguely-collegiate experience armed with an iPhone 4S and an original Magic Keyboard, beginning an experiment that's more-or-less ongoing (there have been intermittent pauses, notably.)

Over the years since, I have accumulated a lot of evidence to suggest that number of *iPhone* users who’ve used a hardware keyboard with their phone is *extremely* tiny (which I believe to be entirely reasonable and inevitable,) but I think also believe it’s a dynamic that’s still worth documenting properly. Frankly, I can say definitively that **it absolutely has not been**, thus far.

As you may have observed, even the association of iPad and keyboard in the past few years has actually made it worse - lookup any given iOS app’s keyboard shortcuts and you’ll return a list *for iPad* and nothing else. Over the years, I’ve maintained a habit of going down the iPad list, testing each shortcut on iPhone, noting down which of the iPad shortcuts respond on the latter in a table, and then emailing said list to the app's developers. (Naturally, they almost never respond. Shout out to [Tapbots](https://bilge.world/tweetbot-6-ios-review) for being the only recent exception.) After refocusing the bulk of my attention back on iOS and its adjacent communities, this year, I've looked around and come to a conclusion: **if ever there is going to be a consolidate reference for those who regularly use a bluetooth keyboard with their iPhones, I am going to have to write it, myself**.

Currently, my end target draws influence from the ebooks published by the *MacStories* team - like [Tim Nahmuck's Drafts 5 "Review"](https://www.macstories.net/reviews/drafts-5-the-macstories-review/) (which is closer to a User Manual than an App Review) - but it's most important that it be in the form(s) which add maximum value to readers/users. In that vein, I must acknowledge that I cannot accomplish it entirely on my own, yet am fairly inexperienced with the sort of collaboration I'd imagine will be involved.

So...

**If anyone would like to advise on this in any capacity**, I would very much appreciate hearing from you via any method you'd like (see the info below.) 

**Anyone who has used a Bluetooth keyboard with their iPhone at any point**, I'd actually *beg* you to share any thoughts/requests/suggestions you may have.

***

## Some Contact Info

* [Email](mailto:davidblue@extratone.com)  (davidblue@extratone.com)
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If for whatever reason you'd prefer to text/leave a voicemail, here's my personal phone number: +1 (573) 823-4380