APPLE has dropped a MAJOR hint about its plans for future smartphone interfaces.
The Sun reports tech giant has hidden two secret types of keyboard inside iOS 10.3, the latest version of the operating system which powers iPhones and iPads.
These two new keyboards will change the way users type.
One of them appears to be a “gestural keyboard” which lets you delete by swiping left on any key and insert a space by swiping right.
The other is a teeny-tiny “floating” keyboard which can be moved around the screen.
On the larger iPad Pro screen, this interface is about as large as the one people use to type on an iPhone, so could end up being very useful.
An Irish computer expert called Steve Troughton-Smith discovered the keyboards in a beta version of the software which was distributed to developers this week.
You can see how they work in the tweets below.
More on the new iPad keyboards—they date back to iOS 10.0, it seems, and there are two: a gestural keyboard, and the floating keyboard
This is iPad’s gestural keyboard (similar to Playgrounds’ programmer one). You can swipe left/right on any key to backspace or space
The keyboards are actually hidden with the iOS code, which means they are not easily accessible.
This probably mean they are still in development and will be introduced in upcoming smartphones and tablets.
Apple is expected to release a new iPhone later this, as well as an iPad.
Its next smartphone is expected to be a big release to mark the 10th anniversary of the first ever iPhone.
