Apple is finally updating its keyboard with iOS 9, adding a minor but important tweak: uppercase and lowercase letters on the on-screen iPhone keyboard.
This is a tiny detail, but it proves to be quite important when it's missing. It's the little things that count, and Apple is now adding a long-overdue update to its keyboard. So far, regardless of whether you tapped Shift to have all caps or not, all letters on the on-screen iOS keyboard appeared as capitals (see image above). With iOS 9, the keyboard will finally ditch the all caps look for a clearer layout.
This may sound like an insignificant detail for Android users, as they didn't have to deal with this issue. For iOS users, however, it often got frustrating when typing because it wasn't clear enough whether the keyboard was set to be all-caps or in lowercase. The Shift button would turn gray when tapped so users could write in caps, and remain white otherwise, but users often forgot which color stood for lowercase and which for uppercase, or they hit Shift by accident and didn't realize they changed the style. As a result, most of the time iOS users would start typing to see whether they're "yelling" in all caps or not.
For several years now, iOS users have been asking Apple to update its keyboard, and the company finally addresses the issue. After adding third-party keyboard support on iOS 8, Apple is now ready to deliver an updated keyboard of its own on iOS 9. This could see the return of many users who ditched the stock iOS keyboard for third-party apps such as Swype, SwiftKey or others such.
Aside from the capital layout issue, the functionality of Apple's own keyboard is quite nice and reliable. It's odd that Apple's keyboard always used capital letters so far, but at least from now on it will get better.
The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 9, will not roll out to the general public until the fall, but the software is currently available in beta for those who want to try it out before the general release. To get an early taste of iOS 9, simply sign up for the beta program.
