How to Make the Keyboard Bigger on Your iPhone: A Complete Guide

We’ve all been there: You’re trying to fire off a quick text, but instead of “On my way,” you send “Ib mt wat.” The standard iPhone keyboard, while sleek, can feel cramped—especially if you have larger hands or just prefer a more spacious typing experience. The frustration of constant typos and “fat-finger” errors is real, but you don’t have to live with it.

While Apple doesn’t offer a simple “Keyboard Size” slider in the settings, there are several effective workarounds to enlarge your keys and improve your typing accuracy. From native iOS settings to powerful third-party apps, here is your ultimate guide to making your iPhone keyboard bigger.

Method 1: The Native Solution – Display Zoom

The most effective built-in way to increase keyboard size is by using Display Zoom. This feature was designed to make everything on your screen a bit larger—app icons, text bubbles, and yes, the keyboard.

This is the best option if you generally find text on your iPhone a bit too small to read comfortably.

How to Enable Display Zoom:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap on Display & Brightness.
3. Scroll to the very bottom and tap on Display Zoom.
4. Select Larger Text.
5. Tap Done in the top-right corner.
6. Your iPhone will ask to restart to apply the changes. Tap Use Zoomed.

The Pros:

• Significantly larger keys: The keyboard height and key width increase noticeably.
• System-wide consistency: It doesn’t just look like a zoomed-in app; the whole OS scales beautifully.

The Cons:

• Less screen real estate: Because everything is bigger, you see less content (emails, tweets, texts) on the screen at once.

Method 2: The “Quick Fix” – Landscape Mode

If you only need a bigger keyboard occasionally—say, for typing a long email—you don’t need to change any settings. You just need to turn your phone.

When you hold your iPhone horizontally (landscape mode), the keyboard automatically expands to fill the width of the screen, making the keys nearly double their vertical width.

How to Ensure Landscape Mode Works:

1. Open your Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner on newer iPhones, or up from the bottom on older ones).
2. Check the Orientation Lock icon (the padlock with a circle arrow).
3. Ensure it is OFF (white/grey, not red).
4. Open an app like Messages or Mail and rotate your phone sideways.

The Pros:

• Instant: No settings to dig through.
• Massive keys: This provides the largest possible keys without installing new software.

The Cons:

• Limited support: Not all apps support landscape mode (e.g., many social media apps lock you in portrait).
• Loss of vertical space: In landscape, the keyboard takes up almost the entire screen, leaving you very little room to see what you are actually replying to.

Method 3: The Custom Route – Third-Party Keyboards

If you want a bigger keyboard without making your app icons massive (Method 1), you need a third-party keyboard app. The App Store is full of alternatives that offer height sliders and resizing options that Apple’s default keyboard lacks.

Here are the top contenders for size and comfort:

1. Microsoft SwiftKey (Free)

SwiftKey is a favorite for a reason. Not only is its predictive text scarily accurate, but it also allows you to adjust the vertical height of the keyboard.

• How to resize: Install SwiftKey > Open the keyboard > Tap the “…” icon > Select Resize. You can then drag the keyboard up to make it significantly taller.

2. Gboard by Google (Free)

Similar to SwiftKey, Gboard is robust and customizable. It doesn’t have a granular “resize” slider, but its default layout is often perceived as more spacious, and its “Glide Typing” (swiping your finger across keys) can reduce the need for perfect accuracy.

3. Big Keys Keyboard (Paid/Freemium)

If you need really big keys, this is the specialized tool for you. This app abandons the standard QWERTY layout aesthetics to give you giant, easy-to-hit buttons. It also lets you adjust the font size on the keys themselves.

• Best for: Users with vision impairments or those who struggle significantly with standard key sizes.

Method 4: Visual Tweaks – Bold Text & Lowercase

Sometimes, the keys aren’t too small—they are just too hard to see. Making the letters on the keys stand out more can improve your hitting accuracy just as much as resizing them.

Enable Bold Text:

1. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
2. Toggle Bold Text to ON.
3. Your iPhone will restart quickly. The letters on your keyboard will now be thicker and easier to read.

Disable Lowercase Keys:

By default, the iPhone keyboard changes the letters to lowercase when you aren’t capitalizing. Some users find this visual shifting confusing and the smaller lowercase letters harder to target.

1. Go to Settings > Accessibility.
2. Tap on Keyboards.
3. Toggle Show Lowercase Keys to OFF.
4. Now, your keyboard will always display large, capital letters (just like a physical computer keyboard), regardless of whether you are typing in caps or not.

Summary: Which Method is Right for You?

• Go with Display Zoom if you want a “set it and forget it” solution and don’t mind slightly less content on your screen.
• Go with SwiftKey if you want a taller keyboard but want to keep your icons and text size normal.
• Go with Landscape Mode if you only struggle when writing long paragraphs.
• Go with Bold Text if your issue is more about visibility than finger dexterity.