Enlarge / The Dvorak layout is now available for iPhone. (credit: Benj Edwards / Ars Technica)
Tired of QWERTY? Starting with iOS 16—which launched last month—the Apple iPhone now supports the 86-year-old Dvorak keyboard layout natively. Previously, Dvorak typing aficionados needed to install a third-party app to use the layout.
Dvorak uses a different arrangement of keys than the standard QWERTY layout with the aim of improving typing speed and ergonomic comfort. August Dvorak and William Dealey invented the layout in 1936 after studying the deficiencies of the QWERTY typewriter keyboard, which was already 60 years old at that point.
Apple and Dvorak have an interesting history. The company first included native Dvorak support for its computers in the US model of the Apple IIc, released in 1984. It included a special "Keyboard" button that would swap the layout between QWERTY and Dvorak logically, but the physical keycaps would need to be re-arranged to match if you needed a label reference.
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