Writing on an iPhone

As I’ve previously written, I want to do more writing this year. As an experiment, I’m going to try writing in different locations. I don’t always want to carry a laptop, so I’ve been researching keyboards that work with iPhones. This may sound like madness, but it is something I’ve tried before and found surprisingly effective.

iPhone Bluetooth Keyboards

Previously, I was using a Keys to Go Bluetooth keyboard, which Tim Ferriss recommended on his podcast a long time ago. I rate these little keyboards, but sadly, some keys on mine have gone (no pun intended).

I decided to switch to the MoKo Universal Foldable Keyboard recommended by Meri Williams instead. It weighs 176 grams, which is even lighter than the Keys to Go at 180 grams. It has some nice travel on the keys, but doesn’t have the iPhone-specific buttons (to get the home screen, etc), which is a shame but not the end of the world. Below is a photo of my cat Buzz with both keyboards, the Moko is on the left.

iPhone Writing Apps

The next thing is which app to write in. I went to use SimpleNote for simplicity, but found the font was too small when using the keyboard, and it’s not easily adjustable.

I’ve now settled on Obsidian, which works nicely but does have some slightly strange behaviour in terms of scrolling when typing. Also, I find you need to pump the font up on mobile, which also increases it on desktop, if you’re using the same account.

Focus Time

A weird side effect I noticed is that, because it’s actually more fiddly to multitask on an iPhone with an external keyboard, I find myself focusing on writing more than I do on a laptop. Makes me think that there’s a lot of potential in products that purposely limit distractions; this feels like it merits its own future article.

What’s Next?

I’ll continue to update on how my writing experiments play out.

Additional Information

After writing this, I was surprised to find that the iPhone also supports the Apple Magic Keyboard, which I already own, so I’m planning to experiment with this as well.

If you'd like to contact me then you can email writing@petegraham.co.uk or message me on BlueSky petexgraham.bsky.social.