71 More Special Characters Are Hiding Within Your Keyboard on iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 — Here's What's New

The keyboard on your iPhone or iPad has a few new tricks up its sleeve with Apple's latest software updates, such as improved autocorrect and emoji stickers. However, a particularly hidden feature that lets you change the sound values of letters in other languages has gone unnoticed — until now.

On iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, there are 71 additional diacritical and accented letters hidden in the stock English (US) keyboard, bringing the new total up to 164 letters with diacritics and accents. All these special letters indicate pronunciation (accent, tone, stress) or meaning in primarily non-English written languages.

Apple has not announced this feature, and it probably never will since it's not as big as others like Live Stickers, secure Private Browsing, or even multiple timers. I haven't seen anyone else mention the new diacritical marks, so it seems Apple really slipped this one in without much fanfare.

The 71 new diacritical marks include characters with acute accents, double acute accents, bars (or strokes), breves, carons (or haceks), cedillas, circumflexes, commas, ogoneks, overdots, rings, and tildes, as well as the characters eth, sharp s, thorn, and dotless i. Here's everything new:

Letters     Names

Ǎ ǎ         A/a-caron, A/a-hacek, A/a-hacek, A/a-haček
Ă ă         A/a-breve
Ą ą         A/a-ogonek
Ċ ċ         C/c-overdot
Ď ď         D/d-caron, D/d-hacek, D/d-hacek, D/d-haček
Ð ð         eth, edh
Ě ě         E/e-caron, E/e-hacek, E/e-hacek, E/e-haček
Ẽ ẽ         E/e-tilde
Ğ ğ         G/g-breve
Ġ ġ         G/g-overdot
Ħ ħ         H/h-bar or H/h-stroke
İ           dotted I, I-dot, I-overdot, I-tittle
ı           dotless i
Ĩ ĩ         I/i-tilde
Ǐ ǐ         I/i-caron, I/i-hacek, I/i-hacek, I/i-haček
Ķ ķ         K/k-cedilla
Ľ ľ         L/l-caron, L/l-hacek, L/l-hacek, L/l-haček
Ļ ļ         L/l-cedilla
Ň ň         N/n-caron, N/n-hacek, N/n-hacek, N/n-haček
Ņ ņ         N/n-cedilla
Ő ő         O/o with double acute accent, O/o-hungarumlaut
Ǒ ǒ         O/o-caron, O/o-hacek, O/o-hacek, O/o-haček
Ř ř         R/r-caron, R/r-hacek, R/r-hacek, R/r-haček
ẞ           sharp s, eszett
Ş ş         S/s-cedilla
Ș ș         S/s-comma
Ț ț         T/t-comma
Ť ť         T/t-caron, T/t-hacek, T/t-hacek, T/t-haček
Þ þ         thorn
Ų ų         U/u-ogonek
Ů ů         U/u-ring
Ű ű         U/u with double acute accent, U/u-hungarumlaut
Ũ ũ         U/u-tilde
Ǔ ǔ         U/u-caron, U/u-hacek, U/u-hacek, U/u-haček
Ŵ ŵ         W/w-circumflex
Ŷ ŷ         Y/y-circumflex
Ý ý         Y/y-acute

To find them on your iPhone or iPad, open the stock English (US) keyboard in any app, then long-press the key for either the uppercase (majuscule or capital) or lowercase (minuscule) letter for which you want to add a diacritic or accent. Then, slide your finger to the correct mark.

• Full Guide: Every Hidden Special Character on Your iPhone's Keyboard That You Can Unlock Right Now

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Cover photo and screenshots by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks