IOWand

Gestures guide

Everything you can do with IOWand, in one place. The same guide is built into the app: Settings, Tutorial. Not connected yet? Start with Connect your phone.

Trackpad

The whole empty area above the palette is the trackpad. The computer turns each gesture into what it expects.

  • Move the pointer

    Slide one finger. Faster movements travel further, like a laptop trackpad.

  • Click

    Tap once. Switch off Tap to click in Settings if you prefer.

  • Double-click and triple-click

    Tap twice quickly for a double-click, three times for a triple-click.

  • Drag

    Tap, then touch again right away, hold and move. Lift to drop. Moves windows, selects text and drags files.

  • Right-click

    Tap once with two fingers.

  • Scroll

    Slide two fingers in any direction. A quick flick keeps gliding after you lift; touching the pad stops it. Natural scrolling is a setting.

  • Zoom

    Pinch in or out with two fingers.

    Mac: zoom. Windows: Ctrl + scroll.

  • Three-finger swipe up

    Shows all your windows.

    Mac: Mission Control. Windows: Task View.

  • Three-finger swipe down

    Shows the current app's windows or the desktop.

    Mac: App Exposé. Windows: Show desktop.

  • Three-finger swipe left or right

    Moves to the next or previous desktop.

    Mac: switch Spaces. Windows: switch virtual desktops.

  • Touch rings and gesture badges

    A ring shows under each finger, a pulse marks clicks, and a badge names the gesture: Scroll, Pinch, Drag, Right click or 3-finger swipe.

    On by default; switch off Show touches and gestures in Settings.

  • Latency readout

    Hold four fingers still on the trackpad for about 1.2 seconds to show or hide a small latency readout.

Two touch rings on the trackpad with a Scroll badge above them, connected to Studio Mac.
A two-finger scroll, with touch rings and the Scroll badge.
The Trackpad gestures page of the in-app tutorial: Move, Click, Drag, Right-click, Scroll, Zoom and Three-finger swipe.
The same gestures in the in-app tutorial.

Keyboard and palette

Labels always match the computer you're controlling: Command and Opt on a Mac, Win and Alt on Windows.

  • Swipe the palette

    The shortcut palette above the keyboard has three pages: Keys, Media and System. Swipe sideways to change page; the dots show where you are.

  • Modifier for one key

    Tap Shift, Control, Opt/Alt or Command/Win once: it applies to the next key or click only. Or hold it while you press another key.

  • Lock a modifier

    Double-tap a modifier to lock it on. Tap it again to unlock.

  • Hide or show the palette

    The grid button in the top bar hides the palette for more trackpad space and brings it back.

  • Dictation

    Tap the microphone in the top bar, or the mic key on the iOS keyboard, and talk. Words are typed on the computer as you speak until you tap it again.

    The top-bar microphone recognises speech on your device.

  • Landscape split keyboard

    Turn the phone sideways: the keyboard splits into two halves with a palette above each, and the trackpad runs across the top and down the middle.

  • Paste in from your iPhone

    The Paste in key sends the text on the phone's clipboard to the computer and pastes it there.

  • Copy out to your iPhone

    The Copy out key copies whatever is selected on the computer and puts it on the phone's clipboard, ready to paste into any iPhone or iPad app.

  • Hardware keyboard on iPad

    Keys and modifiers from a keyboard connected to the iPad go straight through to the computer.

Gamepad

On Windows with the free ViGEmBus driver, games see a virtual controller. Otherwise, and on every Mac, input is mapped to keyboard and mouse.

  • Switch to the gamepad

    Tap the game controller button in the top bar. Tap the keyboard button to come back. The sliders button beside it switches layouts.

  • Five layouts

    Touch; Letters (A B X Y); Shapes (triangle, circle, cross, square); Letters, swapped; Arcade (D-pad, 6 buttons).

  • Floating sticks (Touch layout)

    Each stick appears under the thumb that lands on that half of the screen and follows it. Works in portrait and landscape.

  • Pointer pad

    The shaded pad in the Touch layout is a small trackpad: slide one finger to move the mouse, tap to click, tap with two fingers to right-click, slide two fingers to scroll.

  • Stick click (L3 / R3)

    Tap twice quickly inside a stick area and keep your thumb down on the second touch to click that stick.

  • Gamepad orientation

    Under Gamepad in Settings: follow rotation (default), lock the current orientation, always landscape or always portrait.

The Touch gamepad layout in landscape: LT, LB, RT, RB, Select and Start along the top, a shaded pointer pad in the middle, a D-pad and A B X Y buttons below, and L3 and R3 in the corners.
Touch layout, landscape.
The Touch gamepad layout in portrait: shoulder buttons and Select and Start at the top, a tall shaded pointer pad in the middle, a D-pad and A B X Y buttons at the bottom.
Touch layout, portrait.

Desktop and more

  • Gamepad Mapping on the computer

    On Windows without the ViGEmBus driver, and on every Mac, gamepad input becomes keys and mouse. Choose Gamepad Mapping… in the menu bar or tray to pick a preset or rebind every button and stick.

    See the mapping window

  • Control Center controls

    On iOS 18 or later, open Control Center, tap + at the top left, choose Add a Control and pick IOWand: Keyboard & Trackpad, each gamepad layout, or Last Gamepad. Controls can also go on the Lock Screen or the Action button.

  • Rotation, your way

    Orientation in Settings can be Follow device, Lock portrait or Lock landscape, and it overrides the iOS rotation lock. Trackpad mode can be locked too (Lock rotation in trackpad mode).