An increasing number of iPhone users are reporting a persistent iOS 17 bug that causes the app switcher to suddenly appear when they are typing on the screen. If you have experienced this frustrating issue, you are not alone.
Apple Community forums and Reddit contain similar reports of people being kicked out of Messages, Notes, and other apps mid-sentence only to find themselves in another app because they were still tapping the screen when the app switcher suddenly appeared.
You can see it in action here. The bug can be hard to replicate, but it seems to happen to affected users when they have been typing on the virtual keyboard at pace for a while. The bug has been reported in all versions of iOS 17 up to and including the most recent iOS 17.1.2 update, and some users have returned their iPhone only for it to occur on the replacement device, suggesting that Apple is not sufficiently aware of the problem.
Until Apple deals with the issue, there is a temporary fix – or more accurately a workaround, since it involves turning off Reachability, a feature that some users will undoubtedly miss. Reachability is an optional feature that lowers the top half of the screen so it’s within easy reach of your fingers. Here’s how to disable it.
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- Open Settings on your iPhone.
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- Tap Accessibility.
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- Under “Physical and Motor,” select Touch.
- Turn off the switch next to Reachability.
Disabling Reachability appears to stop the typing bug in its tracks for everyone affected, which suggests Apple has an unidentified sensitivity issue linked to the accessibility feature.