Remote page turning on iOS (almost any reading app)

Update (15 Jul 2022): I found a better solution now. SYUKUYU RF Remote Control Page Turner — it's a physical clip that imitates the finger touch. No setup needed, you just clip it to the side of any touch device (iPhone, iPad, Kindle) and flip the pages. It has downsides (you can't flip pages back, and the clip takes space and covers a tiny portion of the screen), but the setup is 'plug and play', so I prefer this solution now.

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Hey guys, just wanted to share how I finally set up remote page flipping on my iPad in the Kindle app, or Books or any other iOS reading or presenting app where you can flip the pages by physically touching the side of the screen.

I usually read while laying on my side in bed, and sometimes it's very, very convenient to snuggle under the blanket and not reach out for the page turn. Downvote all you like, but there are people with genuine physical limitations who could find it useful — I've been searching for a solution like this for ages, and they are always there, looking, too. Here's a video.

Get a Bluetooth remote

It doesn't matter what you use as long as you can connect the "remote" to your iPad and any of the buttons work to change the volume level (or at least move it "up"). Should cost you ~10 dollars.

Connect your remote to your iPad.

Set up accessibility settings

• On your iPad, go to Settings > Accessibility > Switch Control, and switch the toggle on.
• Then, staying in the same Switch Control menu, go to Switches, add your new External switch (your Bluetooth clicker), and call it somehow (I called mine Button).
• Then, go to Recipes > Create New Recipe… > Assign a Switch, pick your Button or whatever you called it, and then add an action Right to Left Swipe. Save your recipe with any name (mine was Turn Pages).

Now you should be able to use your clicker to emulate the swipe from right to left when the Switch Control setting is on.

Bonus: set up an iOS Shortcut

Because having accessibility reminder strip on top of an iPad screen is mostly unnecessary outside of the reading scenario, and it also gets in the way of most top-level nav items (looking at you, Apple Accessibility team), I've created a shortcut called "Read a book".

I pinned it to the Home screen of an iPad with iPad OS (but should be fine for iOS 13, too, I think?). When I use this shortcut, my iPad sequentially: switches the Bluetooth on, connects to the Button, switches on the Switch Control, and opens the most recently read book in Kindle. Here's the recipe, simple.