Answering the rhetorical question...

I discovered it when I got momentarily distracted by something while entering text.

On Android letters with alternate versions have ellipsis on the image of the character which pops up when you sweep over it.

> Seriously, how the hell would anyone discover this feature on his own?

That's exactly how I expected it to work. Only goes to show I've been working in close mental proximity to the people who made this feature for a long time. Sometimes even physical proximity.

Totally counter-intuitive to me, as many other aspects of the iPhone interface: perhaps this is why I never send text messages from an iPhone, and why I keep making calls when I just want to see the details of a contact.

The iPhone was just made for somebody younger than me I guess.