Is there any way to detect when the backspace/delete key is pressed in the iPhone keyboard on a UITextField that is empty? I want to know when backspace is pressed only if the UITextField is empty.

Based on the suggestion from @Alex Reynolds in a comment, I've added the following code while creating my text field:

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
          selector:@selector(handleTextFieldChanged:)
              name:UITextFieldTextDidChangeNotification
            object:searchTextField];

This notification is received (handleTextFieldChanged function is called), but still not when I press the backspace key in an empty field. Any ideas?

There seems to be some confusion around this question. I want to receive a notification when the backspace key is pressed. That's it. But the solution must also work when the UITextField is already empty.