Apple’s latest iOS supports third-party keyboards, and iPhone users must want to know which perform the best.
With features such as swipe-to-type, smarter predictive text, and even the ability to learn users’ typing behavior by tapping into other apps, third-party keyboards are the way to go for those who spend plenty of time constructing prose on their Apple mobile devices.
Check out five of the best keyboards below.
Possibly the best predictive text keyboard out there, SwiftKey is excellent at “learning” from the user’s typing style and frequently used terminologies.
Because SwiftKey “remembers” a user’s preferences and habits and sends it to SwiftKey Cloud, a Google or Facebook-connected storage service, those with multiple Apple devices will enjoy the same personalized predictive typing experience across their gadgets.
SwiftKey is excellent for both swipe-typing and tap-typing, and comes in both light and dark themes.
Price: Free from the App Store.
Feeling frustrated at being unable to view a message in its entirely because the standard keyboard occupies a good chunk of the iPhone’s screen?
Minuum features a design that keeps the keyboard as small and unobtrusive as possible, which leaves the screen nicely clear and open.
The minimized keyboard is fast and easy to type on, and users also have the option of going back to a regular keyboard by swiping up.
Swiping down brings the small keyboard back, swiping left deletes the previous word, and swiping right adds a space.
Users can also add words to Minuum via a custom dictionary.
Price: Current on sale at $0.99 (normal prices $3.99)
The original swipe-to-type keyboard on Android, Swype is very much like SwiftKey in terms of functionality.
The iOS 8 version features more themes, a personal dictionary for custom words, and the option to allow Swype to automatically pick up the user’s unique words and remember them in the dictionary.
Price: $0.99 from App Store.
TouchPal is very similar to the stock iOS 8 keyboard, with the exception of smart gestures such as swiping up for numbers, down for symbols, and left to delete words.
Unlike SwiftKey and Swype, however, TouchPal requires users to manually select the predicted words and insert them into a line.
Of all the keyboards mentioned here, TouchPal is the only one that offers swipe-to-insert, in-built emojis.
Price: Free from App Store
This is not a swipe-to-type keyboard.
However, Fleksy has plenty of other useful features such as backswiping on the keyboard to delete words, and the option to replace your words with Fleksy’s suggestions by swiping down on the keyboard.
Fleksy can connect to the user’s Twitter, Facebook, and Google to “learn” the user’s typing style.
The iOS 8 version comes in 12 colorful themes and three size options of the keyboard.
Price: 99 cents from the App Store.
