Six Clicks: Best Apple iOS 8 software keyboards

Six Clicks: Best Apple iOS 8 software keyboards

Summary: Apple's iOS 8 includes support for advanced text input software. Matthew has six alternatives installed, so take a look to see which might work best for you.

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  • Several keyboard alternatives are available for iOS 8 devices

    One of the main features of iOS 8 is the improved Apple keyboard and support for third-party alternatives. Apple iPhone users will appreciate the improved Apple QuickType prediction, but there is even more to explore.

    Android users moving to iOS 8 will appreciate seeing keyboards they have been using for a while now also available for their new iPhone or iPad. Developers have been quick to jump on supporting iOS 8 and we have seen regular updates to continue to improve the iOS 8 experience since launch over a month ago.

    Let's take a quick look at the pros, cons, costs, and likely user for each of the top six iOS 8 keyboard options. Feel free to chime in with your preferred option and also let me know if you found more than the six I have highlighted in this gallery.

    Related ZDNet iPhone 6 Plus coverage

  • Swype for iOS 8

    Swype was one of the first alternative keyboards for Android and comes to us from Nuance. It's backed by powerful predictive technology and is one of the most stable keyboards available on iOS 8.

    I first installed it on my iPhone 6 Plus, but I moved on since I didn't realize it had press-and-hold alternative keyboard support. I found out later that I just needed to change the theme to see that that functionality was there. Make sure to use the black theme to see the alternative characters you can easily access.

    • Pros: Press-and-hold for alternate characters so you don't have to jump to the number keyboard, advanced settings, flow capability so you can slide your finger around to enter words, support for entering text using two languages at once, advanced gesture support, and keyboard theme support.

    • Cons: No cloud syncing capability for your custom dictionary.

    • Shift key switch to capital on keyboard: Yes.

    • Price: 99 cents, but available right now for free!

    • What user is this good for? If you are a bilingual user then you will appreciate Swype on iOS 8. Long-time Swype Android fans will also love this keyboard.

Topics: Mobility, iOS, iPhone, iPad, Smartphones

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7 comments
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  • My thoughts . . .

    First of all, I noticed you listed "No emojis" for the SwiftKey keyboard. Considering emoji support is native in iOS (there's an entire emoji keyboard), I don't see that as a big deal. In fact, I'd prefer that I don't have the limited screen real estate wasted by an emoji key.

    Not to mention it's hard to tell who supports what emojis. I'm constantly communicating cross-platform, so sending an emoji to somebody whose platform doesn't render the emoji correctly has been a problem sometimes. I'd rather not send emoji at all, to be honest.

    That being said - touch-and-hold support is something I use occasionally, and is something I find desirable in a keyboard. The occasional English word borrowed from a foreign language, the occasional dash or ellipses, etc.

    I'll also state that I don't really get the point of "swipe to type" on a keyboard. I tried it, and I felt that the friction of the screen really slowed me down a lot. I basically touch type on a PC and on the phone, and it's really hard to improve on that. It feels like a feature for people who normally hunt-and-peck, so it's a feature I'll never use.

    What I *would* like to see is a keyboard that has support for all of iOS' features, but with the following changes:

    * Something like Flesky or Minnum with an emphasis on simplicity would be great, but not at a loss of features (alternative characters, voice dictation, word predictions at the top).

    * Do not give me a shift key that is totally f***ed up like the current iOS shift key.

    Actually, a keyboard that is exactly like the iOS keyboard, but without the messed up shift key would be great . . .
    CobraA1
    • i'm with you on the emojis!

      It doesnt make sense to have a whole other bunch of emojis on the new keyboard because they will send the same character to ther other phone which will render it as the default ios emoji.

      When i was trialling windows phone last summer, I really noticed the difference in emoji meanings between it and my wife's iphone
      MarknWill
  • Fourth Row and Capital Letters Anyone...Anyone

    I played with a Galaxy Note 4 the other day, and I was AMAZED and how good, and handy , its keyboard is. Why in the world can't we have two simple things: (1) a fourth row for numbers, and (2) lower and upper case letters...how difficult can that be?
    dksmidtx
  • Keyboards for iOS

    So far, I haven't seen any that are really any better on my iPhone 5 than the Apple keyboard, which, frankly, sucks. It isn't so much the size, as the difficulty of entering even the most common punctuation, and special characters. Editing is also more of a pain that a pleasure, and the predictive accuracy is way below 20% in my experience. Not impressed with any of the alternatives. This is one area where Android has the clear advantage.
    rphunter1242
  • iPhone 6 Plus - in landscape - is it just me?

    But why are the letters that you type with all the time are in the middle where it is really hard to reach and the new additions like cut and paste etc are on the edge in easy reach? Ergo-error - my thumbs hurt........
    FWZHR
  • Interesting just a few years ago

    Its kinda like large screens or notifications menu in that iOS never got dinged on the "cons" side of reviews for missing these features yet its all a big deal now that they have it. Keyboards are the same deal, nothing listed in the Cons section but it seems like almost every week I see another story about iOS virtual keyboards.
    Rann Xeroxx
  • Be aware that if you use a third-party keyboard

    They can sniff your keystrokes. iOS warns you about this when you install the keyboard. Just remember this and that free is never free.
    baggins_z