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.
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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.
- 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.
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