Download a third party iPhone 4 keyboard. Using the iPhone keyboard

Apple opened up the ability to install custom keyboards two years ago. After which the official catalog of applications for iOS was replenished with a large number of third-party keyboards. Most of which did not stand up to any criticism. But there were also some that are still popular. They will be discussed in this article.

Navigation

Swipe

The most popular keyboard for iPhone and iPad from third party developers became Swype. This keyboard is great for both two-handed and one-finger use. This means you can use it even on the go. A predictive word entry option is available. Moreover, the application can predict not only what word you started writing, but even what emoji you want to insert into your text.

Initially, the keyboard did not support the Russian language, but today it is supported. When installing the Swype keyboard on your Apple device, the user can choose a convenient layout:

• QWERTY
• QWERTZ
• AZERTY

If you use an iPad, then when you install this keyboard on your tablet, you will have the ability to simplify input in landscape and portrait mode. In general, the developer tried to make sure that more iPad users install this keyboard. They, unlike iPhone owners 5 free themes available.

The cost of the Swype keyboard is 33 rubles. But, from time to time the developer makes it free. Do not miss your chance.

You can download the Swype keyboard from developer home page or with iTunes Store. There is also a version for Android.

Translator Keyboard

As the name suggests, this keyboard allows you to quick translation text. To do this, you need to select the main language and the language from which you want to translate. The application currently supports 44 languages.

This keyboard can be an excellent assistant when communicating over the Internet with foreigners if your knowledge of their language is not at a very good level. Using Translator Keyboard, you can send messages via instant messengers, communicate in online chats, write emails, etc.
Since this keyboard uses the Microsoft Translate API to perform translation, it requires an Internet connection to work.

Swiftkey Note

Another custom keyboard that can be configured to suit the needs of each user. Android users have already appreciated the capabilities of this keyboard. The possibility of installation in Apple gadgets appeared relatively recently. In Swiftkey, you can enter letters in the usual way or without interruption.

As you use the Swiftkey keyboard, it learns itself. After which the prediction of the words you enter with its help becomes better. Moreover, she can search for the necessary words from your notebook or social networks. At the same time, the user can transfer the “dictionary” of this application to another device.

The Swiftkey keyboard supports the Russian language and is distributed free of charge. If you get tired of her appearance, then you can download and install an alternative theme of this keyboard. For the best of them, unfortunately, you have to pay.

At the time of writing, find the application on the official Apple catalog failed.

Flexy Keyboard

This keyboard makes it to this list not only because of its beautiful design, but also because of its functionality. Control of this application is based on gestures. Like Swiftkey Note, this keyboard can learn on its own. It is possible to connect to mail and social networks to analyze the style of the entered text. The more words you enter using Fleksy Keyboard, the easier and faster you will be able to work with it.

When using this keyboard, it would be advisable to install several extensions supported by it. For example:

• animated gif memes
• separate numeric string
• cursor navigation
• setting for one-handed dialing (right-handed/left-handed)

This keyboard is so popular among Apple supporters that its developer managed to raise $4 million from investors for its development. Users can choose from six colors. And if there are not enough of them, you can buy six more. It is also possible to change the keyboard size.

You can download the Fleksy Keyboard from official Apple application catalog .

Gboard

The developer of this keyboard is Google. AND main feature This application is the ability to use the search for this service directly from the keyboard. To do this, click on the button located above the keys and enter in the search bar that appears the right word or expression.

Of course, the Gboard keyboard is famous not only for its search capabilities. The developer has implemented in it the ability to change the design using user photos. As for the “standard” design, it is minimalist and looks similar to the standard iOS keyboard.

Like most of the keyboards mentioned in this review, Gboard offers one-finger continuous typing. This is possible thanks to the Glyde function. Unfortunately, this keyboard does not yet support the Russian language and the ability to install it is available only to US residents. Let's hope that support for the Russian language will appear soon, too. alternative keyboard will be available to residents of other regions.

Touchpal Keyboard

The main advantage of this keyboard is its huge set of stickers and emojis. In addition to the standard ones, there are text emoticons and Emoji combinations from which you can make entire images. If you need it of course.

Otherwise, it's a standard keyboard with a slightly improved design. The ability to continuously enter the test is present. Russian language support too.

To enable an alternative keyboard after downloading it, you need to go to

“Settings” – “General” – “Keyboard” – “Keyboards” – “New Keyboards”

and choose installed keyboard. Then open its settings and allow full access. Do you use third-party keyboards? If so, which ones?

Video. Swype or Swift? Alternative iOS 8 keyboard

Following the official release of the final iOS versions 8.0, in the app store App Store Several third-party keyboards have appeared, which, as you know, can now be installed on iPhone and iPad with this firmware.

As previously reported, in the new, the final version of which was released to all users this Wednesday, Apple company added a number of changes and improvements. Perhaps one of the expected improvements was support for third-party keyboards, which owners of devices with iOS 8 can now use to replace the standard keyboard.

Just a few hours after the release of the final version of iOS 8, several third-party keyboards from various developers appeared in the Apple app store, which can become a good alternative to the keyboard in iOS that has already become familiar to us. Below is a quick overview of the best (in our opinion) third-party keyboards available for download on the App Store. Instructions for installing third-party keyboards can be found at.

Standard keyboard

The standard iOS 8 keyboard now has a QuickType feature that lets you speed dial messages. At the same time, there is an additional row above the keyboard with several frequently used words or phrases that you can insert into a message, thereby significantly reducing your typing time.

As Apple notes, QuickType is a learning system that will, over time, accurately predict the text you enter. QuickType currently supports English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese Kanji and Thai.

******************************************

Minuum

This keyboard has long become one of the most popular keyboards for owners of mobile devices on the operating Android system and now it's finally available on iOS. Unlike other third-party keyboards, Minuum takes into account that your fingers can be different sizes, so its developers reduced the height of the QWERTY keyboard to save space.

To avoid mistakes when typing on such an unusual keyboard, it is proposed to use built-in dictionaries and predictive recognition methods. In addition, Minuum supports various gestures. At the moment, Minuum only supports English, but in the near future the developers promise to add support for some more languages.

******************************************

Flexy

Fleksy is perhaps the most popular keyboard among owners of mobile devices running the Android operating system. Flexy provides a large number of new features for data entry and demonstrates amazing typing speed, for which it was recognized as the fastest keyboard in the world. Fleksy uses predictive typing so you can enter text without even looking at the keyboard. All that is required of you is at least a similar arrangement of letters, and also that the number of letters in the word you typed and the required word match.

To save space, you can resize your keyboard, easily add punctuation, spaces, and delete words with a simple swipe, personalize your typing with colorful themes with over 800 emoji and smileys, and more. Fleksy supports 40 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Hebrew, Dutch and more!

******************************************

SwiftKey

SwiftKey is another keyboard that was previously only available on Android. This keyboard can adapt to your writing style and guess the word you are typing using the built-in dictionary, thereby significantly reducing your typing time. SwiftKey also includes gesture input—you can place your finger over the display and move it over the characters you want to form words.

According to the developers, the SwiftKey keyboard makes typing faster and easier, and also provides more effective autocorrect and next-word prediction. Currently, SwiftKey supports English, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese and French, but with over 60 languages ​​available on Android, it's likely that the list will soon expand to iOS.

******************************************

Swipe

The developer of the Swype keyboard is famous company Nuance. As with SwiftKey, the Swype keyboard allows you to type text, as well as enter symbols and punctuation marks, not only by pressing the keys, but also using gestures, when the user moves his finger from the first letter of a word to all subsequent ones. Swype keyboard is equipped with a built-in dictionary with the ability to add new words to it, so it can predict what word you are typing.

Of course, while Nuance hasn't made SwiftKey for iOS fully functional yet, accessible to users devices on Android, but in the near future the company promises to expand more functionality. The number of supported languages ​​will also likely increase, because SwiftKey currently only supports text input in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

******************************************

Color Keyboards

If you are wearing a color scheme standard keyboard iOS, you can color it using Color Keyboards. This application allows you to change the color iPhone keyboards, iPad and iPod Touch in any of the more than 20 different colors available. Color Keyboards is very easy to install, but if you don't figure out how to do it, there is a step-by-step instruction on installation.

Rightfully making it a universal iOS gadget. Indeed, why carry an iPhone and iPad with you if a phone with a large display can successfully cope with the tasks of both devices? While the iPhone 6 Plus won't replace the full-fledged computer we use for more serious tasks, it has the necessary capabilities for certain types of tasks. For example, working with text when you are away from your workplace. iPhone display The 6 Plus is large enough to make text readable in landscape orientation. The only thing you'll be missing is a comfortable physical keyboard. They will be discussed further.

When it comes to the iPhone 6 Plus keyboard, it should be large enough to be comfortable to type on, but not so bulky that it's difficult to transport or takes up a lot of space in your bag. The keyboard must also have a stand or other mechanism for securing the phone. Well, and most importantly, it should be inexpensive, since it’s just additional accessory and spend on it a large amount money just doesn't make sense.

There are many keyboards for iPad or iPad mini, which can be used quite successfully with the iPhone 6, due to its size. This is also worth considering if you are looking to purchase a “one-size-fits-all” solution.

Microsoft Keyboards

Many people don't even realize that Microsoft has been making peripherals for ages, and the company recently created a couple of amazing mobile keyboards.

Universal Mobile Keyboard ($80)

One of them is the Universal Mobile Keyboard, which costs about $80 and works great with both Windows, iOS and Android (and it doesn’t even have the Win key, which is so typical of Microsoft peripherals).

The keys of the Universal Mobile Keyboard are covered with an elegant cover made of strong, but quite elastic plastic with a soft-touch coating. It is convenient, but has a small drawback - the “rubberized” coating attracts dust like a magnet.

This very cover also doubles as a stand and, thanks to the mounting method, can be used for both a tablet and a smartphone. At the same time, you can attach the cover-stand to the keyboard using magnets or work separately, placing it in a convenient place on the table.

Unfortunately, the Universal Mobile Keyboard isn't a perfect fit for the iPhone 6 Plus (and its little brother, the iPhone 6). IN horizontal position The phone holds up great (both without a case and in a case), but in a vertical position, due to the rounded edges, the iPhone doesn’t hold up well enough. However, if you rotate the stand 180ᵒ, the iPhone is held quite steadily and you don’t have to be afraid to use it this way.

Although this keyboard has limitations compared to full-size keyboards, it is very comfortable to type on, even touch-type. Available on Universal Mobile Keyboard additional keys, such as Lock-screen, Mute, Volume, Play/Pause, Search, as well as a key to quickly switch between iOS, Android and Windows modes. The keyboard can be used simultaneously with three devices running these OS.

Despite the imperfect compatibility of the Universal Mobile Keyboard with the iPhone 6 Plus (working in vertical orientation), it can be safely recommended as an excellent travel option. It is very compact and allows you to print comfortably even blindly.

Wedge Mobile Keyboard ($80)

Another convenient portable keyboard from Microsoft is the Wedge Mobile Keyboard. It is also quite compact and has a rubberized plastic cover, which, in addition to its protective functions, serves as a stand. By folding it in half, you get a convenient stand. It is practically not compatible with regular smartphones due to their small size, but with tablets and larger phones like the iPhone 6 Plus it works great. The configuration of the keys on the keyboard is almost the same as previous model, it also has additional control keys, except that there is a Win key.

Yandex Market

ZAGG keyboards

Well-known manufacturer of mobile device accessories, ZAGG, also offers two portable keyboards that are especially convenient to use with the iPhone 6 Plus.

ZAGGkeys Flex (80 €)

ZAGGkeys Flex is an ultra-portable keyboard. When folded, it doesn't look very presentable, but you can type very comfortably with it. That same ugly case that spoils the look can be easily removed and folded, turning into a surprisingly strong phone stand. The keyboard has a mac layout and additional control keys.

ZAGGkeys Universal (70 €)

ZAGGkeys Universal has a curved shape and an elegant design. The keyboard is covered with a hard plastic cover, which also serves as a stand. By turning it over, we get a convenient dock that fits perfectly with the iPhone 6 Plus. This keyboard is larger than the Flex, but due to its ergonomic design it is more comfortable and has a more presentable appearance.

Apple Wireless Keyboard

Even though the official Apple keyboard is a Macintosh peripheral, it also works great with iOS devices, although it doesn't have iOS-specific control keys. Its dimensions are larger than the keyboards described above, but it is still compact enough to provide you with portability in many situations.

Yandex Market

To hold your iPhone while typing, you need to use a special case, such as the Origami Workstation ($30).

It's a fairly sturdy case with a hard, hinged cover that opens and then folds down into a pyramid-shaped stand. And while this case is designed for the iPad, it also works great with any tablet or smartphone, so... iPhone installation 6 Plus no problem.

Origami Workstation has a proprietary mount that allows the case to stay on the keyboard even in operating mode, which is very convenient.

More simple and not so costly solution are simple holders like the WINGStand ($12). This is a miniature plastic stand (available in white and black), consisting of two parts that are attached to the iPhone like a clothespin.

The clothespins can be moved and placed on the body as you wish, so the iPhone stands perfectly in both horizontal and vertical modes. The WINGStand is also designed to be attached to the keyboard - thanks to the cylindrical shape at the base, the holder fits onto it and fits very tightly.

However, it is not necessary to attach the iPhone to the keyboard and you can place it nearby on the table. Therefore, WINGStand can be used not only for printing, but also for watching videos, for example.

Folding keyboards

Another type of portable keyboards are folding keyboards, which have very compact dimensions when folded and can easily fit into a bag or even a large pocket.

This design is not new. I'm guessing some of you remember the fancy folding keyboards that were available on Palm PDAs and other similar gizmos about a decade ago. Here is one of these copies, perhaps you had the same one.

Unfortunately, those vintage keyboards, even if you still have them, don't support Bluetooth connections, so you won't be able to use them on your iPhone. If you want, you can find versions with Bluetooth, but they will most likely cost you a pretty penny since those keyboards have long been discontinued. However, there are many modern keyboards of this type, to suit every taste.

Verbatim Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard ($86)

This keyboard folds in half and has a special slot at the top for storing the included stand. The stand can only hold the iPhone 6 Plus in a horizontal position, but has a rather unstable design compared to other analogues.

The keyboard itself is sturdy, regardless of whether it is folded or not. It has large keys with a soft stroke and clear clicks. However, one feature you will need to get used to is that this keyboard has a short space bar, so Alt keys and Command are in the place where your fingers expect to meet the space bar. Included with the keyboard, Verbatim supplies high-quality Leather Case, which will protect your keyboard when you're not using it.

iWerkz Universal Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard ($35)

The iWerkz keyboard is in many ways similar to the previous one, it is full-size and has dimensions similar to laptop keyboards. When folded, it is very compact, its size is slightly larger than the size of the iPhone 6 Plus itself. iWerkz has additional function keys and a hard plastic case that folds down into a convenient stand.

LapWorks Amigo ($140)

There are even more compact keyboards that take up even less space when folded. LapWorks Amigo, unlike its competitors, folds not in half, but in four. This is completely universal keyboard, which works with iOS, Android or any Bluetooth enabled devices. The LapWorks Amigo comes with a stand for tablets and smartphones; with the iPhone 6 Plus it is convenient to use only in horizontal mode.

Desktop use cases

Logitech Multi-Device Keyboard K480 ($50)

The Logitech keyboard is quite large in size and it is difficult to imagine a mobile use case for it, but it is interesting for its versatility, beautiful design and pleasant tactile sensations.

This keyboard works with several operating systems (iOS, OS X, Android and Windows), and also has a convenient wheel for quickly switching between them (see the bright yellow wheel in the upper left corner, that's it). The Multi-Device Keyboard K480 has a large gadget slot that can easily fit a tablet or smartphone, or even both devices at once. Special attention the keys deserve, they are large, have comfortable beveled surfaces and give the keyboard the appearance of a typewriter - it looks very cool. Perhaps they click too loudly, but for some it may even be additional advantage. Also pleasing is the price of the keyboard, which is significantly lower than similar devices.

Yandex Market

Conclusion

Despite the fact that using these keyboards you can perform more or less serious tasks on the iPhone 6 Plus, I would not use it as my main workstation. The iPhone 6 Plus is smaller than the iPad mini, and even on its larger screen compared to other smartphones, situations sometimes arise when there is simply not enough space. However, as an additional working tool, a combination of an iPhone 6 Plus and a portable external keyboard will be very good. Such a keyboard would be an excellent companion for your iPhone, for example, when you go on vacation or travel, where the computer will not be available to you, and sometimes you have to work with texts. The keyboard will take up very little space in your bag, but can be a great help when the need arises.

New eighth version of Apple operating system finally “freed the hands” of Apple users, because now they can even change the keyboard on their iPhone. Apple fans didn’t have to wait long for the AppStore to be filled with themed applications – there are already several keyboards that can handle text input better than the standard ones.

Price: Free

Chinese developer CooTek presented Touch app Pal immediately after the release of iOS 8 in 2014. Russian users At first we ignored the Touch Pal keyboard, because it did not support the Russian language for quite a long time. Since the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, there has been no end to enthusiastic comments on thematic forums.

• Design. Keyboard for iPhone Touch Pal looks very similar to the “native” one, so the user does not have the feeling that he has switched from the iPhone to another gadget. At the same time, the Touch Pal functionality is much richer.
• Typing using waves and swipes.Touch Pal Curve acts as an analogue of Swype technology and allows you to write words without lifting your finger from the screen. There is also a Wave mode, which is responsible for predictive text input: the keyboard is able to predict not only the ending of the word that the user enters, but also the next word.
• Price. Touch Pal - absolutely free product unlike other virtual keyboards (although their price is usually low).

The Touch Pal has a curious flaw: the user cannot switch to punctuation and numbers. To put any punctuation mark, you have to press the key for a long time - this slows down the process of writing a message.

Minuum

At the moment of entering text, the “useful” screen area is reduced by almost half - this is exactly what the developers of the Minuum application noticed. The problem was solved in a rather original way: the keyboard was simply “flattened” vertically. Minuum is a strip with minimum quantity buttons, each of which contains 3 letters (for example, the first button is Q, A and Z). This keyboard for iOS takes up no more than a quarter of the screen.

U Apple user Doubts may arise: is it possible to type correctly and quickly with such placement of letters? It turned out that the lack of information about the vertical arrangement of letters is easily compensated for by dictionaries and recognition algorithms, the presence of which any gadget can now boast of. If you need precise data input (for example, a URL), it is very easy to change the keys to a standard appearance by swiping your finger from bottom to top. As for the printing speed, it, on the contrary, increases, and quite significantly.

However, Minuum has a couple of disadvantages:

• For users with thick fingers, installing such a keyboard is contraindicated.
• Minuum is quite expensive: you can download the keyboard for 299 rubles.

Flexy

Price: Free +

Flexy is the most fast keyboard in the world, and this is not a subjective assessment, but an experimentally proven fact. A 16-year-old Brazilian boy broke the record by typing a complex 25-word sentence in just 18 seconds. He used Fleksy, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records! In addition, the Fleksy keyboard is interesting because over 4 million dollars of investment were attracted to its development.

The main advantage of Fleksy is that it is not at all necessary to hit the keys when typing - even if in a word of four letters all four are typed incorrectly, the user will get the desired result. It is only important that the number of letters in the word matches and misses on the keys are not very serious.

Fleksy has other advantages:

• More than 40 languages ​​supported(including Russian).
• Application setup is flexible: You can make your iPhone keyboard more beautiful by changing its color, or adjust the size of the keys to increase usable screen real estate.
• Installed additional extensions , designed to make communication fun. You can express yourself using gifs, emoticons, emoji (of which there are more than 8 hundred).

The only negative is the difficulty of entering punctuation marks. In order to quickly place signs, you will have to set up gesture controls.

How to change the keyboard on an iPhone?

An iPhone or iPad user has the opportunity to download several keyboards from the AppStore at once and change them at least daily. To activate the downloaded keyboard, you need to follow the path “ Settings» — « Basic» — « Keyboard» — « Keyboards» — « New keyboards" A list will appear - the user should check the box next to that virtual keyboard which he wants to use. In the settings of the application itself, you need to activate the toggle switch “ Allow full access».

Conclusion

Choosing a virtual keyboard is an extremely subjective matter, so recommendations on which one is better will be unnecessary. Try it out as much as possible free options and choose the one that seems most convenient. Paid keyboards (like Minuum) should be used only in extreme cases - for example, if your hands iPhone 4, where the keys cover a good half of the screen.

While preparing the material, we noticed that new keyboards appear almost every day. For example, ai.type. Keyboard appeared much later than TouchPal or SwiftKey, and at first the application was paid. But soon the developers changed their anger to mercy. So it is possible that within a month after our review the situation on the keyboard market will change dramatically.

So, ai.type Keyboard is our first third-party keyboard for iOS 8. At the time of testing, it offered the widest range of capabilities, so we will consider it a kind of starting point for the rest.

Seven covers available - standard iOS interfaces, Android and WP, ​​branded ai.type Keyboard cover, sketch cover and others. It is possible to use your image as a background.

As you can see, there are additional characters, a lot of them, and a separate line is provided for numbers. Based on my experience of using third-party keyboards, one would notice that the mere presence of this line predetermined the choice of the application. But that would be too subjective.

There are many languages, Russian is present. Switching is done by clicking on “Globe”. Keyboard settings can be called up by tapping the button with a special icon.

A very useful feature is the keyboard height adjustment separately for portrait and landscape modes. But there is no text input by sliding, and this is the only omission of the ai.type Keyboard. It’s not that we were fans and campaigned for this particular method, but if there is a demand, it must be satisfied.

In general, the keyboard is quite good and clearly claims to be a favorite among similar applications in the App Store.

SwiftKey – iOS 8 keyboard with sliding support

Somewhat nice keyboard, but without support for the Russian language, according to at least, for now.

Another downside is that there are only two covers, dark and light. There are no additional characters.

But there is SwiftKey Flow, i.e. finger sliding input method. As far as our knowledge of English allowed, we were able to make sure that the definition of the word, even with a few of our errors, is performed correctly almost always. Of course, if the word is more or less common and is in the dictionary. Otherwise, you can add the word to the dictionary yourself so that next time there will be no problems with its spelling.

In addition, the keyboard offers the use of SwiftKey Cloud cloud services to store settings and its dictionary. Convenient when using several devices, including on different “axes”.

GO Keyboard – Russian keyboard for iOS 8

After the capabilities of ai.type Keyboard, I want to see something new, let's see if GOKeyboard can offer it.

Let's start with the covers. There are only three of them, and it seemed to us that the interface of the best one was copied from the “native” iOS keyboard. But you can use your own images as a background.

The period, comma and some additional symbols are present. But switching languages ​​is only possible by “tapping” on the space bar. Those who are used to using the faster Globus may not like this option. And swype is not implemented here either.

There are frankly few settings - choice of languages, predictive input, automatic capitalization, sound when pressed. And the covers, of course. In general, it is still difficult to name a reason that would make GOKeyboard stand out from the rest.

TouchPal is one of the best keyboards for iOS 8

The TouchPal keyboard, unlike the previous application, is much better provided. There is swype, and additional symbols, and various other things.

For example, here is the largest number of covers that we have ever seen. True, if you look closely, only one cover is used, and everything else is just color options.

As a keepsake, we make a cover with an image from the camera and adjust the transparency of the buttons.

There is additional symbols, there are a large number of “emoticons”. Switch between languages ​​- sliding on the spacebar or long “tap” on the Globe. In principle, it’s convenient.

There are not many languages ​​available yet, but Russian is among those already available. The set of settings is usually minimal.

Swype - an alternative keyboard for iOS 8

Here comes the legendary Swype application. Why legendary? Because thanks to its developer, Swype Inc., another Swype trademark has appeared in the world, which has become a household name, like diapers or a copier once. Swype is a combination of the words swipe and type, which as a result became the designation of a text input method.

In any case, “swipe” is now used by many applications, so its founder will have to try hard to prove its uniqueness in practice.

As usual, let's start with the covers. You can’t add your own background, and there aren’t that many preset ones.

There is a period and a comma, there are additional symbols. The latter are displayed only on one keyboard - the one with a dark design. But technically, the symbols are also present on the other covers; you just need to “tap” the desired button.

Actually, about swype. The method works no worse or better than on other keyboards. “Hello, where are you” can be typed in 2-3 seconds, without even taking special aim, but for more complex and rare words a dictionary is used.

The only difference we noticed was the non-trivial use of swype. For example, to select an additional character, you can press the “?123” button and, without releasing your finger, slide to the desired character. Comma – from the comma button to the space bar, all “on the job.” With a little practice and memorizing the placement of characters, you can achieve amazing results in your typing speed.

Selecting a language is a long tap on the space. Going to the keyboard settings is possible only from the keyboard itself - by “tapping” on the corporate icon and selecting the “gear”.

The set of settings is standard. Overall, the keyboard is not bad, but, as with the GOKeyboard, it doesn’t stand out among its competitors in anything special. If it was once the only one that offered the swype input method, now this advantage is gone.

TapTap Keyboards - the simplest keyboard for iOS 8

That's where the big names end, let's move on to the keyboards that are not so famous. One of them is TapTap Keyboards for iOS 8. We liked it because of the presence of the Russian language and the most flexible settings covers.

Actually, of all the applications included in our review, this is the simplest. There are no additional characters, no semicolons, no swype - nothing. There are only problems with hitting Shift with the Russian layout.

The only thing that can attract the user is the cover settings. At first glance, there’s not much to roam around here; you don’t even have the opportunity to choose your own background.

However, you can choose colors that will make both ai.type Keyboard and Swype jealous. True, we were never able to establish the difference between “colors” and “themes”; here the developer either confused something or overdid it. So you can create a completely custom design only for the classic (in the sense of TapTap Keyboards) keyboard shape.

In the settings, among all the “likes” and “shares”, you can only find the inclusion of the sound of the keys. There are no auto-capitals, no double-space dots, much less predictive input here.

Phraseboard – dictionary keyboard for iOS 8

The main idea of ​​the application can be understood from the name - the use of pre-prepared phrases in conversation. It is not possible to use Phraseboard as the main keyboard; its role is secondary. Actually, Phraseboard can hardly be considered a keyboard - rather, a dictionary.

The gist is this: Phraseboard contains an editable list of categories: Personal, Family, Friends, Work, and so on. Each category has phrases - we can also change them or create new ones.

During a conversation, if we suddenly want to use a template phrase, switch to Phraseboard, go to the desired category and choose. In principle, this can be convenient if you often need to indicate your email address, nickname in Skype, wallet number in WebMoney and so on. “Sorry, I'm busy, call back later” is far from the only way to use this application.

True, iOS has its own tool - abbreviations, which can be used in almost the same way. Albeit not with such convenience, although it will be suitable for a couple of phrases. But Phraseboard, as a more specialized tool, is much more functional in this regard. Another question is whether it will find its users, and how many of them there will be.

PopKey – pattern keyboard for iOS 8

Another additional keyboard, this time with an entertainment twist. It offers GIF images on specific topics. In principle, why not? Especially if the selected picture can make your interlocutor laugh.

You can upload your own “gifs” to use them in the future. This may not be necessary, since the set of pictures in PopKey is quite large, and on a great variety of topics.

However, for the application to fully work, Internet access is required, although a minimum set of images is provided in offline mode.

Adaptxt – keyboard with special dictionaries for iOS 8

Adaptxt developers position the keyboard as an adaptive one. This has the following meaning: you have access to specialized dictionaries that, when using swype, will help you correctly determine the desired word. There are dictionaries on business, finance, sports, IT industry, medicine, and so on.

But at the moment there is a sharp shortage of dictionaries in Russian: only a dictionary on business topics is available for download. The choice of developers is, of course, curious, given the large number of businessmen who are looking in the App Store for a suitable keyboard for composing business letters to your colleagues or subordinates. However, in the near future the set of dictionaries may change, tea is not a constant.

There are two covers: traditionally dark and light. Swype, auto-correction and predictive input are used.

Swype is also very convenient to use with abbreviations. The list of abbreviations and corresponding hot keys is indicated in the keyboard settings. Later, you just need to swipe your finger from the “123” button to a given key to get the text you are looking for. In our opinion, perfect solution, the main thing here is to remember which of the buttons contains the “secret”, and which one.

In general, the keyboard deserves a minute of attention, although, in our opinion, at the moment it is not yet finalized: there are not enough additional symbols, options for editing the cover and, of course, dictionaries.

Conclusion

Overall, there wasn't much of a surprise. The most advanced turned out to be long-known in the environment Android applications, whose developers can assemble a good team to seriously work on their product. These are ai.type Keyboard, Swype, TouchPal and SwiftKey. We leave leadership to ai.type Keyboard, as the most equipped keyboard, albeit without the swype method. For those who do not accept only the continuous input method, we recommend Swype and TouchPal.

Compared to the native keyboard third party applications They don't differ too much. The biggest differences are in the display of additional characters and the swype input method. Whether they are necessary is up to you to decide.

Very useful option in the form of changing the size of the keyboard, it is equipped with a.i.Keyboard, although this feature is most relevant only for tablets, or, in extreme cases, for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. All that remains are the covers, but even this advantage is doubtful, because each new keyboard must copy the interface native application, as we already said, very good.

Additional keyboards are also interesting, but the scenarios for their use are limited and will not resonate with every user.

iOS Shortcuts* - allows a third-party keyboard to use the shortcuts built into iOS (Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts).