Keyboard apps are among the most overlooked quality of life improvements for iOS users.
While it’s true that default keyboards have gotten much better over the years, they’re still far from your only option. From keyboards that perform better to keyboards that look better, there are a ton of keyboard alternatives just waiting to improve your mobile experience.
Here are some of our favorite keyboard apps for iPhone and iPad:
Grammarly
Yes, the standard iOS keyboard offers a spell checker. However, it can’t really help you when it comes to advanced grammar recommendations.
That’s where Grammarly’s keyboard comes in handy. This is one of the rare keyboard apps that helps with your sentence structure and word choice as well as spelling. It’s great for professionals or those who want to improve their writing.
Gboard
For quite some time, Gboard’s headline feature was its Google search integration. Now, that feature is slightly more common.
However, Gboard still stands apart thanks to its accessibility features. Gboard makes it easy to input text in a variety of ways. That makes it especially valuable for those who never feel quite comfortable typing the standard way.
Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard
Do you wish that the autocorrect and predictive text features on iOS were just a bit smarter? Well, SwiftKey Keyboard can help improve them slightly.
SwiftKey’s predictive features do an excellent job of learning from your previous inputs. So, if you tend to rely on various phrases and patterns, it can pick them up rather quickly. Again, other keyboard apps offer similar features, but this is really one of the best.
Phraseboard Keyboard
Here we have another one of those keyboard apps that focuses on saving time by predicting your inputs.
The twist here is that Phraseboard also lets you enter a variety of custom phrases. You can even sort your custom phrases by category. This makes it easier than ever to skip the monotony of typing out fairly common replies and expressions.
Fleksy Keyboard
Do you wish your keyboard was a little less…dull. Flesky Keyboard may just be one of the keyboard apps you’ve been looking for.
Flesky Keyboard lets you customize your keyboards and emojis via various options. It’s perfect for those who want to make sure their apps match their case and their general sense of style.
Go Keyboard
Go Keyboard is an interesting option. In many ways, it’s an amalgamation of the keyboard apps that we’ve seen thus far.
Go Keyboard is highlighted by its extensive customization options, but it also features good predictive text features and nice input styles. You’re mostly looking at this app for its rich visuals, but it’s a pretty solid all-around option.
Color Keyboard
Does visual customization matter most to you when you’re looking for new keyboard apps? If so, then you can pretty much stop your search at Color Keyboard.
No other app offers quite this many cosmetic options. Color Keyboard allows you to alter nearly every element of your keyboard. You can even just choose a theme if you don’t need quite so many features.
GIF Keyboard by Tenor
More and more keyboard apps allow you to easily access a library of GIFs. However, there are few which compete with the library featured in GIF Keyboard.
Actually, GIF Keyboard offers even more than that. Not only does it grant you access to various GIFs, but it lets you upload and create your own. Anyone who typically sends out GIFs needs to check this keyboard out.
WordBoard
We’ve previously looked at keyboard apps that can predict phrases or even let you upload your own. Well, WordBoard lets you go one step beyond any of that.
WordBoard lets you create custom keyboards filled with custom phrases. That makes it even easier to send out many responses as quickly as possible. If you tend to use texts for a lot of business conversations, this could be the keyboard you need.
Blink Keyboard
Even the most advanced keyboard apps suffer from the common flaw of not truly accomodating for mobile users. Namely, they don’t allow you to easily type with one hand.
Blink Keyboard is one of the few exceptions to that rule. Blink is designed to offer accessibility options which make it easier to type with only one hand. Along with altered keyboards, Blink features text prediction features that allow you to easily make corrections. It’s a great option for texters always on the go.
