What if you no longer want to use the stock keyboard on an iPhone and use a non-Apple keyboard? Well, it can be done, and it’s pretty simple too: here’s how. For many, the keyboard that Apple has installed on the iPhone is excellent, and they would not change it for any other non-Apple keyboard in the world, while others have a somewhat conflicting relationship.
And this last relationship is experienced in particular by those who, after years of Android, decide to make the “leap” to the iPhone. But whether you fall into the latter category or are part of the former and want to experience the thrill of trying something new, well, it has been possible for years to replace the stock keyboard on the iPhone with a non-Apple one.
It requires a series of steps, but all are pretty simple, especially following an article like this. A small note before proceeding: even by changing the keyboard, the standard one on the iPhone will still be used regardless of our will on all authentication screens, such as those that require a password. Apple has thus decided to prevent fictitious developers from misappropriating access keys.
Non-Apple Keyboards On iPhone: Requirements
Using non-Apple keyboards on an iPhone is worth doing a speedy check. This possibility began together with iOS 8, the operating system for the iPhone, released in 2014. Now: it is doubtful that there are still working iPhones “stuck” at an operating system version almost eight years ago, but since the control is quick, it is worth doing. Just open the Settings app, go to General, then to Info and check through the Software version item: then any version later than iOS 8.0 will be fine.
How To Use Non-Apple Keyboards On iPhone
Then you have to open the App Store, tap on the Search item in the lower right corner, and in the search bar of the following tab, type “keyboard.” A rather extensive list of all the keyboards available on the Apple store will appear: one of the most popular ever, not only in the Apple environment, is Microsoft’s SwiftKey. We will base our example on this. Start the download (the app is free) and give the iPhone time to download and install it. The process will be finished as soon as the Open item appears.
At this point, you need to go to the iPhone Settings app, search for and open the General, Keyboard, and Keyboards items. Here all the keyboards used by the iPhone are shown, a list in which SwiftKey or the keyboard just downloaded will not appear, so you will need to tap the Add new keyboard item to tap, just under Third-party keyboards, on SwiftKey or the name of the one you have chosen to install, and finally activate the item allow full access.
At this point, you can go back to the iPhone home screen, open SwiftKey, perform the initial setup with the steps displayed on the screen, and finally enjoy the non-Apple keyboard on the newly installed iPhone. Small note: to uninstall it, if you are not happy, go to the iPhone home screen, and after a long touch on the keyboard icon, select Delete app: the original iPhone keyboard will be automatically restored.