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iOS keyboard

Ranked 4 of 12 keyboard apps by recommenders

Recommended for reliable tap typing, accurate swipe typing and built-in multilingual support, though many critics report autocorrect and key errors that have worsened over time.

Recommended for reliable tap typing, accurate swipe typing and built-in multilingual support, though many critics report autocorrect and key errors that have worsened over time.

210 people gave an opinion

recommend it
28
criticize it
182
approval share
13%
Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 8 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: not recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Owned for 10 years

Median of the 9 owners who said how long they have had it.

Each square is one year.

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 0.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Settings tweaks noticeably improve typing

    “If you turn off swipe or swift or whatever they call it the iOS default keyboard is much better”

    Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android”

    “I have great results on the ios keyboard by simply making two changes to the keyboard settings”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

    “One thing that helped me a lot to fix the iPhone keyboard was turning off slide to type.”

    Comment from 19 May 2026 in “New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence”
  • Reliable, accurate tap typing

    “It works very reliably for me, and I've learned to type long prose on my phone quite well.”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

    “The autocorrect works, the keys I tap are right.”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

    “my thumb typing this flawlessly with one try”

    Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS”
  • Swipe typing works well

    “Apple's swipe to text is so good that I forget there's still work to be done in the space.”

    Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”

    “Well, iOS swipe keyboard is not that bad. I would not call it “permanent suffering”.”

    Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”

    “swipe to type works just fine on the native keyboard”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”
  • Preferred over other keyboards

    “somehow it works even better than the keyboard for me most of the time”

    Comment from 19 May 2026 in “New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence”

    “found a touch keyboard (fleksy) I liked as much as the iOS keyboard”

    Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Apple routed a graphite pipe through the iPhone Duo's hinge to dissipate heat”

    “I prefer the iOS keyboard than over the Android ones.”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Typing has degraded over time

    “When I moved from a gs5 to an iPhone 7, I was amazed at how much better the typing experience was. But it has now gotten to a point where I feel like a drunk monkey would type better than I do.”

    Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27”

    “Ive been really annoyed at my iphone keyboard recently because it seems like a slow drift of whatever optimized state it was in was getting slower and slower.”

    Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux”

    “I swear Apple broke the iPhone keyboard permanently in like 2015. I don't know what it is, but I can't type reliably”

    Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe”
  • Autocorrect replaces words unexpectedly

    “its awful, awful repeated "corrections" it applies”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

    “iOS being absolutely unable to detect which language I'm currently writing in and automatically replacing words in one language to another”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

    “their random generator keeps replacing perfectly fine words _and the words before them_ with random crap that makes no sense.”

    Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”
  • Keys register the wrong letters

    “how close they put "enter" or "@" to space on the right side, so when you type with both hands you keep hitting those when you want to type a space”

    Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

    “Now I feel that it is constant exercise in frustration as I will hit a letter and the keyboard will decide to pick the letter next to it.”

    Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

    “deleting when I meant to space, putting an I instead of K and a bunch of other little things like thinks instead of things”

    Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”
  • Cursor placement hard to control

    “Substituting touch to select instead of touch to move cursor was a genuinely awful decision that now makes typing a constant chore”

    Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

    “It is so painful to move the cursor to one specific letter that I frequently just erase everything and start over.”

    Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

Other keyboard apps people recommend

The four most recommended other keyboard apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

iOS keyboard compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Gboard594358%10——
FUTO Keyboard512270%121 yr4 ownersApproved
FUTO Swipe401869%1——
iOS keyboardThis page2818213%810 yrs9 owners—
Microsoft SwiftKey213140%88 yrs7 owners—
See all 12 keyboard apps, ranked

What people said

40 of the 234 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“found a touch keyboard (fleksy) I liked as much as the iOS keyboard”

RecommendsComment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Apple routed a graphite pipe through the iPhone Duo's hinge to dissipate heat”

“When I moved from a gs5 to an iPhone 7, I was amazed at how much better the typing experience was. But it has now gotten to a point where I feel like a drunk monkey would type better than I do.”

MixedComment from 14 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27”

“Ive been really annoyed at my iphone keyboard recently because it seems like a slow drift of whatever optimized state it was in was getting slower and slower.”

CriticizesComment from 5 Aug 2026 in “I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux”

“the native swift keyboard recognizes which language I'm swifting in”

RecommendsComment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”

“Well, iOS swipe keyboard is not that bad. I would not call it “permanent suffering”.”

MixedComment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”

“Apple's swipe to text is so good that I forget there's still work to be done in the space.”

RecommendsComment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”

“One thing that helped me a lot to fix the iPhone keyboard was turning off slide to type.”

RecommendsComment from 19 May 2026 in “New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence”

“somehow it works even better than the keyboard for me most of the time”

RecommendsComment from 19 May 2026 in “New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence”

“my thumb typing this flawlessly with one try”

RecommendsComment from 11 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS”

“The behavior of the iOS keyboard showcases how there must not be many decision-making people who communicate in multiple languages.”

CriticizesComment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS”

“their random generator keeps replacing perfectly fine words _and the words before them_ with random crap that makes no sense.”

CriticizesComment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“tap typing works a bazillion times better”

RecommendsComment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“It is so painful to move the cursor to one specific letter that I frequently just erase everything and start over.”

CriticizesComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“I enjoy the plausible deniability afforded by the iOS keyboard”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“It works very reliably for me, and I've learned to type long prose on my phone quite well.”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“swipe to type works just fine on the native keyboard”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“iOS being absolutely unable to detect which language I'm currently writing in and automatically replacing words in one language to another”

CriticizesComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“a big feature is so comprehensively broken that it’s hard, from the outside, to break it down into specific flaws.”

CriticizesComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“It looks like a physical keyboard and the constant flicking between upper/lowercase is distracting and annoying”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“i use the apple keyboard every day, and it's fine?”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“The keyboard always works great for me.”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“The autocorrect works, the keys I tap are right.”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“I have great results on the ios keyboard by simply making two changes to the keyboard settings”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“I prefer the iOS keyboard than over the Android ones.”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“its awful, awful repeated "corrections" it applies”

MixedComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“The keyboard, specifically the Autocorrect, is fucked and has progressively worsened over the past 5 years.”

CriticizesComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone”

“If you turn off swipe or swift or whatever they call it the iOS default keyboard is much better”

RecommendsComment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android”

“I swear Apple broke the iPhone keyboard permanently in like 2015. I don't know what it is, but I can't type reliably”

CriticizesComment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe”

“In the Settings, there is built in text expansion support”

RecommendsComment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Clicks Communicator”

“Why would it go from what felt like a predictable error to what feels like someone moving the keys around?”

CriticizesComment from 12 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“The auto-capitalisation of Apple trademarked phrases like Liquid Glass and Apple Intelligence is what really drives me round the bend.”

CriticizesComment from 12 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“deleting when I meant to space, putting an I instead of K and a bunch of other little things like thinks instead of things”

CriticizesComment from 12 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“Substituting touch to select instead of touch to move cursor was a genuinely awful decision that now makes typing a constant chore”

CriticizesComment from 12 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“Multilingual typing is a godsend.”

RecommendsComment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“how close they put "enter" or "@" to space on the right side, so when you type with both hands you keep hitting those when you want to type a space”

CriticizesComment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“I feeeeeel like this helped me but didn’t solve the problem fully.”

MixedComment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“Now I feel that it is constant exercise in frustration as I will hit a letter and the keyboard will decide to pick the letter next to it.”

CriticizesComment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“it needs to be more stable than this”

MixedComment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“the iOS keyboard is just fine”

RecommendsComment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”

“I found it made a big improvement for me.”

RecommendsComment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Don't push AI down our throats”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.