If you’re like most people, you probably use your iPhone and iPad as personal computers. But there are a few things you can do to make your devices even more versatile—like installing third-party keyboards. To install a third-party keyboard on your iPhone or iPad, first open the Settings app and select General. Then select Keyboard in the left pane. Scroll down to find the Keyboard section and select the keyboard you want to install. If you don’t see the keyboard listed, it’s likely because it’s not installed on your device yet. Once you’ve installed the keyboard, open it and type in “Keyboard” into the search bar at the top of the screen to find it. Once you’ve found it, drag it onto your device’s home screen so that it’s always available. You can also right-click on it and choose “Remove from Home Screen.”
Because this is a system functionality, the process of installing a keyboard on the iPhone and the iPad is not as simple as just installing the app. In fact, it’s a bit convoluted.
Before we get there, you’ll need to start out by downloading a third-party keyboard from the App Store. Here are some of our recommendations:
Gboard: A current all-rounder keyboard from Google. Any feature that you can think of is probably in the Gboard app. You get GIF search, Google Translate, themes, gesture typing, and a Google search feature right in the keyboard. Microsoft Swiftykey Keyboard: A solid alternative to Gboard, specifically when it comes to auto-suggestions. The customization and gesture typing isn’t bad either. GIF Keyboard: If you don’t want to use GIPHY, GIF Keyboard by Tenor is the best alternative for sending GIFs directly from your keyboard.
RELATED: 5 GIPHY Alternatives for Uploading and Sharing GIFs
How to Install Third-Party Keyboards on iPhone and iPad
Now that you have downloaded the keyboard app from the App Store, let’s start the installation process. You don’t need to open the app for this. Instead, head to the “Settings” app. Here, tap the “General” option.
Now, select the “Keyboard” option.
Here, tap the “Keyboards” button.
You’ll see all of the keyboards that you have installed (including keyboards for different languages and for Emojis). Swipe down and tap the “Add New Keyboard” button.
RELATED: How to Change Your iPhone and iPad Keyboard’s Language
Now, you’ll see a long list of languages at the top. Scroll all the way down till you spot the Third-Party Keyboards section. Select the keyboard app that you downloaded.
You’ll now be back to the Keyboards screen, and you’ll see that the new keyboard has been installed and activated.
But we are not in the clear yet. If you want to use features like GIF search, you’ll need to allow full access to the keyboard. To do this, select the newly installed third-party keyboard from the list of keyboards.
From the next screen, tap the toggle next to “Allow Full Access.”
From the popup, tap the “Allow” button to confirm.
And now, finally, your keyboard is ready to go.
How to Use Third-Party Keyboards on iPhone and iPad
You can install multiple third-party keyboards on your iPhone or iPad and switch between them easily using the Globe key on the virtual keyboard. You might be familiar with it if you’ve used the Emoji keyboard.
Tapping the Globe key switches to the next keyboard on the list. But if you want to switch to a particular keyboard, tap and hold the “Globe” key. You’ll see a list of all available keyboards. Select the keyboard that you just installed. In our case, it was Gboard.
Instantly, you’ll switch to the new keyboard.
You can now use your new third-party keyboard and enjoy all of the features that you can’t access in the default keyboard on your iPhone and iPad.
Speaking of the default keyboard on the iPhone, it does have one advantage over third-party keyboards. You can use many hidden text editing gestures to quickly select, copy, and paste text.
RELATED: How to Use Text Editing Gestures on Your iPhone and iPad
