With the introduction of iOS 8 came the introduction of native third-party keyboard support. From a user’s perspective this means all of those keyboard apps on the App Store will now have the capability of actually being functional. However, Apple has still put restrictions on what these third-party keyboards can do on the OS. Keyboards cannot — without user consent — gain access to text data (for example, Apple’s in-house Quick Type keyboard is able to intelligently predict the next word by analyzing text data).
No matter how you look at it, Apple is opening up iOS in the typical Apple fashion, in baby steps.
Anyways, lets get moving along with this tutorial.
In this tutorial I will be guiding you through how to install a third-party keyboard on iOS 8.
Step 1: First and foremost, you need to install the application in question. For the purpose of this tutorial, I will be using the TouchPal Keyboard.
Step 2: Head on over to the iOS Settings app > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard… You will then see your typical stock iOS keyboard languages. On the top you should see a listing for “Third-Party Keyboards.” Select the third-party keyboard in question and then tap done.
Step 3: Now head over to the notes app (or any app that supports a keyboard), and tap and hold the globe icon at the bottom. You should now see a listing of keyboards installed. Select your third-party keyboard (in my case, “English”), and your third-party keyboard should now appear.
And that is it folks. That is how you install third-party keyboards on iOS 8. Personally, I am really excited to see what developers have in store (at least in the keyboard department). Third-party keyboards, amongst a ton of new features will be coming to iOS 8 this fall. This should be an amazing release for both users and developers.
One more thing, occasionally developers will ask for full access. If this is the case, simply go to Settings app > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > (keyboard name) > toggle Full Access. This may be needed for keyboards that use predictive text, to create a uer-input dictionary and sync across multiple devices.
Which keyboard will you be installing?
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