Here is a list of 7 free iOS 8 third party keyboards available on iTunes App Store. The third party keyboards are one of the most exciting and amazing arrival for all iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users who were stuck with using the stock keyboard app for typing. Although third party keyboards are quite common on Android devices, but its a first time for iOS users.
Since the official launch of iOS 8, many keyboard developers have made their keyboards available on the store. In this article, I have compiled a list of 7 free iOS 8 third party keyboards which you can download, install, and use for absolutely free.
Note: All the iOS 8 third party keyboards included in this list are optimized for iPad as well.
Lets check them out one by one.
1. SwiftKey Keyboard:
The very first iOS 8 third pary keyboard is SwiftKey Keyboard. It is the most efficient, reliable, and fast iOS 8 keyboard, which is available for free. The thing which makes it better than others is its accuracy in predicting the word you are going to type. The cool thing is that the more you will it, better the prediction becomes. For each word you type, it displays three suggestions at top. It has Shift key on both sides which means you can use it easily instead of the traditional left side of keyboard.
The SwiftKey Keyboard for iOS 8 supports 13 languages, among which English (US) comes pre-installed. The rest of languages can be downloaded for free. It also comes with 2 themes: Nickel Dark and Nickel Light. It lets you enable/disable auto correct, quick period, and auto capitalize feature.
The other cool feature is the SwiftKey Cloud. If enabled, SwiftKey backups words and phrases used by you for better prediction. It also helps SwiftKey in learning your writing style from Gmail and Facebook. It also helps in syncing your data, so that you can install SwiftKey Keyboard on any device and start using it with same accuracy and reliability.
2. MyScript Stack – Handwriting Keyboard:
The next third party iOS 8 keyboard is MyScript Stack. Its a handwriting keyboard. There is nothing to type here. You have to write on the empty space using your finger or the stylus pen. The app recognizes your handwriting and converts it into text form. Along with recognizing, it also displays suggestions to you according to the sentence you are writing. It has keys only for changing keyboard, space bar, backspace, return, and hiding keyboard. If you don’t want to use keys, then this app also has gestures for using space bar, backspace, and return key.
It supports more than 45 languages, which you can download for free as per your need. The English (US) comes by default with the keyboard. For personalization, it has 3 theme options: Automatic, Dark, and Light. The Light theme further has 5 color options: Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, and Gray.
3. Swipe Keyboard for iOS 8:
Swipe Keyboard for iOS 8 is the third keyboard in this list. As the name suggests, this third party keyboard lets you do the tedious work of typing by swiping on keyboard. If you are unaware about the swiping method of typing, then its an easy to use typing method. In this method, you have to tap on the initial alphabet of the word you want to type and then swipe continuously while going through all the keys representing the alphabets involved in that word. For example, see the screenshot above in which I am typing “Swipe” using the swipe keyboard method. However, if you want to go to traditional typing, then you can start tapping on keys, like you do normally.
Get Swipe Keyboard for iOS 8 here.
4. TouchPal Keyboard – Emoji & Gesture:
The fourth keyboard for iOS 8 in the list is TouchPal Keyboard. This is the only keyboard in this list which includes both swipe based typing as well as the emojis to spice your texts. You can choose to type texts by either tapping on each key or by using the modern day swiping typing method. The app doesn’t enters the word automatically, while you are using swipe method. Instead, you have to tap on space bar to enter the word, after you have finished swiping. The app also displays suggestions and you can get access to 800+ emojis by tapping and holding the return key.
The keyboard comes with English and Spanish as installed languages, while rest of the languages are marked as Coming Soon. It has 8 themes for you to choose from, along with option to enable/disable Smart Input. The Smart Input includes Auto correction, Auto capitalization, and Auto Spacing.
5. Keymoji: Emoji Autocomplete Keyboard:
The next iOS 8 third party keyboard is Keymoji. Its a must have keyboard for all emoji lovers who also have iOS 8 powered device. This keyboard converts anything you type to emojis. Instead of other keyboards which displays suggestion for the word you type, it displays corresponding emojis. You can then choose to use the displayed emoji or send the text as normal. Its completely focused on use emojis for texting, with no auto prediction, auto correction, swiping etc. features.
It also has a key for checking all the emojis available with the app. It also helps in choosing any specific emoji, instead of the one suggested by this keyboard.
6. Kiwi – Beautiful, Colorful, Custom Keyboards for iOS 8:
Next keyboard in the list is Kiwi. Its a keyboard app which lets you create, share, and use your own custom keyboards. Its very easy to create cool keyboards with this iOS 8 keyboard app. You have to give it a name first. After that you have to choose theme color, letter color, background color, outline color, header color, highlighted color, and keyboard font. If you are willing to upgrade to PRO version, then you can add background image and choose text font as well.
After creating keyboard, you can save, share, and use it. All the keyboard comes with auto prediction feature and traditional typing method. The app gives you a wide range of colors and fonts to choose from, so that you can create cool and amazing keyboards each time. This app supports only English language.
7. Brightkey:
Brightkey is the last iOS 8 third party keyboard in this list. It is the most colorful keyboard available for free. It comes pre-loaded with 3 Metallic color themes and 5 Vibrant color themes. All the themes are free to use, which you can apply as per your mood, device color, or any choice of preference. Apart from choosing colorful themes, it also comes with Auto-capitalization, Auto correction, enable/disable Caps lock, predictive, and period shortcut function.
The other cool feature is that you can swipe on space bar key left/right to move the cursor in text box. Apart from this, you can swipe upside from the bottom of keyboard to send any of the available preset texts. It includes 7 presets but unfortunately, you can’t set custom presets.
Here I conclude my list of 7 free iOS 8 third party keyboards. I hope you enjoyed reading about them. Try them out and do tell me how did you feel using them. If you have any more keyboards to suggest or any questions, then get in touch with me via comments sections below.
