Five Ways to Fix Your IPhone’s Keyboard
It’s easy to find complaints about the iPhone keyboard online: from typos and spelling errors to lag and missed keystrokes, users report a wide range of issues across different versions of iOS. While the causes of these issues typically vary, there are a few common solutions that will help you get a reliable iPhone keyboard—besides waiting for Apple’s next iOS update to fix the bugs.
Reset the keyboard dictionary on your iPhone.
Over time, the iOS keyboard tries to find more intelligent autocorrect options, but these aren’t always helpful: the further these options deviate from the defaults, the worse they can become, risking turning your sentences into gibberish. To start over, open Settings, then select General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary . Enter your phone’s unlock code, then select Reset Dictionary .
Add your own words and keyboard shortcuts to your iPhone’s dictionary.
This may seem counterintuitive to the previous tip, but by deliberately teaching your iPhone words it frequently mistypes, you can reduce the likelihood of those frustrating moments when iOS suddenly replaces a word you typed with something else (like “he’ll yeah” or “what the duck”). In Settings, go to General > Keyboard > Text Replacement . Tap the “+” (plus) button in the upper-right corner, then type the word or phrase—you can also add a keyboard shortcut for this to make typing faster, but it’s optional. Tap “Save” to confirm.
Customize other iPhone keyboard settings.
There are several other useful keyboard settings in the General > Keyboard section of iOS Settings. For example, you can completely disable autocorrect and the ” Swipe to Type” feature if your fingers tend to slide across the keyboard. Additional settings can be made in the Accessibility menu in Settings: under Touch > Touch Controls, you can change the sensitivity of double-tap and hold gestures, as well as other options that can help improve typing accuracy.
Change the keyboard layout on your iPhone.
Improving typing comfort and eliminating errors on the iPhone is difficult, but there’s a one-handed mode that can help minimize glitches and ensure your keystrokes match what’s displayed on the screen. To switch to one-handed mode, tap and hold the globe icon in the lower-left corner of the keyboard, then tap one of the icons at the bottom of the pop-up menu: you can move the keyboard left or right, or return it to its normal position.
Switch to a different keyboard on iPhone
If you’re still having trouble customizing your iOS keyboard, you can always install a third-party alternative. We’ve covered a variety of options here , including Gboard and SwiftKey , and they generally offer more customization options than the standard Apple keyboard. Once you’ve installed one or two alternative keyboards, you can manage them in iOS Settings by going to General > Keyboard > Keyboards . To switch between keyboards while typing, tap and hold the globe icon (in the lower left corner).
Or ditch the keyboard altogether.
There are also more radical measures you might not have considered. The first is to use a Bluetooth keyboard (via Bluetooth in Settings), which will provide a more convenient (though less portable) way to type on your iPhone. The second is to ensure dictation is enabled under General > Keyboard in Settings, then tap the microphone icon in the lower-right corner of the keyboard and speak your text out loud. You can work with emoji, line breaks, edit text, and more using your voice .