In less than 48 hours since Apple officially announced native support for third-party keyboards as a major feature of iOS 8, Fleksy has already implemented their own keyboard on their iOS 8 test devices. Fleksy is also currently taking signups to join its beta program.
In the past, Fleksy has been front and center with working within the limits of iOS to offer their keyboard on the platform. Late last year, Fleksy began offers developers the opportunity to offer the Fleksy keyboard as an option with their apps and later released a public SDK for any developer to use at no cost.
With iOS 8, Fleksy and other alternative keyboards will finally be allowed to offer a system-wide integrated keyboard for us an any application making the process of actually getting a chance to try it out lightyears easier.
For now, you can try Fleksy’s keyboard on iOS within its iPhone and iPad app. Coming system-wide to iOS 8 this fall.
https://twitter.com/fleksy/status/474208836740337665
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How would I trigger dictation? I wonder what standards Apple is going to enforce.
I hope it will be implemented as this: just as you select keyboards in settings and change them with tha globe key, when you install another keyboard, it appears in settings, you can put it there and select it with the globe key as usual. I believe that dictation will be restricted to the keyboard just as it is now (for example: I have three keyboards in my iPad, english, portuguese and greek, but only when I choose english the mic key appears).
I’m ok with the current keyboard, I just wish it had arrow keys.
I understand that different people have different requirements but wishing for arrows on a smart touchscreen device defeats the whole purpose; just click on the text where you want to have the cursor and voila!
No No when your tap lands you one character off (sometimes) it will then (too often) not recognize a quick tap one character over. Using my ipad Bluetooth keyboard with my phone showed me how much I miss an arrow key.
There was a concept (maybe a jailbreak) where a two-fingered swipe in the keyboard area moved the cursor. I will gladly pay for this now so it will become a reality.
And the touch screen is a freaking heck of a lot slower than simply tapping a TAB key. Touchscreen ≠ faster.
@quandmeme The swiping method you are referring two is a jailbreak and its called swipeselection. I am jailbroken on my i5 and I use it everyday. You simply swipe backwards or forwards on the middle row of keys and it moves the cursor, it is very intuitive and much easier to use.
SwipeSelection tweak doesn’t work worth a damn, incredibly wonky and unusable. Not very well designed at all.
Amazing concept: tap in the right spot and touch won’t be slow or inaccurate.
All that said: Tried Fleshy keyboard for 5 minutes and I absolutely want it system wide in iOS. It is freaking genius.
Instead of more new keys taking up valuable screen space, I’d much rather the functionality of the swipeselection jailbreak app. That’s one of the main things I miss now I’m not jailbroken. There would be no need for arrow keys then, it is so much easier to use!