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iOS 8 to Include Support for System Wide Third-Party Keyboards

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference that iOS 8 will support system wide third-party keyboards.

ios8_third_party_keyboards.jpg
The company showed something that appeared to resemble the popular-gesture based keyboard Swype running on iOS 8, as software chief Craig Federighi noted that keyboards have the most restrictive sandbox to ensure user privacy and safety.

To this point, third-party keyboards such as SwiftKey Note and Flesky have launched for iOS, although their integration has been limited to note-taking in a separate app and allowing app developers to incorporate their keyboard, respectively. With this announcement, it is likely that both keyboards will launch for iOS with full integration at some point in the future.

Support for third-party keyboards will be included with iOS 8, with the new mobile operating system expected to launch this fall.

Article Link: iOS 8 to Include Support for System Wide Third-Party Keyboards
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/02/ios-8-third-party-keyboards/
bushido

bushido

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Mar 26, 2008
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i wonder how that will work thought. devs can offer a keyboard in the appstore and it somehow gets deeper access into ios to make it work anywhere? or will apple pick some keyboard by devs and allow them as an option built into ios8
 
djtech42

djtech42

macrumors 65816
Jun 23, 2012
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bushido said:
i wonder how that will work thought. devs can offer a keyboard in the appstore and it somehow gets deeper access into ios to make it work anywhere? or will apple pick some keyboard by devs and allow them as an option built into ios8
Click to expand...

It uses the extension APIs to replace the default UI while remaining sandboxed without network connectivity (unless the user allows it). They will probably be offered in the App Store.
 
NightFox

NightFox

macrumors 68040
May 10, 2005
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Come on! Extensions is MASSIVE - interaction between apps is here! This is SO much more than just third party keyboards!
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

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Mar 5, 2013
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bushido said:
i wonder how that will work thought. devs can offer a keyboard in the appstore and it somehow gets deeper access into ios to make it work anywhere? or will apple pick some keyboard by devs and allow them as an option built into ios8
Click to expand...

I'd imagine it would have serious limitations with regards to data storing and uploading (if even possible).

There's one thing for certain, we are definitely going to need some more App Store categories.
 
Z8beema

Z8beema

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Sep 18, 2013
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MacRumors said:
[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]


Apple today announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference that iOS 8 will support system wide third-party keyboards.

The company showed something that appeared to resemble the popular-gesture based keyboard Swype running on iOS 8, as software chief Craig Federighi noted that keyboards have the most restrictive sandbox to ensure user privacy and safety.

To this point, third-party keyboards such as SwiftKey Note and Flesky have launched for iOS, although their integration has been limited to note-taking in a separate app and allowing app developers to incorporate their keyboard, respectively. With this announcement, it is likely that both keyboards will launch for iOS with full integration at some point in the future.

Support for third-party keyboards will be included with iOS 8, with the new mobile operating system expected to launch this fall.

Article Link: iOS 8 to Include Support for System Wide Third-Party Keyboards
Click to expand...

This along with connectivity are by far my two favorite parts of everything that happened today
 
bushido

bushido

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djtech42 said:
It uses the extension APIs to replace the default UI while remaining sandboxed without network connectivity (unless the user allows it). They will probably be offered in the App Store.
Click to expand...

wonder why they dont allow the same extension API to let dev put "widgets" in the notification center
 
C

CrzyP

macrumors 6502
Mar 14, 2012
337
145
This is welcome news! Two things I miss from Android. Bigger screens and swipe keyboards! Looks like I'll have both this fall. I'm happy
 
nwcs

nwcs

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Sep 21, 2009
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Can't wait to see an Astrophotography keyboard (and mode). Makes nighttime use so much easier. In general I don't need anything but the default but it is nice to have the option.
 
carjakester

carjakester

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Oct 21, 2013
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Many of my reasons for jailbreaking were dismissed by apple today, if i can get a nice black keyboard, bloard isnt needed.
 
kdarling

kdarling

macrumors P6
Jun 9, 2007
17,373
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First university coding class = 47 years ago
The first third party keyboard I want, is one that actually changes the letter case on the keys depending on shift mode... just like every other software keyboard on the planet.

It's always been insane that, especially after mocking physical keyboards, Apple's own soft keyboard acts like a physical one by staying in uppercase.

(Plus I've lately had to explain to new iPad users why they're not typing what they think. Especially when iOS goes into auto-uppercase at the beginning of a sentence. That's can be very confusing to new iOS users, because while it's nice when you get used to it, it's unexpected, and they try to hit Shift which actually puts in back into lowercase mode.)
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

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Mar 5, 2013
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kdarling said:
The first third party keyboard I want, is one that actually changes the letter case on the keys depending on shift mode... just like every other software keyboard on the planet.

It's always been insane that, especially after mocking physical keyboards, Apple's own soft keyboard acts like a physical one by staying in uppercase.

(Plus I've lately had to explain to new iPad users why they're not typing what they think. Especially when iOS goes into auto-uppercase at the beginning of a sentence. That's can be very confusing to new iOS users, because while it's nice when you get used to it, it's unexpected, and they try to hit Shift which actually puts in back into lowercase mode.)
Click to expand...

The worst is when you leave on autocapitalize and you intend to type a key which normally requires you press the shift key (?) but instead it presses the non-shifted variety (.)... so instead you have to press it twice...except not too quickly or it turns into caps lock and still doesn't type the character you wanted. :rolleyes:
 
M

mrjr101

macrumors regular
Jul 29, 2013
103
10
So to throw Android out of the water in regards to keyboards and to avoid future litigations Apple added QuickType as a new feauture and let developers have at it with Android about infringing on the Swype feature. Hahaha I love Apple.
 
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