Third Party Keyboard Questions

[gavroche]

So I have the following questions about third party keyboards:

(1) No access to the dictation microphone. Do you think that Apple has no intention of ever allowing it, or is it a temporary decision?

(2) No access to shortcuts. Is this ever going to happen as well?

(3) I have a website that has address fields. As you start typing an address, it pops up a box that provides suggested addresses (uses Google auto-complete code). It works fine with Apple keyboard. Does not work at all with Swiftkey. Is this an Apple/iOS issue, or is this something that my web person can address?

G.

 

[pacorob]

So I have the following questions about third party keyboards:

(1) No access to the dictation microphone. Do you think that Apple has no intention of ever allowing it, or is it a temporary decision?

(2) No access to shortcuts. Is this ever going to happen as well?

(3) I have a website that has address fields. As you start typing an address, it pops up a box that provides suggested addresses (uses Google auto-complete code). It works fine with Apple keyboard. Does not work at all with Swiftkey. Is this an Apple/iOS issue, or is this something that my web person can address?

G.

(1) I really don't know, that's really up to Apple to decide. For now they won't allow

Custom keyboards, like all app extensions in iOS 8.0, have no access to the device microphone, so dictation input is not possible.

(2) Which shortcuts are you talking about? Text shortcuts are allowed and work also without 'full access' on.

Access to the text shortcuts list in Settings

(3) I couldn't find anything about that in the developers page in regards to 3rd party keyboards an address field that isn't supported by a 3rd party keyboard to show suggested addresses (auto complete).

I did found this but isn't further specified and it seems that you then need to allow full access (of which i'm not a big fan):

Keyboard can access Location Services and Address Book, with user permission

Maybe that's something Google should build in their website/app to support 3rd party keyboards to show that same option.

 

[gavroche]

(2) Which shortcuts are you talking about? Text shortcuts are allowed and work also without 'full access' on.

Yes, i was referring to keyboard shortcuts. While using the stock Apple keyboard, if i type in one of my shortcuts, it replaces it with the full phrase. But with Swiftkey... if i type the shortcut, it does not do this. I do have full access granted. So perhaps its a limitation with just Swiftkey....?

 

[theman510]

Yes, i was referring to keyboard shortcuts. While using the stock Apple keyboard, if i type in one of my shortcuts, it replaces it with the full phrase. But with Swiftkey... if i type the shortcut, it does not do this. I do have full access granted. So perhaps its a limitation with just Swiftkey....?

I'd like to know this myself. I set @@ to be a shortcut for my email address. Miss using it while using Swiftkey

 

[gavroche]

I'd like to know this myself. I set @@ to be a shortcut for my email address. Miss using it while using Swiftkey

I only recently caught on to using a shortcut for email address as well... Sooo much easier! Especially my email that has an underscore... One of the most annoying things to have to type out.

 

[LouieSamman]

Also has no one notice that in messages when you use SwiftKey it blocks the few last messages when you pull the keyboard up but with apples keyboard it auto scrolls down to let you see the last message as your typing. I find myself scrolling down on messages after pulling the keyboard out before typing and it's annoying.

 

[Stuntman06]

(2) No access to shortcuts. Is this ever going to happen as well?

On Android, keyboard shortcuts are a feature specific to the particular keyboard (if that keyboard has such a feature). It may be the same on iOS. It is possible that a third party keyboard may implement a shortcut feature like the iOS stock keyboard. If it is a feature specific to a keyboard, then I doubt that it would be made available to other keyboards.

Also has no one notice that in messages when you use SwiftKey it blocks the few last messages when you pull the keyboard up but with apples keyboard it auto scrolls down to let you see the last message as your typing. I find myself scrolling down on messages after pulling the keyboard out before typing and it's annoying.

SwiftKey has so many bugs right now. I'm sure some people notice. For me, there are more serious bugs that cause me not to use it at all.

 

[gavroche]

On Android, keyboard shortcuts are a feature specific to the particular keyboard (if that keyboard has such a feature). It may be the same on iOS. It is possible that a third party keyboard may implement a shortcut feature like the iOS stock keyboard. If it is a feature specific to a keyboard, then I doubt that it would be made available to other keyboards

Interesting... This never occurred to me. Sounds pretty logical that it would be specific to each keyboard. I'll have to keep my eyes open after each update to see if any settings are added for this...