After a long beta testing period (which apparently wasn’t long enough) that began at WWDC, Apple finally released iOS 8 to the public earlier this month. The new software adds tons of great new features to Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices, but a quick glance at the top app charts in Apple’s iOS App Store will show you that one of the most hotly anticipated new features is definitely the addition of third-party keyboard support.
Millions of people have tried keyboards from well-known developers such as Swype and SwiftKey, but there are plenty of keyboard apps floating around that you might not know about. Here, we’ve collected six of the most fun and crazy iOS 8 keyboard options out there, and each and every one will spice up your messages much more than a boring QWERTY keyboard ever will.
GIF Keyboard
Free download.
Sometimes emojis just don’t cut it. Share your true feelings with GIFs.
It’s perfect for all those times you wanted to…
– Express just how much you love pizza.
– Annoy your friends with that one lyric you just can’t stop singing.
– Tell your crush that cuddling should be in your future.Features:
* Always send the perfect GIF and video responses straight from your keyboard! And it plays inline on iMessage.
* Browse through categories like reactions, music, trending and more.
* Search millions of GIFs and videos for the perfect moment.
* See a GIF you like while browsing on your phone? Save it from Safari with one tap. That means no saving to your camera roll and it’s instantly available from your keyboard.
* Customize your keyboard with the GIFs you love! Just double tap to favorite it.
* Works with your favorite messengers and social networks including iMessage, WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, SnapChat, and Email. Just long-press on a GIF to pull up options to share the GIF, Video, link, or save to camera roll
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some iOS8 users lose “Full Access” Keyboard Settings after a few days. If you lose “Full Access” just go to your settings, and tap the “Full Access” toggle to enable your Riffsy GIF Keyboard again! This temporary issue affects all third-party keyboards for now.
ALSO NOTE: The Riffsy GIF Keyboard requests full access so we can access the internet and fetch GIFs from the cloud. We don’t save your key strokes or compromise your privacy.
Phraseboard
Free download.
Messaging made Easy.
Create your most common phrases and sort them by categories.
Simply tap a button to send off a quick reply.REMEMBER: In order to have your own phrases show on the keyboard you must allow OPEN ACCESS. Please go to Settings > Keyboard, click on Phraseboard and turn the switch on.
Keymoji
Free download.
Your Keyboard will never be the same! Emoji will never be the same!
Featured in TechCrunch and one of Tech Crunch’s “Product’s We Love”
Exclusively for iPhone : Keymoji Keyboard translates what you type in any app into emojis in real time from a constantly expanding crowdsourced dictionary so you don’t have to think up emoji phrases!!
Works inside Snapchat, Facebook, Whatsapp, Email, iMessage, etc.
Additional Press:
– “Not to devalue the technological advancements of the Apple Watch and iPhone 6, but this piece of tech news is the actual future” – Oyster Magazine
– Featured in MacWorld : “iOS 8: Top 10 features”
– “the future of interpersonal conversation” – 9to5Mac
– “Emoji-only conversation has arrived.” – recode.net
– “lots of good times to come” – Gizmodo
– “insert an emoji into a sentence quickly” – MacRumors
– “As you type phrases, it will suggest an emoji pattern that you can substitute.” – Gear Live
– “The more a definition is used the more popular it becomes” – Product Reviews
Exclusively for iPhone and iPad, Keymoji Keyboard is an Emoji Autocomplete Keyboard and it’s the quickest way to add Emoji’s to all your messages!
Simple to setup, the keyboard itself shows up in any app and can thus be used in any application when typing.
Simply start typing on the keyboard and see the emoji auto-completion suggestions in real time! Click whichever one you want to choose, rather than hunting through the entire emoji library.
The best part about Keymoji : the definitions come from you the users! Open the app itself and submit your definitions. See which ones become popular as they get used in the ecosystem! Compete against the entire planet of iPhones for being the first to come up with the most famous emoji phrases. Maybe you will be the person who comes up with the most famous emoji phrase ever used on iPhone!
Find the emoji art button in the Keymoji emoji keyboard to find special designs made from emojis that you can send directly from your keyboard through any app!
Literati Labs is committed to bringing you the best emoji keyboard for the iPhone and we can’t wait to see all the definitions that you come up with!
***Notes regarding Keyboard Installation & Privacy ***
Keymoji does NOT collect any personal information or conversations.
The Grant Full Access setting for the Keymoji Keyboard allows the following features:
* Automatic autocompletion database updates
* Leaderboard scoring
* Access to the keyboard settings under the “Account” tab
* Access to the keyboard tutorial reset
Without Grant Full Access, these features will be unavailable. If your Keymoji keyboard doesn’t have Full Access, you can grant it by going to General > Keyboard > Keyboards in the Settings App and tapping “Keymoji — Keymoji” to show the grant access status.Again, Keymoji does NOT collect any personal information or conversations. We use the Grant Full Access option to allow internet connectivity to get new emoji autocompletions from our crowd-sourcing system. We do track the world-wide usage of emoji autocompletions in order to rank them and present the most popular options while you type, but we never record your conversations. Grant Full Access also unlocks some features available in the app like replaying the tutorial and changing some keyboard settings.
Keymoji will remain functional even if you choose not to Grant Access, but you’ll be missing out on some of what makes the app so great.
ScribbleBoard
Free download.
Draw your messages!
Stop typing all the time. Start drawing your messages!
ScribbleBoard allows you to scribble and doodle directly from within your keyboard extension, and then copy paste your masterpieces into the chat, or save them to your camera roll and load them as you would with any image. You can use it with any messenger/chat app!
Kaomoji
$0.99 download.
1,000+ japanese kaomoji emoticons organized into 28 categories including: happy, sad, love, bears, cats, sea animals, laughing, winking and table flipping.
Tap a cute emoticon to copy it to the clipboard, then double tap in any other app to paste. Use them in text messages, on Twitter, Facebook and more.
(◕‿-)･ﾟﾟ･♡
PopKey Animated GIF Keyboard
Free download.
PopKey is the world’s first animated GIF keyboard. It makes sending animated GIFs as easy as sending an emoji. Make your friends and family LOL by sending them funny animated GIFs by SMS or email.
– 100% free – PopKey is installed as a system-wide keyboard
– Includes thousands of popular free animated GIFs – perfect for any reply or conversation
– Upload your own GIFs to personalize your keyboard
– Save your favorites, access recently used GIFs and featured trending content right at your fingertips
– Instantly insert the perfect animated GIF into any text or email conversation – there’s no need to stop what you’re doing. PopKey is always one tap away.
PopKey requires iOS 8 and supports iPhone 4s and higher
