Getting started
Best iOS keyboard in 2026: how to choose
There isn’t one best iPhone keyboard. Pick by what you care about (accuracy, swipe, themes, privacy, or Google extras), then see where Apple, Gboard, SwiftKey, Typewise and Clink actually differ.
How to add a third-party keyboard on iPhone
Add Clink in iOS Settings, switch with the globe key, and optionally allow Full Access. Takes about a minute.
Full Access on iOS keyboards: what it is and what Clink does with it
Full Access is optional for typing in Clink. Here is what it unlocks (haptics, clipboard, custom sounds), what works without it, and what never leaves the phone.
Free, Membership, and getting a purchase back
Most of the keyboard costs nothing. Here is where the line falls, and what to do when something you have already paid for turns up locked.
When something is not right
The handful of things that go wrong with a custom keyboard on iOS, what each one actually means, and what settles it.
Making it yours
iOS keyboard themes: Liquid Glass, metal, and 3D keycaps
Change the whole look of your iPhone keyboard. Presets, a theme builder, photo backgrounds, and materials including Liquid Glass.
Key size, shape and popups
How tall the keys are, how round, how far apart, and what happens on screen when you press one.
Custom iPhone keyboard layout: split, number row, your keys
Add a number row, split the keyboard to both thumbs, pull it under one hand, or build a layout key by key.
Mechanical keyboard feel on iPhone: sounds and haptics
Swap the click, record your own sound pack, and tune haptics. Clink’s haptics still work where the system click is off.
Writing
Typing in more than one language
Turn on every language you write in and leave them on. Clink checks all of them as you type, so a sentence can change language without you switching anything.
Offline autocorrect and suggestions on iPhone
Autocomplete, autocorrect, and learning that stay on the device. No account. No network on the typing path.
Swipe typing on iPhone: one thumb or two
Slide to type, keep a word going with either thumb, and use the space bar as a trackpad. How Clink’s swipe compares to Apple’s QuickPath.
Your typing statistics
Speed, streaks and which keys you lean on, worked out on the phone and kept there. It starts off.
On the keyboard
The tools that live on the keyboard
Emoji, clipboard, translate, a calculator, notes and the rest, on top of whatever you are writing in.
Talking instead of typing
Speak into the field you are already in. Most of it runs on the phone, and the part that sometimes does not is worth knowing about.
The AI tools
Proofread, shorten, change the tone or draft a reply in the keyboard. Choose local or cloud AI in Integrations.
Clipboard history
Everything you copy, kept where you are typing, with the things you paste every day pinned to the front.
The other tools
Emoji, GIFs and stickers
The emoji keyboard is Clink's own, so it opens in place instead of switching you to another keyboard and back.
Writing by hand
The keys become a pad. Write with a finger or an Apple Pencil, and what you wrote turns into text where you were typing.
Translating inside the keyboard
Turn what you have written, or something you copied, into another language without leaving the conversation.
The calculator and unit conversion
Work out a number, or convert one, without leaving the message you are halfway through.
Your setup, everywhere
More than one setup
A profile is the whole keyboard saved under a name. Keep one for work and one for everything else, and change over in a tap.
Make your keyboard adapt
Use presets or your own rules to change the keyboard as you type, without replacing your saved setup.
iCloud Sync and backups
Get your profiles and themes onto your other devices, or keep the whole setup in one file you can put back later.
Adding themes and packs from a repository
Clink reads themes, layouts, sounds, fonts, profiles, panels, actions and plugins out of public GitHub repositories. The official ones are listed in the app.
Sending a theme, layout or pack to someone
Everything you make in Clink leaves as one small file. Themes and layouts also travel as a QR code, which is quicker when the other phone is in the room.
Can’t find it here?
Search inside Clink finds a setting by what it does, not only by its name, and the FAQ in the app covers more ground than these pages. If both run out, write to us.
Support ›Building something of your own
Panels, actions and plugins are Python, every pack is a small JSON file, and a repository is an ordinary GitHub release. That is all in the developer section.
Developers ›