How to add a custom keyboard on iPhone
The exact Settings path, why a newly installed keyboard is invisible until you add it, and what the globe key does once it is there.
Downloading a keyboard app from the App Store does not give you the keyboard. On iOS, a keyboard app installs a keyboard extension, and iOS keeps every extension switched off until you add it by hand in Settings. This is why so many people install a keyboard, open an app, tap a text field, and see the same grey Apple keyboard they had before. Nothing is broken. The keyboard simply has not been added yet.
The whole procedure takes about twenty seconds and you only do it once per keyboard.
The five steps
- Install the keyboard app from the App Store and open it once. Opening it matters: on a fresh install iOS does not always register the extension until the container app has been launched.
- Open the iOS Settings app — the grey gear icon on your Home Screen, not the settings inside the keyboard app.
- Go to General → Keyboard → Keyboards. You will see a list of what is currently active, usually just “English” and “Emoji”.
- Tap “Add New Keyboard…”. Your installed keyboards appear in a section headed “Third-Party Keyboards”, above or below Apple’s own language list depending on your iOS version.
- Tap the keyboard you want. It joins the list immediately and is now available everywhere you can type.
That is the entire setup. You do not need to grant Full Access, restart the phone, or sign into anything.
Switching to it once it is added
Tap any text field to bring up the keyboard, then look at the bottom-left corner for the globe key 🌐. A single tap moves you to the next keyboard in your list. Press and hold the globe instead and iOS shows a small menu of every keyboard you have, so you can jump straight to the one you want rather than cycling through all of them.
If you only have one keyboard plus Emoji, the globe key may not appear at all — iOS only draws it when there is somewhere to switch to. Adding a third-party keyboard is usually the moment it shows up for the first time.
Changing the order
In Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards, tap Edit in the top right. Drag the handle on the right of each row to reorder. The keyboard at the top of the list is the one iOS falls back to, and the order also decides what a single globe tap cycles through — worth putting your favourite second so one tap always reaches it.
Removing a keyboard
Same screen: Edit, then the red minus next to the keyboard, then Delete. Removing it here does not delete the app. To remove it completely, delete the app from the Home Screen afterwards; iOS then drops the extension from the keyboard list automatically.
What a third-party keyboard can and cannot do
Once added, a custom keyboard works in essentially every app that accepts text: Messages, WhatsApp, Instagram, Safari, Mail, Notes, and so on. It is a system keyboard like any other.
There is one deliberate exception. Any app can mark a text field as secure — password fields, payment sheets, and some banking apps do this. When a secure field is focused, iOS forcibly swaps back to Apple’s own keyboard for as long as that field has the cursor. This is an iOS security rule and no third-party keyboard can opt out of it, which is exactly the point: your password never passes through third-party code.
Dictation, the microphone key, and the system emoji picker also stay with Apple. Most custom keyboards ship their own emoji panel instead.
Where Kibo fits
Kibo is a custom iPhone keyboard built around mechanical key sounds — 17 of them, plus 56 themes and 15 backlight effects. It follows exactly the setup above, and the app itself walks you through the same list with a button that jumps straight to the right Settings page. It is free to download and works with Full Access left off.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my new keyboard not appear under “Add New Keyboard”?
Almost always because the app has not been opened yet, or the install had not finished when you went into Settings. Open the app once, then back out of Settings completely and reopen it — iOS caches that screen and will show a stale list otherwise.
Do I have to delete Apple’s keyboard?
No, and you should not. Keep at least one Apple keyboard in the list. Secure text fields will fall back to it regardless, and having it there means you always have a way to type if something goes wrong.
Does adding a keyboard slow down my iPhone?
No. A keyboard extension is only loaded while the keyboard is on screen and is unloaded when it hides. It does not run in the background.
Try it on your own keyboard
Kibo is a free custom keyboard for iPhone with 17 mechanical key sounds, 56 themes and 15 backlight effects. No account, no ads, and it works with Full Access left off.