Comparison

Pilcrow vs the iPhone keyboard on iOS 27: an honest comparison

Published 3 October 2026 · 6 min read

The keyboard that comes with your iPhone is good, free and always there. So the honest question is not whether it is bad. It is whether the things that annoy you about it are the things another keyboard can fix.

The short answer. Keep Apple’s keyboard if it rarely changes words you meant and you write in one language. Try Pilcrow if autocorrect keeps “fixing” correct words, if you mix languages in the same message, or if you want to see and edit what the keyboard has learned about you. You can have both installed and switch with the globe key.

We make Pilcrow, so read this with that in mind. Everything said here about Apple’s keyboard comes from Apple’s own iPhone User Guide and developer documentation, linked at the end. Where Apple does not document something, we say so rather than guess.

What the built-in keyboard does well

It is worth starting here, because a third-party keyboard has to beat this, not a straw man.

It is everywhere iOS needs it. Password fields and phone-number pads always use Apple’s keyboard. iOS swaps any third-party keyboard out in those fields, Pilcrow included, and swaps it back when you leave them. That is an iOS rule, not a choice any keyboard maker can change.
Slide to type. QuickPath lets you glide from letter to letter, and you can mix gliding and tapping in the same sentence. Apple notes it is not available for every language; its Feature Availability page has the list.
Two languages without switching, in supported pairs. For some languages you can add a bilingual keyboard and type in both, and Apple says the keyboard “automatically switches between the two languages you use most often”. iOS 18 added a three-language keyboard for one specific group of languages.
Text Replacement. Type a short code and get a longer phrase. It is synced through iCloud, and it doubles as a way to stop one word being corrected (more on that below).
It keeps improving. iOS 27 brought new keyboards and typing changes, including automatic punctuation on multilingual keyboards and suggestions for setting up languages and keyboards.

Where people run into trouble

Words you meant get changed

Every autocorrect is a bet that you meant a different word from the one you typed. When the bet is wrong, a name, a technical term or a word from your other language becomes something else. Apple gives you three tools for this. You can reject the suggestion, which Apple says is how words are added to the keyboard dictionary. You can create a Text Replacement with the word in the Phrase field and the Shortcut left blank, which Apple documents as the way to stop a word or phrase being replaced. Or you can turn Auto-Correction off entirely in Settings › General › Keyboard.

The learned dictionary is all or nothing

Apple documents one way to undo what the keyboard has learned: Settings › General › Transfer or Reset iPhone › Reset › Reset Keyboard Dictionary, which “erases only the words you’ve added”. That is all of them at once. Apple does not document a screen where you can read the learned words, or remove a single one.

More than one language, outside the supported pairs

If your languages are on Apple’s multilingual list, the bilingual keyboard is the easiest fix there is. If they are not, or you write in three, you are back to the globe key, mid-sentence, every time the language changes.

What Pilcrow does differently

Pilcrow keeps the layout your fingers already know. What changes is how it decides, and what it lets you see.

It leaves real words alone. Replaying held-out text through the shipped keyboard, a correctly spelled word is changed fewer than 7 times in 1,000. On the other side of that trade, it restores 61–72 % of words typed with a genuine slip. Both numbers are quoted at the worst end of the range across the languages it ships.
Undo once, and it stops. Backspace straight after a correction, or tap the undo chip, and that correction is never applied to that word again. The word you actually typed also stays in the suggestion bar, one tap away.
Several languages in one sentence. Enable the languages you write and it tells them apart word by word, with no globe key in the middle of a message. Any of them can be typed on the layout you already use.
Swipe in every language it ships, and keep going through the space bar to write several words in one gesture.
A dictionary you can read. Every word, phrase, spelling and correction it has learned is a line you can open from the keyboard itself, and delete, block or edit one at a time.
One tap repairs the whole message, tells you how many words it changed, and one more tap puts them all back.

A draft reading “Lumi says yes, see you tomorow” above the suggestion bar, which shows “tomorow” in quotes, then tomorrow highlighted, then tommorow. — **Your word stays one tap away.** The slip is fixed on the space bar; the quoted first slot is what you actually typed.

Side by side

	iPhone keyboard (iOS 27)	Pilcrow
Price	Built in	Free for three days, then a one-time purchase or a yearly or monthly plan
Languages in one sentence	Two, for supported pairs; one group of three since iOS 18	Several, told apart word by word
Swipe typing	QuickPath, in the languages Apple lists	In every language it ships, and across the space bar
Remove one learned word	Not documented; Reset Keyboard Dictionary erases every word you added	Delete, block or edit any single entry
Stop a word being corrected	Text Replacement with a blank shortcut	Undo the correction once
Password and phone-number fields	Yes	No; iOS switches to Apple’s keyboard there, as it does for every third-party keyboard
Full Access	Not applicable	Optional; adds haptics, the clipboard panel and the app’s view of learned words

What you give up by switching

Be clear-eyed about this part. Pilcrow is not free after the first three days; without a purchase it keeps typing, but corrections, predictions, swipe, learning and themes pause. Apple’s keyboard will still appear in password and phone-number fields. In Pilcrow, haptic feedback and the clipboard panel need Full Access. And you have one more app on your phone.

What you do not give up is privacy. The Pilcrow keyboard contains no networking code at all, so turning Full Access on does not let it send anything; the switch only adds haptics, the clipboard panel and the app’s view of the words it has learned. There is no account, and the model that predicts your next word runs on the phone.

How to try both

Install Pilcrow, then open Settings › General › Keyboard › Keyboards › Add New Keyboard… and choose it. The app’s setup guide opens the right page for you.
In any app, touch and hold the globe key and pick Pilcrow. A tap on the globe cycles through your keyboards.
Type normally for a few days. Leave Apple’s keyboard installed; if you prefer it, switching back is one tap.

If your main complaint is language switching rather than corrections, read how to type in two languages on iPhone without switching keyboards first: Apple’s bilingual keyboard may already cover your pair.

Last checked October 2026, against Apple’s iPhone User Guide for iOS 27. iOS changes every year; if something here is out of date, write to info@pilcrowtype.com and we will correct it.

Sources

Apple, Add or change keyboards on iPhone (bilingual keyboards, automatic switching)
Apple, Type with the onscreen keyboard on iPhone (QuickPath, keyboard settings)
Apple, iOS and iPadOS Feature Availability (multilingual typing and QuickPath languages)
Apple, Use three languages in one keyboard on your iPhone with iOS 18
Apple, Set up shorthand for frequently used text on iPhone (Text Replacement, blank shortcut)
Apple, Reset iPhone settings to their defaults (Reset Keyboard Dictionary)
Apple Developer, Custom Keyboard (secure fields and phone pads use the system keyboard)
9to5Mac, iOS 27 brings new keyboards and typing improvements