Installing a keyboard app does not put the keyboard on your screen. iOS keeps it out of your list until you add it in Settings, and that is the step most people miss. Here is the whole process, following Apple's own guide, Add or change keyboards on iPhone, plus the reasons a new keyboard seems to vanish.
Step 1: install the keyboard app
Download the keyboard from the App Store like any other app, then open it once. Many keyboards finish their setup inside the app, and some will not work until you have. Protexter is one of them: its keyboard asks you to open the app once to connect.
Step 2: add it in Settings
- Open Settings.
- Tap General, then Keyboard.
- Tap Keyboards. You will see every keyboard you have now.
- Tap Add New Keyboard, then choose the keyboard you installed from the list.
That is all iOS needs. The keyboard is now in your list, and it will be there when you switch keyboards while typing.
Step 3: decide on Allow Full Access
Back on the Keyboards screen, tap the keyboard you just added. If it was built to use the network, you will see an Allow Full Access switch.
Apple's documentation for developers, Configuring open access for a custom keyboard, explains what it does. With the switch off, a keyboard has no network access, and your keystrokes go only to the app you are typing in. With it on, the keyboard can send what you type to a server for processing, share storage with its own app, and use iCloud to keep its settings up to date.
A keyboard that only types does not need it. A keyboard whose AI runs in the cloud does, because it cannot reach its server otherwise. iOS shows a warning when you turn it on. Read it, and read the developer's privacy policy, before you tap Allow. What Allow Full Access means for an iPhone keyboard goes through that decision in detail.
For Protexter, Full Access is what lets the keyboard reach its AI, and it is not the only switch. Third-party AI processing is a second one in the app, off by default.
Step 4: switch to it while typing
Open an app with a text field, such as Messages or Notes, and tap into the field. Then:
- Touch and hold the globe key (or the emoji key, depending on your keyboards), then tap the keyboard you want.
- Or tap the globe key to move to the next keyboard in your list.
The fewer keyboards you keep in the list, the fewer taps it takes to reach the one you want. The section on reordering and removing keyboards, further down, shows how to drop the ones you never use.
Why a keyboard seems to disappear
If your new keyboard hands over to Apple's on its own, it is almost always one of these, all documented by Apple in its App Extension Programming Guide:
- You tapped a password field. In secure fields, the ones that show what you type as dots, iOS temporarily uses its own keyboard and switches back when you leave the field.
- You tapped a phone number field. Phone number pads, such as the number fields in Contacts, use Apple's number keyboard.
- The app refuses custom keyboards. A developer can choose to allow only Apple's keyboard in their app. Apple gives a banking app as an example.
None of these is a fault in the keyboard or in your settings. They are iOS keeping sensitive fields on its own keyboard.
A few other things to check:
- The keyboard is not in the list when you switch. Go back to Step 2 and add it.
- The AI features say they need Full Access. Turn on Allow Full Access in Step 3, if you have decided to.
- The keyboard asks you to open its app. Open the app once, then come back to the conversation.
Reorder or remove a keyboard
Apple's guide covers both, on the same Keyboards screen in Settings:
- To change the order, tap Edit, drag a keyboard to a new place in the list, then confirm.
- To remove one, swipe left on it and tap Delete.
Removing a keyboard from the list does not delete its app. If you no longer want it at all, delete the app from your Home Screen as well.
Setup checklist
- The keyboard app is installed and you have opened it once.
- It appears in Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards.
- You have decided on Allow Full Access after reading what it allows.
- You can switch to it with the globe key while typing.
- You know it steps aside in password fields, phone number fields and apps that refuse custom keyboards.
That is the whole setup. Most of the "my keyboard stopped working" moments come from the last item on that list, and now you know they are by design.