How to Set Up an AI Keyboard on iPhone

Install and add the keyboard

Setup has two halves. Installing the app puts the software on your phone; adding the keyboard is what makes it appear when you press the globe key. Skipping the second step is the most common reason someone thinks the app is broken.

1. Install Auri from the App Store and open it once.
2. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard.
3. Pick Auri from the third-party list.
4. Open a text field in Messages, hold the globe key, and select Auri.
5. Type one sentence to confirm the layout and toolbar appear.

Leave the Apple keyboard enabled: you need it in secure fields, and it is your fallback while you learn where the toolbar puts things. If the keyboard does not show up in the globe list at all, restart the phone and re-add it before reinstalling; the extension registration sometimes needs a reboot after an iOS update.

Make Auri the default, as far as iOS allows

iOS has no switch that sets a third-party keyboard as the default. It goes by the order of your keyboard list instead. Open Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards, tap Edit, and drag Auri to the top. With Auri first, it is the keyboard iOS offers first; a quick globe tap cycles the list in that order.

Mid-typing, hold the globe key and pick Auri from the menu to switch without leaving the field. Remove layouts you never use while you are there; a short list keeps the globe key predictable.

Full Access: what it turns on

Full Access is the iOS permission that lets a keyboard extension use the network. Auri explains it in its own setup screen: "Granting Full Access means allowing the keyboard to connect to the internet. Without it, you can still use the keyboard to type, but you can't get my help with Grammar & Spelling Correction, Email Replies, Text Generation, Paraphrasing, and Translation. I'm privacy-first by design – I can't access password or credit card fields, and I don't collect any data you type."

With Full Access off, plain typing, autocorrect, swipe, and emoji keep working. With it on, the toolbar's six writing tools become available: Help Me Write, Continue, Fix Grammar, Paraphrase (more than 20 styles), Translate (31 languages), and Reply to Email. Tap the tool key to open Writing; long-press it for the Auri Tools menu. Dictation needs Full Access too, because the keyboard's speech engines run over the network.

You can revoke Full Access later in Settings without deleting the app. If the tools look grayed out while typing works, check Full Access first, then your connection.

Microphone access and your first dictation test

Microphone permission is a separate prompt from Full Access. iOS asks the first time you tap the mic key. Declining leaves typing intact.

Then test with the kind of sentences you send at work:

1. Open Notes, switch to Auri, and tap the microphone.
2. Speak three sentences that include a colleague's name, a number, and a date.
3. Stop, then read what landed. Check the name and the number specifically.
4. Run Fix Grammar on the same text and see what changes.
5. Repeat once somewhere noisy, since a quiet kitchen is not a fair trial.

Do this in Notes before you do it in a work thread. The first few takes teach you how long a pause the mic tolerates and how the app ends a sentence. The same app also includes AI Chat and Smart Notes for work outside another app's text field.

Choose a dictation output mode

Auri Keyboard ships with dictation set to Raw, which types a literal transcript: your words in order, filler included. Three other modes, Clean, Concise, and Professional, rewrite the transcript before it lands. To switch, touch and hold the mic key and pick a mode; the app's caption: "Raw keeps the transcript as-is. Other modes send it to Auri Cloud for cleanup."

You said: "hey sorry I missed this, um, can we do Tuesday, no, Thursday instead"

Raw typed: "hey sorry I missed this, um, can we do Tuesday, no, Thursday instead"

Clean typed: "Sorry I missed this. Could we move it to Thursday instead?"

Clean removes the filler, applies the correction you spoke, and fixes punctuation and capitalization. Concise shortens the result; Professional shifts the tone for work email. If finished text is why you installed Auri, make this switch on day one; Raw stays the default until you change it.

What the cloud default means day to day

On iPhone, Auri Keyboard transcribes in the cloud by default. The recommended engine, Ultrafast, streams text while you speak; the local option, On-Device, is English-only and downloads a model of about 460 MB. The picker is in the Auri app under Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Dictation > Recognition > Dictation Engine.

Day to day, that means:

• Voice typing needs a connection, and on a truly weak one cloud dictation fails; switch to On-Device for English or wait for signal.
• Clean, Concise, and Professional send the transcript to Auri Cloud for cleanup.
• The free tier covers 15 minutes of keyboard dictation as a lifetime total, not a daily allowance. Help Me Write and Reply to Email allow 3 uses a day free; Fix Grammar, Paraphrase, Translate, and Continue allow 55.

If you dictate material you would not paste into a web form, use On-Device or move that work to a Mac. Auri Voice, a separate app, transcribes on the Mac by default, and its cleanup pass sends the transcribed text, never audio, to the provider you pick. Setting up one app does not configure the other.

Where iOS takes the keyboard away from you

iOS blocks custom keyboards in password and passcode fields and shows the Apple keyboard instead; many apps do the same in card fields. Apple hides its own dictation mic in those fields too, so nobody dictates a credential. This is a platform rule, not a gap in Auri; the setup text draws the same line: "I can't access password or credit card fields."

Keep the system keyboard enabled so the fallback is smooth, and never work around the block by dictating a password into a note and pasting it across.

Fix the five things that usually break

Most setup problems come from a permission that stayed off, a keyboard that was never added, or another app holding the microphone.

Work down the table before reinstalling anything. A reinstall resets your keyboard order and permissions, which turns a two-minute check into a ten-minute rebuild.

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