How to Set Up an AI Keyboard on iPhone

Install and add the keyboard

Setup has two halves that people conflate. 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 the keyboard app from the App Store and open it once.
2. Go to Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards, Add New Keyboard.
3. Pick the app from the third-party list.
4. Open a text field in Messages, hold the globe key, and select the new keyboard.
5. Type one sentence to confirm the layout and toolbar appear.

Leave the Apple keyboard enabled. You want it for secure fields, and you want it as a fallback the first week while you learn where the new toolbar puts things. If the keyboard does not show up in the globe list at all, restart the phone once and re-add it before reinstalling, since the extension registration occasionally needs a reboot after an iOS update.

Full Access: what it turns on

Full Access is an iOS permission that lets a keyboard extension use the network. It sounds alarming because Apple words it broadly, and what it actually controls is whether cloud features can run at all.

With Full Access off, you get local typing and layouts. With it on, network features become available:

• Grammar and spelling fixes on a draft you already typed or spoke.
• Rewrite and paraphrase in different tones.
• Translate between languages inside the field you are in.
• Email reply drafting from a short prompt.
• Cloud voice transcription (selectable engines), which is the default on iPhone; On-Device English is available.

Grant it if you want those tools, and read the app's explanation of what leaves the device first. You can revoke Full Access later in Settings without deleting the app, so a cautious first pass costs you nothing. If rewrite or translate buttons appear grayed out while typing works normally, Full Access is the first thing to check, followed by your connection.

Microphone access and your first dictation test

Voice typing needs microphone permission, which is a separate prompt from Full Access. iOS asks the first time you tap the mic in the keyboard. Approve it if you plan to dictate, and know that declining leaves typing intact.

Run a real test rather than a slogan:

1. Open Notes, switch to the keyboard, tap the microphone.
2. Speak three sentences that include a colleague name, a number, and a date.
3. Stop, then read what landed. Check the name and the number specifically.
4. Run one grammar or rewrite pass on the same text and see how it 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 handles the end of a sentence, and that is worth learning in private. Auri Keyboard covers voice typing plus write and grammar help, email replies, translate across 20+ languages, paraphrase in 25+ styles, and 80 or more keyboard languages. The same Auri app also includes AI Chat and Smart Notes when the work belongs outside another app's text field.

What the cloud default means day to day

On iPhone, Auri Keyboard transcribes in the cloud by default, with On-Device English-only transcription available as an option. That default exists because keyboard extensions on iOS run under tight memory limits, which makes large local models harder to host than they are on a Mac.

Practically, the default means three things:

• Voice typing needs a connection unless you switch to On-Device English transcription.
• Quality holds up well on weak connections, and latency rises.
• Sensitive dictation deserves a deliberate choice rather than a default.

If you dictate material you would not paste into a web form, switch to local transcription or move that work to the Mac. Auri Voice on macOS runs recognition and cleanup on device by default, which makes it the better home for confidential drafting. The two apps are independent products, so setting up one does not configure the other, and you can use either on its own.

Where iOS takes the keyboard away from you

iOS blocks custom keyboards in password fields, and it does the same in other secure inputs such as card entry. When you tap one, the system keyboard appears instead. This is a platform rule, not a missing feature in the app.

What to expect:

• Password, passcode, and card fields fall back to the Apple keyboard automatically.
• Some apps mark additional fields secure, so the switch can happen where you did not expect it.
• Your AI toolbar and mic are unavailable in those fields, by design.
• Auri does not capture password or card fields.

Treat the swap as a useful signal rather than an annoyance. If the keyboard changes underneath you, you are in a field where you should be typing carefully anyway. Keep the system keyboard enabled so that fallback is smooth, and never work around the block by dictating a credential into a note and pasting it across.

Fix the three 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. This table covers what people actually hit in the first week.

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. Once the basics work, remove keyboards you never use so the globe key switch stays fast during a real conversation.

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