Michal Ždanský The integration of third-party keyboards in iOS 8 was a very welcome development for users and developers alike. It opened the door to popular third-party keyboards such as Swype or SwiftKey. As part of security, however, Apple has partially limited the keyboard. For example, they cannot be used to enter passwords. Several other limitations emerged from the iOS 8 documentation, the saddest of which was the inability to move the cursor using the keyboard. However, it seems that in iOS 8 beta 3, Apple has abandoned this limitation, or rather added an API to enable cursor movement.
Information about the restriction was coming out documentation on programming custom keyboards, where it says:
“[…] custom keyboard cannot mark text or control cursor position. These operations are controlled by a text input application that uses the keyboard"
In other words, the cursor is controlled by the application, not the keyboard. This paragraph has not yet been updated after the release of the new iOS 8 beta, however, in the documentation of the new APIs discovered by developer Ole Zorn one that, according to its description, will eventually enable this action. The description literally says it all "adjust text position by distance from character". Thanks to this, the keyboard should gain access to an operation that until now only the application could control.
Looks like it's possible to move the cursor with a custom keyboard in beta 3. :) pic.twitter.com/hSLg8Gn48F
— Ole Zorn (@olemoritz) July 7, 2014
For third-party keyboards, genius could thus apply concept by Daniel Hooper from 2012, where it is possible to move the cursor by dragging horizontally on the keyboard. Later, this feature appeared via a jailbreak tweak SwipeSelection. This concept is also applied by several apps in the App Store including Publishing, a writing software developed by Ole Zorn, although dragging is possible only on a special bar above the keyboard.
Cursor placement on iOS has never been the most accurate or comfortable, and third-party keyboards could finally improve this seven-year-old concept. At WWDC 2014, it was seen how Apple wants to accommodate developers, and the new API is apparently a response to their requests.
I'm happy for this news if only because the first thing I'll do after updating to iOS8 will be to buy a new keyboard (probably Flexy). However, the current selection of the cursor location using the bubble seems comfortable enough to me, perhaps with the exception of hitting the edge of the display..;)
On the contrary, I think it is a step in the wrong direction. For me, the charm of iOS is precisely in its closedness and therefore stability. Approaching the android and the screams of a few disgruntled people will do no good
I don't understand the irreversibility. Who prevents you from using the apple keyboard? Your opinion seems terribly limited to me, similar to the ecstasy of the original text on blu-ray discs. who write that it is the most original with Czech subtitles. that's everyone's business, that everyone uses what they want, but why take the choice of others, what do you want a different keyboard or dubbing for a movie? ... so use the original stable keyboard, but someone can easily use another unstable one, right? leave the choice to the users, why would you take away other people's right to choose?!
I will not replace the standard keyboard. Just the schizophrenia that there will be one password and another for the others seems stupid to me. I would rather welcome Apple to unify the existing ones.
The first thing I do after installing iOS8 is to download Swiftkey and add the classic Apple keyboard skin to it. There is nothing on iOS that annoys me as much as the iOS keyboard. Horrible prediction and can't do anything a modern keyboard is supposed to be able to do.1
Totally agree. The thing that bothered me the most after switching from android to ios is the lengthy text input, in addition to typos. I'm looking forward to Swiftkey learning and remembering whole sentences, not just my unique expressions and twists :)
Often one or two letters are enough and Swiftkey will "guess" the desired word. Not to mention swiping