iKeyWi Adds Customizable 5th Row Keys to iOS 5 Keyboards

By , Dec 21, 2011

There have been many keyboard tweaks released over the years, and I’ve had issues with practically all of them.

iKeyWi is the latest keyboard tweak to make its way to Cydia, but this one if probably one of the more stable ones that I’ve used thus far.

That’s not to say that it’s not without a few opportunities for improvement, but as you’ll see on video, it’s a very good start…

The main gripe I have with iKeyWi is one that’s already been acknowledged by the developer — the lack of landscape custom 5th row keyboard support. Placing your device into landscape mode simply makes the 5th row of keys disappear. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

My other gripe is the lack of a proper Settings app panel. While it’s extremely easy to customize the 5th row keys using iFile, it would be even easier to do so from the Settings app.

Other than that, iKeyWi is a competent keyboard tweak. It doesn’t rely on WinterBoard, and it works on iOS 5. Those are pretty big accomplishments when you consider some of the competition in this space.

At $1.99, iKeyWi is a bit steep when you consider the few issues I raised above, but for those of you desperate for a 5th row keyboard tweak that’s stable, you can head over to Cydia and download it today.

What’s your experience with keyboard tweaks been like?

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mauricio-Lima/100001953465893 Mauricio Lima

    There are a lot to be better.

  • http://www.facebook.com/reanimationxp Drew Alden

    Looks good, still unimpressed with the lack of keyboard mods in the iOS community. Why are themes and swype so difficult? And why hasn’t someone leaked the BlindType beta? :(

  • http://twitter.com/matthiaars Matthias Lemmens

    I’m still waiting for the 8pen to appear in cydia…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dimitar-Gulenov/1741738699 Dimitar Gulenov

    iOS 5 only :( Does anyone knows if there’s WinterBoardLESS 5-Row keyboard for 4.x, 4.3.3 in my case?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Diego-Milano/629446773 Diego Milano

      I believe there is, I was on 4.3.3 and even older versions of iOS but iOS4+ and I’ve tested a few. However, the ones I tested were not customizable.
      Honestly, I don’t like the “it disappears in landscape mode”. It would be AWESOME if someone could come up with a tweak that allowed one to replace any key on the standard layout without having to add any row which personally doesn’t look very good.
      Still a nice tweak and if it had the landscape mode supported, I would definitely buy it. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000138332538 Cameron MacGregor

    Would this work on the iPad?

  • http://twitter.com/DKjail DKjail

    WARNING TO DANISH PEOPLE !!!!!!!

    It wont work with the danish keyboard :(

  • http://twitter.com/Gunner007CD Christopher C. Deal

    My only complaint is this tweak paired with ColorKeyboard caused massive delay in input. I could type a whole sentence and it would seem to hesitate and then input. Also, when you start a new sentence, it annoyingly shifts the 5th line to your alternate keyboard.

    After awhile I just gave up and removed it.

  • http://www.way2hype.com 1976Hoosiers

    been looking for this forever. Used to love my 5 row keyboard. 1.99 is a little too steep for my taste. 99 cents and I would be in ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/garfield.kennedy Garfield Kennedy

    Good to have a 5 row keyboard and I spotted that others were searching hard for this for IOS 5. Works – what more can one say and $1.99 is par for the course!