ADKeys, which stands for adaptable keys, is a tweak that lets you change up the background and key cap color of the keyboard in iOS. By doing so, you can match up your keyboard color with other areas or your iPhone, such as your current wallpaper or theme.
If you can manage to handle the tweak’s frustrating preferences, then you may be able to obtain the look you’re going for. Have a glance at our walkthrough for a bit more detail.
It works in landscape mode, but stretches your image
First and foremost, the preferences of this tweak are pretty bad from a design standpoint. I’m not just talking about design from a looks perspective, although that suffers as well. I’m talking about design lacking from a purely functional standpoint.
For starters there are no instructions, and no guidelines. Once you install the tweak you’re left on your own to fend for yourself.
Once I made my way to the tweak’s preferences, the buttons were barely legible, as the choice of color made it so that the text on the buttons was almost indiscernible. When you’re charging for a tweak, I at least expect it to be easy to follow, and this was not.
Using ADKeys’ preferences presents a challenge
When tapping on a button in the preferences, you’re sometimes met with a jarring experience. For example, after using the photo picker to select a photo, you’ll need to tap the Save Image button, which results in a sudden respring. You’ll also be greeted with a sudden respring when selecting a key color, with no prior warning. It’s just a bad user experience overall, and while I usually give most tweaks a pass due to the nature of their development, this tweak sticks out to me as being particularly egregious in this area.
But, if you can get past the bad design principals, then you may deem the final result to be worth the effort that it takes to arrive somewhat close to where you originally expected. It’s just not a very fun journey on the way there.
ADKeys can be purchased for $1.00 on the BigBoss repo. It’s a tweak that’s hard to recommend based on my experience, but if your end goal is to customize the look of your keyboard with an image, then the struggle may be worth your while.
What’s your experience been like with ADKeys? Has it been different than mine? Drop us a line below and let us know.