Unlike iOS, Android from its beginning has had the ability to install third-party keyboard software for on-screen touch typing.
It's actually one of Android's major advantages over iOS: third-party keyboard apps greatly improve upon stock experience with helpful features such as gestures, better voice control, enhanced predictions and even specialized input rules.
There's no other way around the fact that stock iOS keyboard experience hasn’t kept pace with Android in terms of recognition, predictive typing and other capabilities. As much as we'd love Tim Cook & Co. to open up iOS, we'll have to do with the limited stock experience for the time being (unless you're jailbroken, of course).
But that's not stopping folks like TouchType from keeping their fingers crossed. For those unfamiliar with TouchType, they are behind the popular SwiftKey software keyboard for Android phones. Speaking out publicly about the issue, one of TouchType execs clearly has his hopes high on an Apple-sanctioned third-party keyboard development...