# IPA Phonetic Keyboard — user reviews

> 125 indexed App Store user reviews of IPA Phonetic Keyboard by Vincent Cai, rated 4.50/5 from 172 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ipa-phonetic-keyboard/id1440241497/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ipa-phonetic-keyboard/id1440241497.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 132 · 4★ 22 · 3★ 4 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 13

## What do users think of IPA Phonetic Keyboard?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Convenient IPA keyboard
- 💡 Extensive IPA symbol coverage
- 🚀 Smooth and responsive
- 🤩 Great for linguistics and conlanging
- 🎨 Visually appealing design

**Cons**

- 🔒 Paid access for some symbols
- 🔍 Keyboard layout could be more customizable
- 🐛 Occasional keyboard switching issues
- 🔇 Keyboard clicking sounds can't be disabled

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Vowel [ʁ] displays incorrectly
- Keyboard disappears after switching, requiring settings access to re-enable

**Most requested features**

- Add angle brackets and parentheses for orthographic notation
- Implement a 'frequently used' section for common symbols
- Allow users to rearrange the keyboard layout
- Add support for laryngeal notation in Proto-Indo-European

## Newest reviews (17 of 125)

### 4/5 — great

*2026-04-25, version 1.2.2*

why does it say completely free in the description but it isn’t with the obsolete stuff?

### 4/5 — Good

*2025-08-12, version 1.2.2*

I wish you didn’t have to pay 5.99 for the extra stuff

### 5/5 — Very good.

*2025-07-30, version 1.2.2*

As a phonetics enthusiast, I think this is very good if you want to type in IPA quickly. Could you add the symbols indicating buccal, esophageal, tracheo-esophageal, and eletrolaryngeal speech? Anyway, thank you for this app!

### 5/5 — The IPA

*2025-07-13, version 1.2.2*

Is it good

### 5/5 — Awesome!

*2025-06-30, version 1.2.2*

I really like this keyboard. The diacritics are so cool! I guess it has a little problem. Sometimes when I have to type on that keyboard, it just goes back to my normal keyboard.

### 5/5 — super helpful

*2025-05-29, version 1.2.2*

i love writing in my conlang, and i can LITERALLY ONLY DO THIS WITH EASE BECAUSE OF THIS APP. my lang is only “romanized” in the IPA, soooo this is just super helpful :P thx so much for making this free and adless

### 5/5 — Dankeschön

*2025-05-19, version 1.2.2*

Ich bin ein Sprachlerner aus China. Diese Software ist sehr nützlich für mich, danke.

### 5/5 — Great app, some suggestions

*2025-05-18, version 1.2.2*

Using this app has been smooth sailing, but I noticed that there aren’t yet symbols for the voiceless/voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives and the like. You might also consider adding the non-standard stød diacritic for broad Danish transcription.

Also, I think it’d be great to implement a push-and-hold feature for high-frequency diacritics. For example, you could press and hold down a vowel in the app to add a nasal diacritic, a consonant to add an aspiration diacritic, and so on. It’d make some of the diacritical symbols on the right side redundant, but it’d also reduce scrolling time. Though I can’t speak to how difficult implementing such a change would be.

### 5/5 — ðˈɪs ˈɪz ɡɹˈe͡ɪt

*2025-04-24, version 1.2.2*

ðˈɪs ˌɪntɚnˈæʃənə͡l fənˈɛɾɪk ˈælfəbˌɛt kˈiːboː͡ɹd ˈɔn ðˈə ˈa͡ɪfo͡ʊn fˈɪftiːn ˈæp stˈoː͡ɹ ˈɪz ˈe͡ɪ ɡɹˈe͡ɪt fɹˈiː pˈɜːt͡ʃɪs fˈɔː͡ɹ ˈɛvɹɪwˌʌn ˈɪn nˈiːd. ˈɛvɹɪwˌʌn ʃˈʊd hˈæv ðˈɪs, ˈɪts ɡɹˈe͡ɪt tˈuː bˈiː vˈɛɹi ˈɑːnɪst.

### 5/5 — Awesome!

*2025-04-15*

I really like this keyboard. The diacritics are so cool! I guess it has a little problem. Sometimes when I have to type on that keyboard, it just goes back to my normal keyboard. It might be a problem for you but it's fine for me.

### 5/5 — Tajay

*2025-03-03, version 1.2.2*

Atkinson

### 5/5 — Best thing ever

*2025-02-11, version 1.2.2*

finally, it works. I don’t get the ones that I gave you five stars.

### 5/5 — ɨ lʌvʔ ɨpa

*2025-01-25, version 1.2.2*

jɘi

### 5/5 — Excellent to quickly search for phonemes on Wikipedia

*2025-01-08, version 1.2.2*

I love this keyboard.

### 5/5 — good app

*2025-01-02, version 1.2.2*

This is a good app

### 5/5 — Amazing!

*2025-01-02, version 1.2.2*

The design is great and it has every symbol I need, /ha͡i.lĭ/ /ɹek.ə.mend/ !

### 5/5 — Good app

*2024-12-15, version 1.2.2*

Good and works

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — 5 stars but totally ruined

*2026-01-03, version 1.2.2*

It’s 5 stars for everything until nonstandard and obsolete symbols. The two last symbols in community requested shouldn’t be able to be in a keyboard that says “for age 4+”. At least put an age limit on it, disgusting.

### 1/5 — trash

*2025-06-04, version 1.2.2*

You have to pay $6 for obsolete symbols. And I don’t wanna spend that much money on an in app purchase

### 1/5 — Doesn't load

*2022-12-07, version 1.1.1*

Would love to try it, but unfortunately it doesn't load. I have other 3rd-party keyboards on my iPad, and I've never had an issue installing one before. Adding the keyboard in Settings seems to work fine, but when it comes to pressing the globe key, the IPA keyboard does not appear in the list of options.

### 1/5 — It didn’t work

*2020-05-17, version 1.0.1*

It didn’t work so I deleted it

### 1/5 — Where is the keyboard?!

*2019-07-25, version 1.0*

I got the app. There’s no icon. And its not in the add keyboard section either!  Is this a bug?

### 1/5 — Nada

*2019-05-24, version 1.0*

You get what you pay for.

### 3/5 — Really good except for one thing

*2025-07-14, version 1.2.2*

This is an amazing app and has really helped me, but the price for obsolete symbols is absurd. $10 for symbols I can find online? At best it’s $2 for the convenience. Otherwise, I highly recommend.

### 3/5 — Pretty Good!

*2023-06-12, version 1.1.2*

New to IPA and wanted a keyboard to be able to talk about symbols with friends to learn, and it does the job well. But I don’t think they fixed the issue with the globe icon as of June. 2023, I can’t switch off the IPA keyboard so sadly I can’t use it often

### 3/5 — To spread out

*2022-08-28, version 1.1.1*

This is a good keyboard but not for doing quick transcription. It’s too spread out… it’s free though! That’s a plus!

### 3/5 — A very useful keyboard, unusable because of one issue.

*2022-05-16, version 1.1.1*

Another reviewer seems to be encountering the same newfound problem, but for me it’s always been there. After switching to this keyboard, the button to switch keyboards (a globe) disappears entirely, leaving other, standard keyboards inaccessible aside from going into settings and disabling this one.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Finally installed OK

*2026-05-14, version 1.2.2*

Took a while to understand where to find it and how to install it but it was already there with my other keyboard languages

### 5/5 — xx

*2026-03-27, version 1.2.2*

Has  599  money  for  nonstandard  and  obsolete  put  it  free

### 5/5 — perfect

*2026-01-30, version 1.2.2*

i love phonetics i'm so glad i can have a phonetic keyboard, 5 stars it's exactly what it says it is and it's free

### 5/5 — Human-Design

*2025-12-09, version 1.2.2*

I was immediately impressed… first free Lynguist designed Data Privacy App…. Now to see what it does!

### 5/5 — ABSOLUTE 100/10

*2025-11-27, version 1.2.2*

insane. legit just an adding without secret costs or anything else

### 5/5 — ɑwɛsɔɯɛ æpʰ

*2025-11-14, version 1.2.2*

ʈħɪʂ app ɪʂ awɛʂoɯɛ wɪʈħ sʏɯβɔ|ʂ ʟɪkᵋ ɱɳɲŋɴʙʔɟʈɖɸβʂʐçʝɣχʁʀɬɮʃʒθðɹɻɰhɦɾʋlɭʎʟħʕɽʘɓʼǀɗǃʄǂɠǁʛʍɕʑɥɺʜɧʢ͡ʡ͜yɨʉɯuɪʏɘɵʊøəɤɛœɜɞʌɔæɐaɶɑɒˈ|ˌ‖ː.ˑ‿̆̋˥̌ꜜ́˦̂ꜛ̄˧᷄↗̀˨᷅↘̏˩̥᷈̊ʰ̬̹̜̩̌̈͗̽͑̍ʷ̞˕̤̃ˤ̪̚ɚ̺ɝ̴̰ɫ̹̼̝͗̽˔̻̜̩͑̍ʷ̞˕̟̃˖̯̑ʲ̘ⁿ̠˗˞ˠ̙ˡ

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2025-10-13, version 1.2.2*

Brilliant

### 5/5 — Awesome!

*2025-09-01, version 1.2.2*

I really like this keyboard. The diacritics are so cool! It has a little problem. Sometimes when I have to type on that keyboard, it just goes back to my normal keyboard.

### 5/5 — Retroflex Click

*2025-08-25, version 1.2.2*

As a phonetics minor, I absolutely love this app, it’s extremely helpful and also fun (Atleast for me) to use. I would like to propose adding the retroflex click, [ǃ̢], this is the official IPA symbol. I know it’s a mainly experimental symbol, but I and probably others would still like to use it. Otherwise, amazing application.

### 5/5 — ⱱ̥̽̌˞ɚ˔̝ȓ͜y͜ːeɴʈɘɾt̪aɪɳɨŋ

*2025-08-07, version 1.2.2*

It’s perfect for use just to play around with and convince people that your phone is broken!

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-02.*