Comparison

Unicode Character Viewer vs UniChar

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Unicode Character Viewer

Explore and discover the vast world of Unicode characters and glyphs. Search for specific characters, view their variations across different fonts on your device, and save your favorites for quick access. Compose text strings using any Unicode character.

Highlights
  • Search by glyph title
  • View glyph variations in different fonts
  • Mark glyphs as favorites
  • Add glyphs to a draft text editor
  • Identify glyphs in strings
  • Explore downloadable iOS fonts
Features
Read full description

This app lets you explore the world of Unicode glyphs. The languages of the world contain some beautiful letter forms, and Unicode Character Viewer gives you an easy way to search for characters, mark your favourites, and share them with others. Browse all the fonts in your iOS device, and every glyph supported by each of those fonts. * Search by glyph title. * View variations of a glyph in different fonts. * Mark glyphs as favorites for easy reference. * View all the variations of a glyph in all fonts that support it. * Add glyphs to a draft text editor for composing a string using any Unicode characters. * Identify glyphs in strings you find. * Explore the 283+ downloadable iOS 7 fonts. This app is perfect for finding interesting characters to use in text messages, social media, or within apps. ​​ (The icon is Unicode code point 0x273E, entitled SIX PETALLED BLACK AND WHITE FLORETTE).

About

UniChar

Easily find and type special characters with a powerful Unicode keyboard. Browse hundreds of thousands of symbols, search by name or drawing, and organize your favorites. Ideal for developers and anyone needing to use a wide range of text symbols.

Highlights
  • Access hundreds of thousands of Unicode characters
  • Custom keyboard for typing special symbols in any app
  • Search characters by name, info, or drawing
  • Organize favorite characters
  • View character name, Unicode, and UTF-8 info
  • Browse curated categories and full Unicode table
Features
Read full description

UniChar is a powerful yet beautiful Unicode character app and keyboard that allows you to quickly find, type, and work with special symbols. ◣ "This iOS keyboard app will give you all the Unicode characters you’ll ever need." – lifehacker “UniChar is a cool little app and keyboard, and offers access to a huge world of Unicode characters that are otherwise absent within the standard iOS keyboard.” – iDownloadBlog "On the Mac, you can type any character [with] the Emoji & Symbols viewer ... The selection on iOS is much more limited ... But UniChar changes that." – Cult of Mac “It’s a full-featured utility for searching and copying symbols … it’s always nice to see a developer who’s dedicated to improving this kind of utility over time and adopting new features … it's a very handy app.” – AppStories ◤ Utilize hundreds of thousands of characters organized neatly into categories and a full Unicode table. You can quickly search for the character you’re looking for, type special symbols in any app with the custom keyboard, and collect your favorite characters to access them even quicker. For developers, UniChar is an efficient tool to work with Unicode code points and UTF-8 encodings. Revamp your workflow by using UniChar alongside other apps on iPad, or use Universal Clipboard to copy on your iPhone and paste on your Mac. App ◉ Work with characters and their info – Name, Unicode, and UTF-8 ◉ Browse curated categories in grid or list view ◉ Customize your categories – choose from more than 150 symbol and script categories* ◉ Access the entire Unicode table by character blocks* ◉ Go to a specific block, category, or code point ◉ Search for symbols by name, info, or even by drawing** ◉ Identify characters and see a breakdown of code points that form them ◉ Ask Siri questions about a Unicode character ◉ Select custom fonts to use when rendering glyphs ◉ Collect and organize your favorite symbols ◉ Quickly copy character info to the clipboard ◉ Insert characters into the text field and compose text using the system keyboard ◉ Share your text via Messages, Mail, Mastodon, etc – or open it in other apps like Pages Keyboard ◎ Type special symbols in any app ◎ Quickly input your favorite and recently used characters ◎ Browse curated categories – choose from more than 150 categories* ◎ Designed to compliment the Emoji keyboard Widgets ■ Add your favorite symbol to your Lock Screen ■ View stats for how many drawings you've submitted to help improve Search by Drawing Apple Watch ◆ Add your favorite symbol to your watch face ◆ Quickly access your favorite and recently used characters ◆ Copy character info to your iPhone’s clipboard And More ● Beautiful Liquid Glass design ● Light and dark mode ● Full accessibility support ● Handoff ● Drag and Drop ● Keyboard shortcuts and menu bar on iPad ● Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple silicon Mac ● No ads, no tracking, no subscriptions * All Categories can be unlocked via a one-time in-app purchase. ** Search by Drawing is powered by an on-device machine learning model that predicts matching symbols as you draw in real-time. You can help improve symbol recognition by submitting your own drawings!

Screenshots

Unicode Character Viewer4 screens
UniChar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: UniChar at 79% against Unicode Character Viewer's 31%. UniChar also leads on price (Free vs $1.99) and rating (4.7 vs 2.5). Unicode Character Viewer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

UniChar is free to download; Unicode Character Viewer costs $1.99 up front. UniChar sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Unicode Character Viewer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

UniChar holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: UniChar has 1.6K ratings behind it against 53, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of Unicode Character Viewer's written reviews are positive against 79% of UniChar's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Unicode Character Viewer ships an update every 3 months, UniChar every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Unicode Character Viewer versus UniChar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnicode Character ViewerUniChar
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating2.5 (53 ratings)4.7 (1.6K ratings) — better
Positive reviews31.0% of reviews78.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings531.6K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFall Day Software Inc.Jordan Hipwell

Customer experience

Unicode Character Viewer

All ratings53 ratings
Positive37.7%
Neutral1.9%
Negative60.4%
Written reviews71 reviews
Positive31.0%
Neutral4.2%
Negative64.8%

UniChar

All ratings1,647 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral3.3%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews217 reviews
Positive78.8%
Neutral6.9%
Negative14.3%

User reviews

Unicode Character Viewer

From 53 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✅ Works for copying glyphs to Canva
  • ✅ Perfect for copying characters
  • ✅ Works with Procreate
  • ✅ Good for Cricut projects
  • ✅ Awesome for crafters

Room to improve

  • ❌ Cannot view glyphs on OTF files
  • ❌ Only shows Apple standard fonts
  • ❌ Does not find all installed fonts
  • ❌ Does not work with downloaded fonts
  • ❌ Wasted money for some users

UniChar

From 1.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Straightforward and effective
  • 🚀 Highly useful and efficient
  • 💡 Excellent integration with keyboard
  • 🎨 Beautiful and polished design

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Paywall for full access
  • 🐛 Keyboard not working as expected
  • 🔍 Lacking search functionality in keyboard
  • 📂 Confusing organization of categories

Bugs and requests

Unicode Character Viewer

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • Cannot view glyphs on OTF files
  • Does not come out as an installed font
  • Only shows Apple standard fonts
  • Does not find all installed fonts
  • Does not work with downloaded fonts
Show 10 more
  • Pastes as a box on Word or Pages
  • App crashes
  • App crashes when typing 'Me' in Browse characters
  • App crashes after new update
  • Does not work with Procreate
  • Downloaded fonts do not show up
  • Characters turn out to be something different after copy/paste
  • Not working with recent Cricut Design Space update
  • Freezes when loading fonts
  • Does not work on iOS 15

Requested features

10 requests
  • Update to work with iOS 14
  • Ability to favorite fonts
  • Add instructions on how to add aftermarket font files
  • Fix glitch where characters change after pasting
  • Update to work with Cricut's latest update
Show 5 more
  • Make app compatible with iOS 15
  • Fix freezing issue
  • Allow adding custom fonts
  • Easier browsing of named Unicode blocks
  • Ability to mark blocks as favorites

UniChar

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Keyboard disappearing from settings
  • Drawing search feature not working
  • Certain characters not rendering properly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add search by name/code in app
  • Allow multi-selection of characters
  • Sync favorites across devices
  • Expand character coverage (e.g. Greek, Alchemical)
  • Provide font options to display more symbols

In-app purchases

None

Unicode Character Viewer

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

UniChar

One-time1
  • All Categories$9.99

Questions

Is Unicode Character Viewer free?
Unicode Character Viewer costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is UniChar free?
UniChar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Unicode Character Viewer or UniChar?
UniChar is rated higher. Unicode Character Viewer averages 2.5 out of 5 from 53 ratings, while UniChar averages 4.7 from 1.6K ratings.
Do Unicode Character Viewer or UniChar have ads?
Neither Unicode Character Viewer nor UniChar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Unicode Character Viewer or UniChar?
Unicode Character Viewer ships an update every 3 months, and UniChar every 2 months. Most recently, Unicode Character Viewer was updated on October 18, 2026 and UniChar on October 19, 2026.

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