Comparison

IPA Typing Keyboard vs Grapheme

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

Head to head
About

IPA Typing Keyboard

Features
Read full description

Promotional Text (170 char limit β€” paste verbatim): Type IPA phonetic symbols anywhere on iOS. Long-press dotted letters for variants. Fully offline β€” no accounts, no data collected. Description (4000 char limit β€” paste verbatim, including line breaks): IPA Typing Keyboard is an iOS keyboard for typing International Phonetic Alphabet symbols, built for linguistics students, phoneticians, language learners, and anyone who needs IPA symbols in daily work. HOW IT WORKS Install the app, add IPA Typing Keyboard in Settings, then switch to it with the globe key in any app. Tap letters normally for a–z. Long-press any of the dotted letters (a, e, i, o, u, t, s, d, c, n, z) to pick an IPA variant β€” the same gesture you already know from the built-in iOS Γ©/Γ¨ popover. DESIGNED FOR PRIVACY β€’ No typed text ever leaves your device. We cannot read what you write. IPA SYMBOL REFERENCE The built-in Reference tab shows every supported symbol with its base letter, name, and a tap-to-copy button β€” handy for research papers, transcription exercises, or language notes. DEVICE SUPPORT iPhone and iPad, iOS 16 or later. Adaptive SwiftUI layout for every size from iPhone SE to iPad 12.9". NOT INCLUDED (intentionally) No autocorrect, no predictive text, no telemetry, no cloud sync. The keyboard produces what you press β€” nothing more.

About

Grapheme

Features
Read full description

Grapheme is a pocket museum of the characters the world writes with, as Unicode records them. The entire code space is laid out in one grid, grouped by block and ready to wander. A COLLECTION FULL OF SURPRISES β€’ The complete Unicode 16 code space, organized by block β€’ Wander from Egyptian hieroglyphs to alchemical symbols, Byzantine musical notation, mahjong tiles, and emoji β€’ Jump to any block instantly with the block picker, and pin the ones you visit most β€’ Even characters your device has no font for get a meaningful placeholder glyph, so nothing shows up as an empty box CHARACTER DETAILS AT A TAP Tap any cell to see everything about that character: β€’ Official Unicode name and block β€’ Code point in U+ notation β€’ Byte encodings: UTF-8, UTF-16 (BE and LE), UTF-32 (BE and LE) β€’ HTML entity FAST SEARCH β€’ Find characters by name: try β€œsnowman”, β€œdragon”, or β€œpile of poo” β€’ Look up a code point directly by its hex value β€’ Paste in any text to see the code points it breaks down into, including the ZWJ sequences inside an emoji FAVORITES β€’ Mark characters you use often and come back to them in one tap WORKS COMPLETELY OFFLINE The full Unicode 16 character database ships inside the app. Browse, search, and inspect encodings anywhere, with no network connection required. MADE FOR DEVELOPERS, DESIGNERS, AND THE CURIOUS Debugging a text-encoding issue? Hunting for the perfect arrow, box-drawing character, or mathematical symbol? Exploring ancient scripts and the far reaches of the astral planes? Grapheme puts the entire Unicode standard at your fingertips.

Screenshots

IPA Typing Keyboard4 screens
Grapheme4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: IPA Typing Keyboard at none against Grapheme's shown. IPA Typing Keyboard also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 3 days) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.2). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

IPA Typing Keyboard ships an update daily, Grapheme every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
IPA Typing Keyboard versus Grapheme: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterIPA Typing KeyboardGrapheme
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily β€” betterEvery 3 days
AdsNo β€” betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 β€” better18.2
Further details β€” not scored
Size1 MB51 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMinh PhanHsingchien Cheng

In-app purchases

None

IPA Typing Keyboard

No in-app purchases

None

Grapheme

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is IPA Typing Keyboard free?
IPA Typing Keyboard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Grapheme free?
Grapheme is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do IPA Typing Keyboard or Grapheme have ads?
Grapheme shows ads; IPA Typing Keyboard does not.
Which is updated more often, IPA Typing Keyboard or Grapheme?
IPA Typing Keyboard ships an update daily, and Grapheme every 3 days. Most recently, IPA Typing Keyboard was updated on October 18, 2026 and Grapheme on October 10, 2026.

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