Comparison

Special Characters++ vs AABC African Alphabets

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

Head to head
About

Special Characters++

Access over 1000 unique symbols, glyphs, and characters not found on the standard iOS keyboard. Organize your favorites and quickly find characters with a dedicated search bar. Enhance your texts, emails, and notes with custom characters.

Highlights
  • Access over 1000 special characters
  • Categorized character sections
  • Quick Find search bar
  • Favorites list for custom sorting
  • Recently used character tracking
  • Supports landscape and portrait modes
Features
Read full description

Special Characters is an iOS 8 keyboard that gives you access to all the symbols, glyphs, bullets, arrows and other special characters that you can't access from the standard iOS keyboard. Special Characters isn't a replacement keyboard but a companion that you can use to get to the characters & symbols you need when you need them. Choose from over 1000 characters separated into 10 sections. * Symbols * Pictographs * Currency Characters * Math Symbols * Punctuation * Bullets * Arrows * Parentheses * Numbers * Letter A - Z are there. * Quick Find Bar * Use the quick find bar to jump right were you want to be. * Favorites * You can also long tap on any key and store it in your favorites. Edit and sort your favorites list into what works for you. * Recently Used * Special Characters also keeps track of all your recently used characters like the Emoji keyboard. Finally, Special Characters works in both landscape and portrait. We are certain that Special Character keyboard will give your emails, texts and notes the special characters you need! So, make the leap with Jump Gap Software’s Special Characters keyboard for iOS 8.

About

AABC African Alphabets

This utility provides smartphone keyboards for numerous African languages and scripts, respecting phonetic variations and standard keyboard orders. It functions systemwide and offline, ensuring broad accessibility for diverse linguistic needs.

Highlights
  • Keyboards for common African languages and scripts
  • Phonetic character variants supported
  • Standard QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY layouts
  • Systemwide and offline functionality
  • Unicode character adoption
  • Interactive development based on user feedback
Read full description

African Alphabets of the Bayreuth Cluster (AABC) provides smartphones with keyboards for all common African languages and scripts. The keyboard layouts take account of the particular phonetic character variants and the respective Latin QWERTY-, QWERTZ-, or AZERTY-order. All characters are subject to their respective definition by Unicode and their adequate adoption by the system. Each keyboard consists of four pages that can be reproduced by a keyboard view on the screen. All keyboards can be used systemwide as well as offline, too. It is indicated if individual fonts or characters may be supported differently (or not yet at all) by the operating system in use and therefore cannot (yet) be displayed by the app. For the necessary further development of the app the user is invited to communicate his comments to Dr Ulrich Rebstock (Ulrich.Rebstock@uni-bayreuth.de). This interactive set-up is intended to harmonize cultural authenticity with scientific control of implementation and adjustment of the keyboard layouts. This also includes the selection and integration of language transcriptions and scripts for which hitherto already existing, or newly generated keyboard layouts are to be adopted. The project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany´s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2052/1 – 390713894. Idea and concept go back to Ulrich Rebstock who is also responsible for the implementation of the keyboards.

Screenshots

Special Characters++4 screens
AABC African Alphabets1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: AABC African Alphabets at Free against Special Characters++'s $0.99. AABC African Alphabets also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.5) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 7 months). Special Characters++'s advantage is ratings volume (19 vs 1). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

AABC African Alphabets is free to download; Special Characters++ costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

AABC African Alphabets holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Special Characters++ has 19 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Special Characters++ ships an update every 7 months, AABC African Alphabets every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Special Characters++ versus AABC African Alphabets: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpecial Characters++AABC African Alphabets
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating3.5 (19 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews55.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings19 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJames SpencerFranz Andreas Kogelmann

Customer experience

Special Characters++

All ratings19 ratings
Positive57.9%
Neutral5.3%
Negative36.8%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive55.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative25.0%

AABC African Alphabets

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Special Characters++

No in-app purchases

None

AABC African Alphabets

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Special Characters++ free?
Special Characters++ costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is AABC African Alphabets free?
AABC African Alphabets is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Special Characters++ or AABC African Alphabets?
AABC African Alphabets is rated higher. Special Characters++ averages 3.5 out of 5 from 19 ratings, while AABC African Alphabets averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Special Characters++ or AABC African Alphabets have ads?
Neither Special Characters++ nor AABC African Alphabets shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Special Characters++ or AABC African Alphabets?
Special Characters++ ships an update every 7 months, and AABC African Alphabets every 5 weeks. Most recently, Special Characters++ was updated on November 1, 2026 and AABC African Alphabets on November 3, 2026.

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