MessagEase Keyboard vs Swipeys Keyboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MessagEase Keyboard
An innovative, non-QWERTY keyboard designed for touchscreens based on scientific research. It features large keys with optimized letter placement for faster, more accurate typing. Learning games and customization options are included.
- Non-QWERTY keyboard layout
- Optimized letter assignment
- Tap and drag input
- Learning games included
- Customizable keyboard size, shape, and color
- Supports multiple languages
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MessagEase is an alternative, non-QWERTY keyboard for your iPhone and iPad. Created based on years of scientific research in user interface, MessagEase is designed and optimized for use on a touchscreen device. MessagEase is a patented, innovative design different from the antiquated QWERTY keyboard. If you believe that every keyboard must be QWERTY-like, then MessagEase is not what you are looking for. But if you are open to new ideas and up for experiencing a completely new way of writing you will be pleasantly surprised at how well, how precisely, and how fast you can enter text with MessagEase. Our current champion’s speed is 87 WPM— that's 87 Words Per Minute! Most people don't type nearly that fast with ten fingers! MessagEase essentially has 9 large keys with an optimized letter assignment to maximize your speed, increase your accuracy, and ease your writing. Since MessagEase is very different, you must spend a few minutes to get used to it. We have included several learning games to help you learn the new, innovative pattern of MessagEase—and you’ll save hours by texting and writing faster. With MessagEase you enter letters and characters with either a tap, or a drag (slide): taps for the most common characters and directional drag for the rest. Please watch the video, or see the section Essential MessagEase, to learn more. MessagEase's design is based on sound user-interface principles such as the Fitts' Law; it uses letter frequency and di-gram data to optimally place the characters on a keyboard with fewer, larger keys. That’s why the letter positions are non-QWERTY! If you are interested to learn more about the scientific details behind the design of MessagEase, please see this paper: http://www.exideas.com/ME/ICMI2003Paper.pdf We have lots of videos to help you become familiar with MessagEase quickly. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3D3f3GWTSg There are many more on our YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/messagease Please also note that you can change the keyboard size by dragging up or down on the Globe Button. You can also reshape and recolor the keyboard in various ways. See Settings for details. MessagEase for iPhone & iPad has specific keyboards designed for the following languages: (These keyboards can also be used to enter text for many other languages) - English - Arabic - Azerbaiani - Danish - Dutch - Esperanto - Finnish - French - German - Greek - Hebrew - Hungarian - Japanese Hiragana - Japanese Katakana - Italian - Norwegian - Polish - Portuguese - Russian - Spanish - Swedish - Turkish - Urdu If you like MessagEase, please tell others about it, and please make sure to rate and comment about it on App Store. Please email us if you encounter any issue. Thank you!
Swipeys Keyboard
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A keystroke is a tap or a flick. Swipeys puts every letter on a 3x3 grid of nine keys. Tap a key for its center letter. Flick, a short swipe in one of eight directions, for the rest. Nine keys reach every letter, with no row-hunting and no reaching across the screen. It's built for one thumb. Once your hand learns the nine positions, you stop looking at the keyboard and type. MAKE IT YOURS - Edit any key and any flick direction right inside the keyboard. Put letters, symbols, or emoji wherever you want them. - Adjust key size, flick threshold, and gutter width. Switch to a compact layout with fewer side controls. - Layouts are plain JSON. Tweak them, share them, and import a .swipey file. Import stays local and validated, and works with Full Access off. LANGUAGES - English, Finnish, and Spanish letter layouts, plus a numerals and symbols layer. - Switch languages from the keyboard. Touch and hold the 123 key to pick one. NUMBERS, SYMBOLS, EMOJI - A numbers page with digits on tap and a curated, editable symbol set on the flicks, shared across every language. - Emoji picker with recents and categories. Place emoji on any flick in the editor. GESTURES AND SHORTCUTS - Slide along the spacebar to move the cursor. Long-press for accents, double-tap space for a period, and let backspace auto-repeat. PRIVATE BY DESIGN - No tracking, ever. The keyboard makes no network requests. - No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting, no ads, no server. Data Not Collected. - Core typing, the symbol layer, the emoji picker, and every customization work with Full Access off. Full Access is optional and only enables haptic feedback. BUY IT, DON'T RENT IT - Start with a 30-day free trial. No feature gates, no card required to try. - Unlock Swipeys permanently with a one-time purchase. No subscription, no recurring fees. - The lifetime unlock is Family Sharing enabled and restores across your devices. iPhone only. Built by slantedt.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MessagEase Keyboard at none against Swipeys Keyboard's 2. MessagEase Keyboard also leads on device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Swipeys Keyboard's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs monthly). On price and ads 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
Both are free to download. Swipeys Keyboard sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. MessagEase Keyboard asks for nothing beyond the download.
MessagEase Keyboard ships an update monthly, Swipeys Keyboard every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MessagEase Keyboard | Swipeys Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (97 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 70.1% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 97 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Exideas | Toni Vaisanen |
Bugs and requests
MessagEase Keyboard
Reported bugs
12 issues- Keyboard expands to full screen and cannot be resized
- Keyboard fails to appear in Apple apps (Notes, Safari, Skype)
- Swipe gestures registered as clicks
- Keyboard crashes on iOS 26.x and iOS 16.x versions
- Settings reset or don't persist between sessions
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- Double keyboard instances displaying simultaneously
- Letters not visible after iOS updates
- Keyboard stuck in maximized state after reinstall
- Capitalization mode gets stuck (all caps)
- Keyboard display corrupted or garbled on iPad
- Unresponsive input after certain iOS updates
- Keyboard overlays text field, obstructing view
Requested features
11 requests- Word prediction and autocorrect
- Resizable keyboard with size locking option
- Copy/paste/select-all gesture shortcuts (like Android version)
- Voice dictation support
- Better cursor navigation controls
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- Customizable keyboard layout (JSON-based)
- Emoji integration into keyboard
- Text replacement library support
- Macro functionality
- Trackpad mode for cursor control
- Open-source the application for community maintenance
Swipeys Keyboard
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
MessagEase Keyboard
No in-app purchases
Swipeys Keyboard
- 30-day TrialFree
- Swipeys Lifetime$9.99
Questions
Is MessagEase Keyboard free?
Is Swipeys Keyboard free?
Do MessagEase Keyboard or Swipeys Keyboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, MessagEase Keyboard or Swipeys Keyboard?
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