Comparison

MessagEase Keyboard vs Year In Dots

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Non-QWERTY keyboard layout
  • Optimized letter assignment
  • Tap and drag input
  • Learning games included
  • Customizable keyboard size, shape, and color
  • Supports multiple languages
Features
Read full description

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!

About

Year In Dots

Features
Read full description

Year In Dots turns the whole year into a simple, beautiful grid right on your Home Screen. Every day is a single mark - the days that have already passed are filled in, the ones still ahead stay faint. One glance and you feel exactly where you are in the year. No numbers to read, no charts to decode. Just watch your year quietly fill in, day by day - a gentle reminder that time is moving and today counts. HOME-SCREEN WIDGET • Small - the current month • Medium - the current half-year • Large - the whole year at a glance The widget refreshes itself every day and always matches the style you choose in the app. MAKE IT YOURS • 6 color palettes - Midnight, Peach, Graphite and their inverted variants • 5 mark styles - hand-drawn bars, clean bars, dots, uniform dots, and squares • Looks great in both light and dark CALM BY DESIGN No accounts, no sign-ups, no clutter, no notifications begging for attention. Just your year, filling in. Also great as a "year in pixels" / life-calendar tracker, a countdown of the days left, or a quiet motivation to make each day count.

Screenshots

MessagEase Keyboard4 screens
Year In Dots3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MessagEase Keyboard at none against Year In Dots's 1. MessagEase Keyboard also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.5). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Year In Dots sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. MessagEase Keyboard asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MessagEase Keyboard versus Year In Dots: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMessagEase KeyboardYear In Dots
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (97 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews70.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings97 — better—
Update frequencyMonthly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.5
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB12 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperExideasPavel Paronkin

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
Show 7 more
  • 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
Show 6 more
  • 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

Year In Dots

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MessagEase Keyboard

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Year In Dots

One-time1
  • Year In Dots Pro$1.99

Questions

Is MessagEase Keyboard free?
MessagEase Keyboard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Year In Dots free?
Year In Dots is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MessagEase Keyboard or Year In Dots have ads?
Neither MessagEase Keyboard nor Year In Dots shows ads.

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