6mo ago

iOS keyboards that don't censor "bad words"

Does anyone have any recommendations for alternate keyboard apps on iOS that don’t censor my less-than-polite speech? Having to type certain words out letter by letter is annoying enough since swipe texting won’t spell them out. And lately it seems like even after I type that stuff out, autocorrect will still go back and change those words. Tired of my phone trying to play Puritan Nanny.

Tried just googling the question, but the only results I get are how to add curse words to the text replacement list, and I’d rather not have to go program in every individual curse word.

26 comments

You can add things to the ducking dictionary.
- Duck me, I remember well the days of ducking….and pussyfooting.

"Look mister, I use a LOT of curses and it is a VARIETY. I don't have time to be manually adding EVERY swear that I use."
Honestly, I'm just replying for the algorithm because it's an interesting question and a lot of people sort by active or hot. Good luck!
- I demand efficiency! I’ve got angry things to scream into the void!

This is set to change in the next iOS version. (In developer beta now; to be released in early September, typically, when the next iPhones drop). So, if you’re otherwise happy with the keyboard, I’d say just use Text Replacement rules (Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement) for a few months.

I added some swear words as contact names, this is one way to get around the fucking censorship
- I can't imagine how some would prefer such workarounds over something like Android where you are still in some aspects restricted but still free to do as you please.
  Just tried with the swipe keyboard on GBoard. Swiped "Fucking" and it spelt it no problem.
  
  You can add swear words to the dictionary on iOS, you don't have to add them as contacts.

I just added the curses to the normal text replacement settings in IOS and I have never had a ducking problem
- That'll work perfectly with the contacts I already have saved.

Go to General > Keyboard > Text Replacement, and create an entry for each word you want, putting the same thing in the phrase field and the shortcut field. Then it won’t try to replace them every time.
- Fucking fuck, that works. Thanks!
  
  You are ducking welcome
- You don’t need to put it in the shortcut field though

I've been using the SwiftKey keyboard for a while and it allows any fucking word I want to use. It's really good at learning and predicting phrases I use often, including foul language, video game terms and words, etc.
- SwiftKey is owned by M$ and is definitely data harvesting you for AI training
  
  Absolutely, that's a given. It even allows you to see some of the data that it has harvested from you and what it has learned about your swipe texting patterns.
  But it does work well, including what OP asked for, and I expect that all keyboard apps do much of the same. How else would the devs make any money from a free app that doesn't have ads?

my phone trying to play Puritan Nanny.
Apple gets more and more unbearable 🤮
- Apple isn't alone in this. Samsung's default keyboard does this as well. It's absolutely infuriating. I'm an adult. I should be able to say what I want to say without my phone of all fucking things censoring me like I'm in primary school or at a job interview. It's ludicrous. So I use Gboard instead.
  
  GTA 5 is restricted to mature/+18 age and still censors mild words like "fuck" and (sry) "nigga" while the game characters drop curses (in particular the n-word) almost in every other sentence.
- The issue is that accidental profanity (by allowing the board to correct to that language) does significant harm to their reputation and will genuinely make some meaningful portion of their userbase not use them. Regular touch screen keyboards already use invisible prediction magic to make the typing experience better, and swipe leans harder than that into their text prediction.
  It's not as easy as you'd think to train two models to both correct to profanity and completely exclude profanity.
  
  harm to their reputation
  Do you mean, people using keyboards do harm a keyboard vendor's reputation?
  Can I ask you a math question?
  What is hypocrisy to the power of hypocrisy?

I like Typefinity. (I have only used it on iPad, don't own an iPhone)
A no nonsense ios keyboard with a number row!
Privacy wise, they claim to not collect anything. It's not FOSS and also not free. One time $5. 100% worth it.
There's not too much visual customization, but a few themes that include dark, light and few colorful themes. For keyboard settings, there's everything you'd expect from a keyboard - not too much, but enough to disable things you might not want like click sounds and adjust autocorrect.
For the part you asked about; Playing around with swipe, it doesn't seem to work with curse words.
Honestly, thats probably a good thing. Its better for you and these keybaords' PR to lean on the side of caution (It could also be requirement from Apple - idk) You wouldn't want it to mistake "the duck sits on the birch log" for "the fuck shits on the removed log".
Manually typing out bad words has no issues with autocorrection set to max. I normally leave it on "suggestions only" and just use the autofill suggestions as I type big words. Overall the swipe works, I don't normally use it, but I was able to "swipe" a few simple sentences. I can't give you a definitivite answer to "is it good", I type everything like a caveman.
- Thanks for the detailed response! I’ll look into this one.

26 comments