Raycast wants your iPhone keyboard to do more than just typing out messages. Its new primary keyboard for iOS combines everyday typing with AI tools, voice dictation, GIF search, and text shortcuts. The biggest change is that you no longer need to switch keyboards to use Raycast’s productivity features.
What can Raycast’s new iOS keyboard do?
Raycast tried a different approach first, launching a secondary keyboard about a year ago that worked more like a companion you switched to only when you needed its features. That version was intentionally designed to stay in the background rather than take over your typing.
The new primary keyboard can now match the native iPhone keyboard experience while layering Raycast’s tools on top. You get full swipe typing and autocorrect, dictation with styles pulled straight from your Mac. It also offers snippet expansion that lets you set a prefix character to trigger saved text in any app, and Quicklinks that you can insert on the fly.
There is also a customizable action row for your frequently used AI commands, smart emoji search, GIF search, and five different visual themes to pick from. One of the themes can give your iPhone a miniature mechanical keyboard look, styled after Raycast’s own mechanical keyboard.
What are the limitations of Raycast’s new iPhone keyboard?
The keyboard currently works in English only, but support for more languages is already in progress. There is also a small quirk with dictation, since Apple requires third-party keyboards to briefly jump into their own app before returning to yours. Though Raycast has made that transition as fast as it can and lets you keep the mic warm longer in settings if you dictate often.
You will need Raycast version 1.1.0 to get the new keyboard, which also includes seven bug fixes alongside it. For anyone who writes all day on their iPhone, Raycast’s new iOS keyboard could be a potential replacement for Apple’s own.
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