[Review] PictoKeyboard - Unicode Keyboard for iOS

[Anthony Bouchard]

iOS 5 has some pretty entertaining keyboards – like emoji; one keyboard iOS 5 was missing is Unicode text, until now. iOS developer Moeseth has decided to release a new, free jailbreak tweak dubbed PictoKeyboard that lets you have a Unicode keyboard for typing symbols that you might like to have just for enjoyment. These symbols are great for Twitter, text messages, and other things that you want to express feelings with.

PictoKeyboard has a preferences pane in the Settings application where you can configure the Unicode keyboard after you’ve installed the jailbreak tweak from Cydia:



When you enable the Unicode keyboard, you are basically replacing an international keyboard with the Unicode one. In the screenshot of the preferences pane above, I have chosen to replace the Catalan keyboard with the Unicode keyboard since I do not type in Catalan. This also explains why in the first screenshot the return and space buttons are in Catalan and not in English. You can replace any of the following international keyboards with the Unicode keyboard: Catalan, Croatian, Icelandic, Latvian, or Lithuanian. Once you pick one, go back to the PictoKeyboard preferences pane and tap on the "Tap this after changes" button so that PictoKeyboard can do what it needs to do to create its changes. If you have any problems, tap on the "Clear Caches & Respring" button to see if that fixes it.

Since PictoKeyboard substitutes an international keyboard that you will likely never use in your entire life, it isn’t intrusive. Whenever you want to type in Unicode, you simply have to tap on the international keyboard button, which is located in the bottom left-hand corner of the iOS keyboard by the 123 button – it looks like a globe. The integration of the Unicode keyboard feels very Apple-like.

PictoKeyboard requires iOS 5, but it will work on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The Unicode text is not limited to being seen on iDevices or Macs like emoji is and you can see these figures on a computer too. Being that the tweak is free and without any noticeable bugs, I would say that it is completely worth grabbing just to give your iDevice that extra boost in functionality.

Name: PictoKeyboard
Price: FREE
Version: 0.9-1
Repo: BigBoss
Developer: Moeseth
Editor's Rating:  4/5

Sources: Moeseth

[chriskaraokeman]

Surpeb

[Choi Hwanseo]

Hmmm works with ipad, but not customizable. iKeyWi doesn't work with pads.

[sziklassy]

There was an app or something like it where you basically had to copy and paste these figures. This is much more convenient.

[Zokunei]

I saw it this morning and got it instantly ☻
I like that it's visible on all devices unlike emoji.

[steve-z17]

Just downloaded it, I really like it. Very simple to use Thanks!

[sknet]

why no 4.1++ support?

[zrevai]

Because the way Apple implemented keyboards in iOS 5.x is drastically different than iOS 4.x

[ne0nlitez]

why does it say retorn?

[Anthony Bouchard]

why does it say retorn?

As I stated in the article, it's using one of the international keyboards and not the English one.