Google disables third-party keyboards in Chrome for iOS
If you use third-party keyboards on your iOS device and you use Chrome with any of them, we have some bad news for you.
With its latest update, the iOS version of Google’s Web browser app has barred the use of third-party keyboards such as Fleksy and Emoji Type. According to the release notes of the update, “Third-party keyboards have been disabled due to crashes caused by a bug in iOS 9.”
Indeed, pre-update, Chrome was prone to crashes when a third-party keyboard was in use within the app.
Post-update, Chrome no longer allows the use of third-party keyboards, apparently not only on iOS 9 but also on older versions of iOS. It even prohibits switching to third-party keyboards, even when they’re enabled in the device settings. This means that only Apple’s built-in keyboards, including language-specific and emoji keyboards, are supported in Chrome.
But as expected, the crashes have gone away with Chrome’s support for third-party keyboards.
Presumably, the disabling of third-party keyboards in Chrome is but temporary, and Google is already at work on squashing the bug associated with the crashes and reinstating third-party keyboard use in the app.
Support for third-party keyboards has been available on iOS since its introduction with the release of iOS 8 last year. They’ve been tapped by many users who prefer more customization options and features to go with their keyboards on their iOS devices, although they’re wont to be unstable and otherwise buggy.
Personally, I’m content with using Apple’s built-in keyboards. But for those of you who aren’t, be informed that you won’t be able to use third-party keyboards in Chrome until further notice. In the meantime, you might want to browse with your favorite third-party keyboard using Apple’s Safari or another third-party Web browser like the recently released Firefox from Mozilla.
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 7.0 or later, Chrome is available on the App Store for free.
The latest update to Chrome also resolves an issue with the improper display of queries in the app’s address/search bar aka Omnibox.
Chrome is expected to be updated soon with 3D Touch support, as suggested by the recently launched TestFlight beta program for the app.