Keyboards and input | Apple Developer Documentation 5/30/24, 6:04 PM

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input

API Collection

Keyboards and input

Configure the system keyboard, create your own keyboards to handle input, or
detect key presses on a physical keyboard.

Topics

Text input
UITextInput
A set of methods for interacting with the text input system and enabling features in
documents.

UITextInputDelegate
An intermediary between a document and the text input system.

UIKeyInput
A set of methods a responder uses to implement simple text entry.

UITextInputTraits
A set of methods that defines features for keyboard input to a text object.

UITextInputContext

UITextInputMode
The current text input mode.

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UITextInputAssistantItem
An object that manages custom bar button items that you add to the shortcuts bar
above the keyboard on iPad.

UIDictationPhrase
An object that represents the textual interpretation of a spoken phrase that the user
dictates.

Text selection
Adopting system selection UI in custom text views
Incorporate the system text-selection experience into your custom text UI in UIKit.

UITextSelectionDisplayInteraction
An object that provides the system UI for displaying text selection.

UITextSelectionDisplayInteractionDelegate
A delegate for the object that provides the system UI for displaying text selection.

UITextCursorView
An interface for an object that represents the text cursor, which marks the insertion
point in a piece of text.

UITextSelectionHighlightView
An interface for an object that represents the highlight behind the selected text.

UITextSelectionHandleView
An interface for an object that represents the selection handles for selecting ranges of
text.

UITextLoupeSession
An object that provides the system loupe for placing the text cursor in large bodies of
text.

Text tokenizer
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UITextInputTokenizer
A tokenizer, which is an object that allows the text input system to evaluate text units
of different granularities.

UITextInputStringTokenizer
A base implementation of the text-input tokenizer protocol.

Text interactions
UITextInteraction
An interaction that provides text selection gestures and UI to custom text views.

UITextInteractionDelegate
An interface that an object implements to receive information about text interaction
events.

UITextInteractionMode
Modes that determine the selection behaviors that a text interaction provides.

UITextItem

Keyboard layout
UIKeyboardLayoutGuide
A layout guide that represents the space the keyboard occupies in your appʼs layout.

UITrackingLayoutGuide
A layout guide that automatically activates and deactivates layout constraints
depending on its proximity to edges.

Custom keyboards
Creating a custom keyboard
Add an extension to your Xcode project to provide systemwide customized text input.

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UIInputViewController
The primary view controller for a custom keyboard app extension.

UIInputView
An object that displays and manages custom input for a view when that view becomes
the first responder.

UILexicon
A read-only array of term pairs, each in a lexicon entry object, for a custom keyboard.

UILexiconEntry
A read-only term pair, available within a lexicon object, for a custom keyboard.

UITextDocumentProxy
An object that provides textual context to a custom keyboard.

Physical keyboards
Handling key presses made on a physical keyboard
Detect when someone presses and releases keys on a physical keyboard.

Navigating an Appʼs User Interface Using a Keyboard

Navigate between user interface elements using a keyboard and focusable UI
elements in iPad apps and apps built with Mac Catalyst.

UIKey
An object that provides information about the state of a keyboard key.

UIKeyboardHIDUsage
A set of HID usage codes that identify the keys of a USB keyboard.

See Also
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Text
Text display and fonts
Display text, manage fonts, and check spelling.

TextKit
Manage text storage and perform custom layout of text-based content in your appʼs
views.

Handwriting recognition
Configure text fields and custom views that accept text to handle input from Apple
Pencil.

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