Why isn’t there a QWERTY Arabic keyboard layout on iOS?

I’m studying Arabic, so I have to type in Arabic a lot. For the last three years, I’ve been using the “Arabic - QWERTY” keyboard layout on my Mac. Essentially, the Arabic characters are organized phonetically to fit the English keyboard. So to type the word “habibi - حبيبي” you simply type “h+b+i+b+i.”

I just purchased an iPad Pro, and I was disappointed to discover there is not Arabic - QWERTY layout for iOS. So in order to type on my iPad, I have to learn an entirely new keyboard layout. To type “habibi” in the standard Arabic layout, you have to type “p+f+d+f+d.”

I often type in English and Arabic at the same time, such as writing out notes or texting an Arab friend while doing research. The lack of a QWERTY option is going to hurt my productivity a good deal; and even if I get comfortable with the standard Arabic layout, it will still be a painstaking process to switch back and forth between Arabic and English. I’m sure there are tons of other Arabic learners who feel the same. There have already been a couple requests for the QWERTY layout since 2015, but it hasn’t been implemented. There was a Reddit post just three days ago with someone looking for a QWERTY keyboard on iOS.

Again, this feature exists on MacOS. I can’t imagine it would be a difficult process to port it over to the iPhone and iPad.

Thanks in advance for any help on the issue.

»نقش!

Woops, that was supposed to be “شكرا”