How to swipe for different keyboard languages in iOS 18?

Found a workaround.

1. Have one language set.
2. Add new desired language. (It will turn into a bilingual English + new language)
3. Add another English keyboard.
4. Add another new language.
5. Delete the bilingual keyboard.

You should go to settings / general / keyboard / keyboards and see if you have items with two languages named on them. You may want to remove those and go back to separate keyboards for each language.

You can setup the bilingual keyboard in the Settings app.

Open Settings ➡️ General ➡️ Keyboard ➡️ Keyboards: Here you can tap on your English keyboard (or any language that you use primarily on your iPhone) and then tap on Add a Language. You can add Portuguese, for example, and this keyboard will display as English & Portuguese under Keyboards.

When you are typing a message, then tap on the World icon and choose the English & Portuguese keyboard and you will be able to use both as you type.

Axel F.

Switching from German to English

This really helped me-- but I must say, the automatic recognition doesn't work "automatically" on the bilingual keyboard.

I got it to work by adding English separately AGAIN. Otherwise--there is no WORLD to click on--just an Emoji. Now I click on the WORLD to change to my bilingual keyboard, which automatically switches to German on my phone.

This is not progress--but a work around.

How long do I have to write until my bilingual keyboard notices I'm writing in German or English? So far it doesn't make a switch.

Thanks

Hey Tom,

I tried that. If I have English and add German--it automatically switches to a bilingual keyboard where the language is haphazardly (in my eyes)determined. My workaround. I kept the bilingual English-German and added a second English-US separately. Now I hit the globe when writing and can switch between the two.

UPDATE: I had time to play with my phone and realized that it had English and Spanish languages saved as one and the same keyboard, I deleted that, then I saved them as separate languages and the world icon popped up again, now I can switch between those two.

I found a work around to the issue of dictation ( I dictate in other languages in Whatsup): I added a second Spanish keyboard, which is not ideal, but works. I use the new Spanish keyboard (not the bilingual one introduced in iOS18) when I dictate in Spanish

Exactly…it’s a work-around the new “innovation”🤦🏻‍♀️

So I had 4 keyboards:

• a bilingual German-English (which happened as soon as a second keyboard was introduced),
• an English(US) and
• a German(Swiss).

Tapping the globe immediately changed to the other language.

After reading Girasol’s reply, I deleted the bilingual keyboard AFTER having a total a 4. Now I only have the two—And the globe enables me to switch languages immediately and even within the same text: Yay!

Ursus92 wrote:

Yes but the keyboard is just one. German and English keyboards are different.

the English keyboard will not give you the option of äöü!

you can’t switch anymore. It’s „bilingual“ now!?????

You should have no problem manipulating the "Keyboards" list so you have separate English and German keyboards if you want. It is just a matter of adding and subtracting things.

If you have a keyboard called "English & German", you should have no trouble choosing the German layout as the default it you want it that way.

When in the English keyboard, as always you can make äöü by just press and hold.

There is a small microphone icon on bottom right. Click and hold there you can switch into your design language (work both for voice and keyboard). I tried.

Yes, but that’s only for dictation.

I uninstalled the combo key board and installed the one I need (German) and now I can toggle between the key boards again.

Using bilingual keyboards is certainly helpful when I write messages in more than one language (depending on recipient). However, it has become a nuisance when I dictate the message in another language instead of typing it. I use Whatsup to communicate to people in other countries (Spanish or Italian in my case). The transcribed message is garbage as it introduces English words that do not pertain to the originally dictated message. Any suggestions how to correct that? I had multiple language keyboards in IOS 17 before updating to newest iOS; I have not changed any settings yet. Thanks!

This is happening to me too, its nonsense. Seems that they went backwards instead of forward with their software.

I have set a bilingual language spanish/english, and all predictions are still in Spanish.

I used to be able to swipe words pretty fast in both languages without needing to have different keyboards, now is no longer possible, even with this new multilingual keyboard thing