iPhone keyboard lagging after iOS 18 Update

I've been using the same temporary resolution as you for a while now; it feels nostalgic returning to the caveman approach. It reminds me of the iPod touch glory days—we've truly come full circle. It's amazing when you think about it; I wouldn't have thought it possible to return to a bygone era.

It's frustrating that instead of focusing on fixing core features like communication and search functionality, more effort seems to go into adding flashy, often unnecessary AI features. Meanwhile, excessive background tasks and visual animations are inevitably sapping the life out of our processors. 

These processors—hyped as some of the best in the world—are being run into the ground by relentless, unnecessary processes Apple insists on running.

For example, when I type "Instagram" into Spotlight search, Siri is forced to dig through a massive amount of data across all the apps I have that start with 'inst.' This process is unavoidable, burning through finite processing power and system resources. It's not just inefficient—it actively slows performance and accelerates wear on the hardware.

My battery health has declined to 80%. While there may be other factors involved, it’s hard to ignore that these endless background processes, along with unavoidable index searches, are directly contributing to battery degradation. Worse, these constant tasks and high CPU usage are actively wearing out the one part of the device we can’t repair or replace—the processor—and we paid a premium for this hardware.

Sources for Verification:

1. https://keutek.com/blogs/news/some-ios-16-users-complaining-about-slow-spotlight-search-and-battery-drain
2. https://nypost.com/2024/09/17/lifestyle/apple-users-complain-that-ios-18-is-killing-their-iphone-batteries/

I've been using the same temporary resolution as you for a while now; it feels nostalgic returning to the caveman approach. It reminds me of the iPod touch glory days—we've truly come full circle. It's amazing when you think about it; I wouldn't have thought it possible to return to a bygone era.

It's frustrating that instead of focusing on fixing core features like communication and search functionality, more effort seems to go into adding flashy, often unnecessary AI features. Meanwhile, excessive background tasks and visual animations are inevitably sapping the life out of our processors. 

These processors—hyped as some of the best in the world—are being run into the ground by relentless, unnecessary processes Apple insists on running.

For example, when I type "Instagram" into Spotlight search, Siri is forced to dig through a massive amount of data across all the apps I have that start with 'inst.' This process is unavoidable, burning through finite processing power and system resources. It's not just inefficient—it actively slows performance and accelerates wear on the hardware.

My battery health has declined to 80%. While there may be other factors involved, it’s hard to ignore that these endless background processes, along with unavoidable index searches, are directly contributing to battery degradation. Worse, these constant tasks and high CPU usage are actively wearing out the one part of the device we can’t repair or replace—the processor—and we paid a premium for this hardware.

Sources for Verification:

1. https://keutek.com/blogs/news/some-ios-16-users-complaining-about-slow-spotlight-search-and-battery-drain
2. https://nypost.com/2024/09/17/lifestyle/apple-users-complain-that-ios-18-is-killing-their-iphone-batteries/

I do know once you drop to 80% or less an iPhone is going to struggle with some things. It’s why Apple got in trouble over the battery thing a few years ago. They were throttling the phone because the reality is with lithium ion batteries as they age, not only does the size capacity get smaller but it’s ability to maintain voltage also lowers as well and just a small voltage drop can cause performance issues or the phone to freeze and lock up or shut down. So actually throttling is better than leaving it in full performance mode because at least the phone will still function and not randomly crash. I know someone with an iPhone 12 with less than 80% and it was constantly crashing or shutting down at the most random of times. I encouraged her to get a 14 plus and she’s thrilled now. But she now has to avoid charging it to 100% and fully discharging it.

some research came out a few years ago showing that to get the most out of a lithium ion battery the sweet spot is between 50-65% but that’s very unrealistic. That’s why a lot of phone and computer companies now put the max on 80%. But even 80% is in the spectrum of battery degradation. And fully discharging is also bad for lithium ion. So I’m in the habit of keeping it between 30-70% and that’s why I’m able to get a phone to last 3 years without it going below 80% unlike several people I know who drop below 80% in less than 2 years

Issue still going on on IOS 18.2.1.

I confirm that all suggested fixes don’t work for me and that the lag can happen using the keyboard in any Apps. It can, as sometimes the keyboard looks responsive and some other times keyboard is totally stuck for the same App.

To me it is a memory leak issue.

I regret so much buying this 16 Pro Max, but I swear, after being iPhone user since iPhone 4 in 2010, if they don’t fix this simple but annoying issue, this is gonna be my last iPhone.

Yes, right after an update, as right after a reboot, the keyboard seems to be working fine, but a couple of hours later (this varies a lot based on the usage, that’s why I think of a memory leak) the keyboard starts lagging again.

So frustrating, as the phone is so fast switching contexts but then it’s ridiculously slow when typing.

I updated to 18.2.1, wasn’t fixed. For me it’s emoji keyboard. Tap on it and eventually it doesn’t load (it’s blank) Have to back out to the Querty then back to the emoji. Rebooting fixes it for a bit then it happens all over again.

Issue still present in 18.2.1. The phone has become unusable to me for anything requiring text input. Major downer. I literally have to type things five times to get the correct letters to appear, and this after typing the correct keys precisely, as identified by the elevated keys displayed under the momentary taps. For some reason, the tapped keys are not registering. I turned off auto correct and predictive because they categorically suck for people with multi-lingual and technical vocabularies.

Apple, you do not know what I'm thinking because you don't operate at my level with resect to the things that I am writing. Leave my keyboard alone after you fix it, please.

Just bought an iPhone 15 Pro Max 512 and the keyboard is laggy as reported here. My previous (not dead) iPhone 8+ with an older iOS version keyboard prediction performs better than the new one... what happens Apple ? That's a basic functionality that should perform even better with a new and more powerful phone. every new iOS version is slower and introduce new bugs.

please go back to essentials, we don't need new AI garbage stuff if you're not able to make this work perfectly !

When the keyboard is lagging for me, facetime calls will drop and incoming calls will freeze when trying to answer. I don't know if any of this ties together but it's just odd it only happens when the keyboard issue is happening.

Apple has replaced all of the hardware in my phone as well as shipping me a new phone and the problem still persists. If I completely reset the phone it will work correctly for a couple of weeks and then the keyboard lag starts happening again and it makes it to where the phone is unusable.

DONT follow this advice. It doesn’t fix anything and it resets years worth of your learned dictionary and it makes typing such a hassle again. Don’t bother doing this.

Lol, why would you do that.

delete data is the last thing you want to do.

its a bug, just wait for a proper fix from apple

Updating to 18.2 and keyboard has taken a hit again and slow. Not as bad as previous update. But definitely the emoji button lags a lot. Using 15Pro

Hi,

I also have noticed the lagging keyboard. But this issue is more common on the iPhones prior to iPhone 15.

iOS 18.3 on iPhone 16 Pro Max and still laggy when enable “Predictive Text”