Small keyboard change in iOS 18 confusing to bilingual users

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Level 1

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Small keyboard change in iOS 18 confusing to bilingual users

I write frequently in English or French. I have both keyboards available on my iPhone.

Prior to the iOS 18 update, I would use the little globe icon at the bottom left of the on screen keyboard to switch from English to Français. This would give me appropriate keyboard predictions above the keyboard. For example, if I typed "a" when I had selected Français, a suggestion would be "à". This saves finding that accented letter.

Since iOS18, my choices are "English & Français" or "English & Français". That's not very helpful. I've been putting in accents the hard way until I found the workaround.

When you hit the little globe and see "English & Français" twice, you have to look at very small lettering below each "English & Français". One is "QWERTY" and the other is "QWERTY - français". The second one gets you to the French predictive text with accents.

See the included screen shot.

iPhone 16 Pro

Posted on Dec 29, 2024 10:32 PM

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Answer 1

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Randysea Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 30, 2024 4:32 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thank you for the link. It gives a solution for returning to the way keyboard selection worked before iOS 18. Better than my workaround:

"To go back to the way it used to be, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard and add both English and French separately. When doing that, watch the dialogue that pops up. If you are offered a choice between "Add to English (or French) Keyboard" and "Add New Keyboard", choose "Add New Keyboard". Then use the Edit button to remove "English & French".

Monolingual wouldn't work for me since I regularly use two languages on my phone for emails, etc.

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Answer 2

SravanKrA

Level 10

431,832 points

Dec 29, 2024 11:53 PM in response to Randysea

Suggestions and Feedback for improvements --> Apple Inc says; "We read all feedback carefully, but we are unable to respond to each submission individually."

Here is how for iPhone · Country or region* Select your country or region. · Feedback Type* Select feedback type. · Comments* Enter a comment.
Feedback - iPhone - Apple

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,300 points

Dec 30, 2024 4:28 AM in response to Randysea

You can easily clean up your keyboards or go back to monolingual if its better for your purposes:

Managing Bilingual Keyboards - Apple Community

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,300 points

Dec 30, 2024 4:35 PM in response to Randysea

Randysea wrote:

Monolingual wouldn't work for me since I regularly use two languages on my phone for emails, etc.

By “monolingual” I was referring to what you used before iOS 18, separate keyboards for English and French. Some users find this works better than the new bilingual feature.

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Answer 5

SravanKrA

Level 10

431,832 points

Dec 29, 2024 11:55 PM in response to Randysea

See what each update does: About iOS 18 Updates, About iOS 17 Updates, About iOS 16 Updates, About iOS 15 Updates, About iOS 14 Updates, About iOS 13 Updates, About iOS 12 Updates, and so on...

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Small keyboard change in iOS 18 confusing to bilingual users

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