Keyboardy: an Arabic keyboard that gets you

Keyboardy is an Arabic and English keyboard for Android and iPhone that suggests videos, stickers and GIFs while you type. It works in any app with a text field, and also includes Arabic diacritics, word suggestions and autocorrect. A row above the keys shows media that matches what you are writing, and you can open the full library to search it in Arabic or English, or browse it by feeling across 13 categories such as laughter, love, anger and boredom. The search forgives how hamza, alef maqsura and diacritics are typed, so different spellings of a word land on the same result. There is also emoji search by Arabic name, and favourites for what you send most. Keyboardy is made by BeInMedia; the apps are in development and coming soon to the stores. A clipboard, text shortcuts and picking up the feeling from the tone of your message arrive in an upcoming update.

Yes, Keyboardy is free and every feature it has today works without a subscription. That covers typing in Arabic and English, diacritics, word suggestions and autocorrect, the media row, searching videos, stickers and GIFs, and favourites. You do not need an email address or a phone number to start: the app creates a guest account from your device identifier and uses it to keep your favourites and bring them back. An optional subscription for upcoming extra features is in development; if it launches, payment will be handled by the store or a payment provider, so we never see or store your card details. Keyboardy runs on Android 8.0 and later, and on iPhone with iOS 18 and later, with the same free features on both. You do not need to sign in to send any video, sticker or GIF. On iPhone, media needs Allow Full Access, which is a system permission and has nothing to do with payment.

Keyboardy does not store what you type, but part of it is sent to our server as a search query while the media row is showing, so it can find videos, stickers and GIFs that match what you are saying. On iPhone that is the last three words before the cursor, letters only, never numbers or symbols. On Android it is up to the last 512 characters of the field you are typing in. The media row appears automatically when you are online, and when you hide it nothing is sent. Passwords never reach us: on iPhone the system does not let any third-party keyboard type into password fields, and on Android Keyboardy reads nothing from password, number, phone or email fields. We do not keep search queries or record them against your account, and word suggestions and autocorrect run on your device.

Keyboardy supports Arabic and English with full layouts, switchable from a single key. Each layout is designed on its own terms; the Arabic one is not a translated English keyboard. Diacritics are part of the Arabic layout: on iPhone a tashkeel key sits beside the space bar and holding it offers every mark, and on Android a row of marks appears when you press ⇧, with the same marks available by holding the full stop. Word suggestions and autocorrect work in both languages, offline, from dictionaries stored on your device. Media search works in both languages and forgives differences in Arabic spelling: alef forms such as أ, إ and آ count as ا, alef maqsura and hamza on yeh count as ي, and diacritics and tatweel are ignored. You can search emoji by their Arabic names too, and on Android you choose between Arabic-Indic digits (١٢٣) and Western digits (123).