6 Apps to Trick Out Your Keyboard on iOS 8

iOS 8 is finally here, and for the first time in its history, developers can create custom keyboard apps.

While many more will likely debut in the coming weeks and months, the first wave of keyboard apps is already hitting Apple's App Store. We've rounded up five of our favorites, so you can decide how best to trick out your keyboard.

Swype

Swype is another keyboard app that's already hugely popular on Android (some manufacturers use Swype for their devices' default keyboard). It made its iOS debut on Wednesday.

The app, which originally aimed to help people with disabilities type on touchscreens, enables users to input text quickly by swiping across the keyboard.

The more you use Swype, the more it learns from your patterns of frequently repeated words to improve its predictions. The $0.99 app, which is also available for iPad, provides further customization options with five different themes; more will be available in subsequent updates.

SwiftKey

SwiftKey, one of the most popular apps on Android, delighted Apple fans earlier this year when the company brought its keyboard to iOS, debuting productivity app SwiftKey Note.

So it was no surprise when the company announced it would be among the first to bring a full keyboard to iOS 8.

SwiftKey on iOS uses the same super-smart text predictions as its Android counterpart, and supports swipe-style input (called SwiftKey Flow). The free app is also cloud-connected, so it can remember your personal language patterns and preferences across devices.

SwiftKey rolled out to iPhone and iPod Touch users on Wednesday.

Fleksy

While many keyboard apps claim to be fast, Fleksy helped one teen become the world's fastest texter. It supports gesture-based typing, but also allows users to choose between small- or large-size keyboards.

The $0.99 app comes with 800 of its own emoji, and supports an impressive 40 languages.

Minuum

The Y Combinator-backed Minuum is based on the idea that keyboards should use as little screen real estate as possible. The app shrinks your keyboard down to a fraction of its normal size, while still supporting a hyper-fast and surprisingly accurate text input.

The $1.99 Minuum is available for iPhone. It's English only for now but the company says more languages are coming soon.

PopKey (Coming Soon)

PopKey's emoji-style keyboard, solely for animated GIFS, shows off the true power of what third-party keyboards could mean on iOS.

The app will allow users to quickly find and message their favorite GIFs with just a few taps. The GIFs will include dozens of themed categories that get updated in real-time with the latest trending topics and events.

PopKey is expected to become available in the coming weeks.