UniChar — Unicode Keyboard

Name: UniChar — Unicode Keyboard
Rating: 4.7 (1509 reviews)
Author: Jordan Hipwell

Find & use special symbols

Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad

1.5K Ratings
Ages

4+
Years
Category

Reference
Developer

Jordan Hipwell
Language

EN
English
Size

14.7
MB

UniChar is a powerful yet beautiful Unicode character app and keyboard that allows you to quickly find, type, and work with special symbols. ◣ “UniChar is a cool little app and keyboard, and offers access to a huge world of Unicode characters that are otherwise absent within the standard iOS keyboard.” – iDownloadBlog "On the Mac, you can type any character [with] the Emoji & Symbols viewer ... The selection on iOS is much more limited ... But UniChar changes that." – Cult of Mac "This iOS keyboard app will give you all the Unicode characters you’ll ever need." – lifehacker “It’s a full-featured utility for searching and copying symbols … it’s always nice to see a developer who’s dedicated to improving this kind of utility over time and adopting new features … it's a very handy app.” – AppStories ◤ Utilize hundreds of thousands of characters organized neatly into categories and a full Unicode table. You can quickly search for the character you’re looking for, type special symbols in any app with the custom keyboard, and collect your favorite characters to access them even quicker. For developers, UniChar is an efficient tool to work with Unicode code points and UTF-8 encodings. Revamp your workflow by using UniChar alongside other apps on iPad, or use Universal Clipboard to copy on your iPhone and paste on your Mac. App ◉ Work with characters and their info – Name, Unicode, and UTF-8 ◉ Browse curated categories in grid or list view ◉ Customize your categories – choose from more than 150 symbol and script categories* ◉ Access the entire Unicode table by character blocks* ◉ Jump to a specific block, category, or code point ◉ Search for symbols by name, info, or even by drawing** ◉ Identify characters and see a breakdown of code points that form them ◉ Select custom fonts to use when rendering glyphs ◉ Collect and organize your favorite symbols ◉ Quickly copy character info to the clipboard ◉ Insert characters into the text field and compose text using the system keyboard ◉ Share your text via Messages, Mail, Mastodon, etc – or open it in other apps like Pages Keyboard ◎ Type special symbols in any app ◎ Quickly input your favorite and recently used characters ◎ Browse curated categories – choose from more than 150 categories* ◎ Designed to compliment the Emoji keyboard Widgets ■ Add your favorite symbol to your Lock Screen ■ View stats for how many drawings you've submitted to help improve Search by Drawing Apple Watch ◆ Add your favorite symbol to your watch face ◆ Quickly access your favorite and recently used characters ◆ Copy character info to your iPhone’s clipboard And More ● Beautiful Liquid Glass design ● Light and dark mode ● Full accessibility support ● Handoff support ● Drag and Drop ● Keyboard shortcuts and menu bar on iPad ● Support for adding links to characters in Quick Note ● Siri integration including support for "Siri share this" and "Siri remind me about this" ● Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple silicon Mac ● No ads, no tracking, no subscriptions * All Categories can be unlocked via a one-time in-app purchase. ** Search by Drawing is powered by an on-device machine learning model that predicts matching symbols as you draw in real-time. You can help improve symbol recognition by submitting your own drawings!

Ratings & Reviews

4.7

out of 5

1.5K Ratings

Finally, the Software Unicode Dorks Deserve
05/08/2019

NeoYokel
I’ve never understood why I never see anyone making use of the vast catalogue of nearly 140,000 standard Unicode symbols available in their social media posts, metadata, or word art. Like replacing standard bullets in our weekly newsletter with ◎ (U+25CE,) — probably my all-time favorite, or using strings of four characters for intro, ad, and station identification spots on our online radio. (☉☉☉☉, for instance.) I’d like to think these uses make their experiences feel just a bit more unique to users — if only unconsciously — but I’d long wondered if I was in fact the last Unicode enthusiast alive.Contrary to what may seem obvious, UniChar’s character selector is by far the more intuitive and efficient of these two separate ways to use it. Even in the free experience, there are simply too many characters in the catalog to reasonably browse in iOS’ old extended keyboard. (For the record, I’d like to note that UniChar is technically a “Reference Application,” but I understand if you can’t bring yourself to use the term.) Across both the seamlessly-interchangeable gallery and list views, the user can very quickly copy a character to the clipboard with 3D Touch, which works so well it’s as if it were meant only for this use from its beginning.In the off chance you’re a longtime lover and devout user of the grander Unicode collection and an iOS user, I hope you’re now experiencing the same sort of petty enthusiasm I felt myself when I discovered it. If not, I hope you’ll take away a desire to explore it. I mean… aren’t these smileys way better than any emoji? ☺︎☺︎☺︎

Developer Response
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughtful review. I’ve read it a few times and I love your enthusiasm for Unicode symbols. So I’m happy to reach out and let you know UniChar 7.0 includes a complete Unicode table, which I feel like you can appreciate! Also I wanted to say thanks for the suggestion to change the app‘s category to reference — done. Cheers!
Finally, the Software Unicode Dorks Deserve
05/08/2019

NeoYokel

I’ve never understood why I never see anyone making use of the vast catalogue of nearly 140,000 standard Unicode symbols available in their social media posts, metadata, or word art. Like replacing standard bullets in our weekly newsletter with ◎ (U+25CE,) — probably my all-time favorite, or using strings of four characters for intro, ad, and station identification spots on our online radio. (☉☉☉☉, for instance.) I’d like to think these uses make their experiences feel just a bit more unique to users — if only unconsciously — but I’d long wondered if I was in fact the last Unicode enthusiast alive.Contrary to what may seem obvious, UniChar’s character selector is by far the more intuitive and efficient of these two separate ways to use it. Even in the free experience, there are simply too many characters in the catalog to reasonably browse in iOS’ old extended keyboard. (For the record, I’d like to note that UniChar is technically a “Reference Application,” but I understand if you can’t bring yourself to use the term.) Across both the seamlessly-interchangeable gallery and list views, the user can very quickly copy a character to the clipboard with 3D Touch, which works so well it’s as if it were meant only for this use from its beginning.In the off chance you’re a longtime lover and devout user of the grander Unicode collection and an iOS user, I hope you’re now experiencing the same sort of petty enthusiasm I felt myself when I discovered it. If not, I hope you’ll take away a desire to explore it. I mean… aren’t these smileys way better than any emoji? ☺︎☺︎☺︎
Developer Response 09/20/2019
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughtful review. I’ve read it a few times and I love your enthusiasm for Unicode symbols. So I’m happy to reach out and let you know UniChar 7.0 includes a complete Unicode table, which I feel like you can appreciate! Also I wanted to say thanks for the suggestion to change the app‘s category to reference — done. Cheers!
Awesome App! ☻★♡♥︎☆ + I have a question
07/17/2023

My nickname is in the review
I love that there is thousands of symbols and digits to choose from! I have already used about 250+ different symbols from here! I think this is an amazing app with an amazing creator, I can’t wait to see what comes in the next updates! 😁😆😄 Question: Is the app logo copyrighted? I’m asking this because I’m making a fandom about your app and I just wanted to know to see if I could add the logo to one of my articles. Thank you for your time, I hope you have a great day! ♡♥︎⭐︎☆★ Edit: Hi, I have another question. When was the HISbD (Help Improve Search by Drawing) feature implemented?Thank you for answering my question, it really means a lot to me ❤️

Developer Response
Thanks for the ★★★★★ review! Sure, feel free to add the app icon to an article. Search by Drawing and the ability to help improve it was first available in 5.0 which was released in September 2017. 😁
Awesome App! ☻★♡♥︎☆ + I have a question
07/17/2023

My nickname is in the review

I love that there is thousands of symbols and digits to choose from! I have already used about 250+ different symbols from here! I think this is an amazing app with an amazing creator, I can’t wait to see what comes in the next updates! 😁😆😄 Question: Is the app logo copyrighted? I’m asking this because I’m making a fandom about your app and I just wanted to know to see if I could add the logo to one of my articles. Thank you for your time, I hope you have a great day! ♡♥︎⭐︎☆★ Edit: Hi, I have another question. When was the HISbD (Help Improve Search by Drawing) feature implemented?Thank you for answering my question, it really means a lot to me ❤️
Developer Response 07/17/2023
Thanks for the ★★★★★ review! Sure, feel free to add the app icon to an article. Search by Drawing and the ability to help improve it was first available in 5.0 which was released in September 2017. 😁
Very useful. A little messy.
12/19/2019

Scotty-the-Elder
This keyboard is a real timesaver for entering international currency symbols, foreign language characters and all those commonly-used symbols missing from my ASCII keyboard (°©®¢). The user experience is a bit messy, however. The categories are so large. I suggest more focused categories. For example, a category for greeks, rather than only including them in different big categories like Phonetic and No (number). Also, I would really like to be able to hide Recents from the keyboard because the keyboard real estate is so limited. There is room for 35 visible characters in the keyboard without scrolling. I suggest that the category icons at the bottom of the keyboard be redefined to open an instance of the UniChar keyboard app preloaded to the selected category, allowing in-context selection of any char in that category (not just those set up as visible). That way, the keyboard itself becomes the user’s “favorites”, but any char can be searched for and entered easily without going through copy-and-paste.
Very useful. A little messy.
12/19/2019

Scotty-the-Elder

This keyboard is a real timesaver for entering international currency symbols, foreign language characters and all those commonly-used symbols missing from my ASCII keyboard (°©®¢). The user experience is a bit messy, however. The categories are so large. I suggest more focused categories. For example, a category for greeks, rather than only including them in different big categories like Phonetic and No (number). Also, I would really like to be able to hide Recents from the keyboard because the keyboard real estate is so limited. There is room for 35 visible characters in the keyboard without scrolling. I suggest that the category icons at the bottom of the keyboard be redefined to open an instance of the UniChar keyboard app preloaded to the selected category, allowing in-context selection of any char in that category (not just those set up as visible). That way, the keyboard itself becomes the user’s “favorites”, but any char can be searched for and entered easily without going through copy-and-paste.
Great app with an amazing team behind it
11/18/2017

johnsenestate
You can only switch from Unichar to another keyboard using the lower left keyboard button. If an app is not updated for use on the iPhone X the bottom bar where that button would be is just a black bar and the button doesn't exist therefore the only way to change it is to go to settings and delete unichar/reinstall unichar. The default keyboard moves the button to the original position when an app isn't compatible. Used this keyboard a lot on my previous phone, but it's a pain in its current state.Update: 1 day after posting my review the developer addressing the issue and the next day an update fixing it was released. Great work.
Great app with an amazing team behind it
11/18/2017

johnsenestate

You can only switch from Unichar to another keyboard using the lower left keyboard button. If an app is not updated for use on the iPhone X the bottom bar where that button would be is just a black bar and the button doesn't exist therefore the only way to change it is to go to settings and delete unichar/reinstall unichar. The default keyboard moves the button to the original position when an app isn't compatible. Used this keyboard a lot on my previous phone, but it's a pain in its current state.Update: 1 day after posting my review the developer addressing the issue and the next day an update fixing it was released. Great work.

UniChar 8 introduces an updated design and powerful new features: ◉ Optimizations for iOS and iPadOS 26, including a new Liquid Glass design ◉ Choose from over 150 categories to show in the app and keyboard ◉ Search all Unicode characters ◉ Identify characters in search ◉ Select custom fonts for rendering characters ◉ Customize the character size ◉ Add any character to Favorites, even one containing multiple code points, via a new share sheet action ◉ UTF-8 replaces HTML in character info ◉ Stability improvements

Version 8.0.1

18h ago

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- User Content
- Usage Data

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Supported Features
- VoiceOver
- Voice Control
- Larger Text
- Dark Interface
- Differentiate Without Color Alone
- Sufficient Contrast
- Reduced Motion