Can you delete Apple’s keyboard and only use a third-party keyboard on iPhone?
Yes — Apple’s own keyboards come out of the list the same way a third-party one does. What actually happens to the globe key and ordinary typing once they are gone, and the one keyboard iOS still shows in a password field regardless.
Somewhere in Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards, Apple’s own keyboard is still sitting in the list, even on a phone where every day of typing actually happens on the one you added. It is a fair question whether it needs to stay there at all, or whether it is just leftover clutter from setup. It can go — but there is one place iOS still reaches for a keyboard of its own, and once Apple’s is deleted, that keyboard is not coming from the list you just edited.
Yes — Apple’s own keyboards can be deleted like any other
Removing a keyboard uses the same screen for Apple’s own entries as it does for a third-party one: Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Edit, then the red minus circle next to the keyboard, then Delete. Nothing marks Apple’s keyboard as protected or exempt — “English (US)”, or whichever language keyboards shipped active by default, comes out one at a time exactly the way a third-party keyboard does. Repeat it for every Apple keyboard in the list and what is left is only what you added yourself.
What actually happens once it is gone
Tap the globe key after that and there is nothing left to cycle through but the third-party keyboards you kept, because the globe key only ever moves between whatever is currently in that list. Ordinary typing — Messages, Notes, a search bar, an email — goes straight to your keyboard from the first tap, the same as before, just without Apple’s own keyboard sitting in the rotation on the way there.
The one place iOS still shows a keyboard of its own
Secure text fields — password boxes, PIN entry, most payment sheets — already take every third-party keyboard out of the running and hand the field to a system keyboard instead, a rule that holds no matter which third-party keyboard is active or how it is set up. Deleting Apple’s keyboard from your list does not touch that rule. What it is fair to wonder is where the keyboard shown there is actually coming from once Apple’s own entry is no longer in Settings at all.
Why deleting it from the list does not remove it from there too
The keyboard iOS hands a secure field is not pulled from Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards — it is a fixed part of iOS itself, built into the system the way the lock screen or Control Center is, rather than an entry that lives in a list you can edit. Deleting “English (US)” from your keyboards removes it as a choice for ordinary typing; it has no reach into the separate, non-optional component the system reserves for secure fields, because that component was never drawing from your list in the first place. Type a password with every Apple keyboard deleted and a keyboard still appears there, exactly as before.
What you actually give up
Nothing about secure fields, dictation, or anything else iOS treats as a system-level feature changes — those already sit above the keyboard list, not inside it. What does change is your fallback for ordinary typing: with only one keyboard app left, if it is ever deleted, disabled by a Screen Time restriction, or simply misbehaves for a moment, there is nothing left in the list to catch you until you add one back. Keeping Apple’s keyboard in place means that same moment still leaves you with something to type on.
Where Kibo fits
Kibo behaves the same in a secure field whether or not Apple’s own keyboard is still in the list — the system keyboard shown there was never Kibo’s to draw or replace, so deleting Apple’s keyboard neither helps nor hurts how Kibo is treated the rest of the time. None of the above touches Full Access either; that switch is read only by Kibo’s Copy word, Copy line and Paste buttons, and it can stay off. Kibo is free to download.
Frequently asked questions
Can I delete every one of Apple’s own keyboards on iPhone?
Yes. Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Edit removes Apple’s own keyboards the same way it removes a third-party one, one at a time, until only the keyboards you added yourself remain.
What keyboard appears if I tap a password field after deleting Apple’s keyboard?
iOS’s own secure-field keyboard still appears. It is a fixed system component reserved for secure fields rather than an entry pulled from your keyboards list, so deleting Apple’s keyboard from that list does not remove it.
Is it a good idea to remove Apple’s keyboard entirely?
It works, but it removes your only fallback for ordinary typing if your remaining keyboard app is ever deleted or stops working. Keeping one keyboard around as a backup, Apple’s or otherwise, costs nothing and avoids being left with no way to type until you add one back.
Try it on your own keyboard
Kibo is a free custom keyboard for iPhone with real mechanical key sounds, a wardrobe of themes and RGB backlight effects. No account, no ads, and it works with Full Access left off.