Small language, big stepiPhone users to get native Luxembourgish keyboard

iOS and iPadOS 27, set to launch later this year, will bring native Luxembourgish keyboard support through Apple's keyboard settings.

Until now, Luxembourgish has only been available on iPhones and iPads through third-party keyboards. While Apple allowed third-party keyboards beginning with iOS 8 in 2014, users seeking Luxembourgish support had to rely on alternatives such as Microsoft's SwiftKey.

Although the addition received only a brief mention during Apple's keynote presentation, reports from reddit users testing the beta version suggest the keyboard features a largely standard QWERTZ layout with dedicated keys for characters commonly used in Luxembourgish, including é, ë, and ä.

A screenshot from Apple’s WWDC keynote presentation showing a slide that lists hundreds of new features and improvements coming in the next software update. Among the many announcements, the addition of a new language appears as just one small item buried within a long list of updates.

© Apple

The move closes a gap that has long existed between iOS and Android. Android users have been able to add Luxembourgish through Google's Gboard keyboard for years. While Gboard is also available on iOS, it does not currently seem to support Luxembourgish.

Luxembourgish speakers are not the only users gaining new language support however. Apple has also announced the addition of Afrikaans, Galician, Guaraní, Basque, Baybayin, Xhosa and Zulu. The new keyboards are expected to become available when the update is officially released later this year.