How to change keyboard background color in iOS?

Question

I would like to know how to change the keyboard background color programmatically in iOS? The background is normally grey but I have already seen black background (behind letters).

Trip

sorry about the close vote; I misread the question - edited for clarification. – Kinson

Answer 1

For the dark background use:

mytextfield.keyboardAppearance = UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert;

Read to find more information about UITextInputTraits (use UIKeyboardAppearanceDark at iOS 7+).

Willette

Answer 2

To change it globally, you can use appearance proxy in AppDelegate... I've tested it in iOS 8, Swift:

UITextField.appearance().keyboardAppearance = UIKeyboardAppearance.dark

Pilarpilaster

This can also be used for setting the colour of the keyboard for swiftui – Guiltless

Answer 3

In iOS 7, UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert is deprecated, so use this instead:

mytextfield.keyboardAppearance = UIKeyboardAppearanceDark;

If you need to support both earlier iOSes and iOS 7, and you've created the necessary macros (per https://mcmap.net/q/23741/-how-to-check-ios-version), you can use this:

mytextfield.keyboardAppearance = (SYSTEM_VERSION_LESS_THAN(@"7.0") ? UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert : UIKeyboardAppearanceDark);

Ulla

Thanks for the answer above, I was wondering if you'd happen to know why this won't compile when I'm building for a target of iOS 6 and also supporting iOS7? – Insessorial

Answer 4

Updating to swift 3.0

let textFieldAppearance = UITextField.appearance() textFieldAppearance.keyboardAppearance = .dark //.default//.light//.alert

Versicle

Is there a reason not to do just UITextField.appearance().keyboardAppearance = .dark ? – Bugg

No, you can do this way too. – Versicle

I know, I was asking if there's a reason you don't do it the short way? – Bugg

UITextField.appearance().keyboardAppearance = .dark in AppDelegate will change the appearance globally. with this solution you can do it on specific text fields. – Rois

Answer 5

If you're using Interface Builder, you can set keyboard look in the Attributes Inspector:

Delinquent

Answer 6

Today just use myTextField.keyboardAppearance = .dark

Misvalue

Good to know and happy to help! – Misvalue

Answer 7

SWIFT 4+: in the AppDelegate

UITextField.appearance().keyboardAppearance = .dark

Katz

I need the same thing for UITextView but it doesn't exist. – Congeal

@Congeal Did you try textView.keyboardAppearance? The property comes from UITextInputTraits – Sumptuary

Answer 8

Swift 5+ (TextView)

 textView.keyboardAppearance = .dark

Autogiro

Answer 9

In Objectve-C

For Dark Keyboard

[UITextField appearance].keyboardAppearance = UIKeyboardAppearanceDark;

For Light keyboard

[UITextField appearance].keyboardAppearance = UIKeyboardAppearanceLight;

You can define this in AppDelegate to handle this globally.

Wizen