This is a public service announcement that you can now get an International Phonetic Alphabet layout in Gboard on Android, including a dizzying array of diacritics. (IPA apparently coming eventually for Gboard on iOS as well.)
How to get it: Update the app if necessary, longpress on the spacebar, and add International Phonetic Alphabet under languages. To switch to IPA once you’ve enabled it, longpress on the spacebar again.
I was previously using MultiLing keyboard to type IPA on Android, which was fine for most purposes but didn’t have full support for diacritics or other special punctuation, so Gboard now looks like a better option.
It's done! I did the thing! Keycaps landed a little while ago and after a little fiddling around I had a finished IPA keyboard in front of me. Stoked.
An interesting series of posts about building a standalone International Phonetic Alphabet keyboard.
From post 1, about what it means to create a programmable keyboard:
Here the aim would be to create a small programmable keypad to use in conjunction with a regular QWERTY keyboard.
Surely this is even worse than mapping a new layout right? You have to physically build something too. Well, it's not as daunting as it first seems.
Keypads like this are reasonably popular among gamers and heavy Photoshop users, so finding one isn't a problem. No need to build anything from scratch.
And since the keypad is programmable, you can store whatever layout you use on the device's internal memory. Your desktop configuration remains untouched. After this is done, the custom layout can be printed on a new set of keycaps for reference.
One of the best things about this method is that, once the layout's saved internally, the keypad will work with any OS. At this point, it's just a plug-and-play device. Also, there are fewer shortcuts to learn, as the IPA symbols aren't jostling for space with the regular keys.
From post 2, about choosing a layout:
The dimensions of the keypad offer some interesting design opportunities. For one, there's no need to stick to a layout based on QWERTY, especially since it's designed to be used with one hand. However, something intuitive is essential. For any given IPA symbol I should at least have a general idea of where it is on the pad.
And some great photos in the final post of the finished keyboard!
