TextExpander + Keyboard Reviews

by NRHJohn

I liked Textexpander and had been a long time owner and extoller of it's value. With the change to the model I can no longer use the product.

One thing you can do that is not as good yet is simply plug your keyboard snippets into the built in Apple keyboard replacements. Go into settings -> keyboard -> text replacements and you can at least keep your long phrases handy. Sadly there is no date capabilities that I know of yet, but perhaps Apple will Sherlock Smile and save us from the subscription madness.

I for one don't oppose anyone making money and the Apple stores inability for developers to easily have an upgrade cycle has caused concern, but you could go along way to conquering the business market and keeping the rest of us happy by making a free or at least reasonable level subscription to keep the abilities we had prior to this recent madness.

I don't do many reviews, your app either needs to be truly awesome or truly horrible, you're a unicorn. TextExpanderKeyboard was awesome, but Smile's subscription changes are horrible.

P.S. If you already own TextExpanderKeyboard , you can still retrieve it unless Smile removes it from your purchased apps. I haven't checked but that would be a real slap to replace the former working stand alone app with the new subscription one with no recourse for the former owners. I have supported a smile with the purchase of their apps on both my Mac and iOS devices so I hoped they haven't changed that much.

by Bdavis22

This is all on Smile’s dev team, now. I don’t mind paying for the subscription, but the keyboard has to deliver. Make this keyboard able to search through all the snippets like yoink does for its files. Make the keyboard respond like the ios keyboard, so I don’t have to type somslowly and accurately to get the words out on it compared to the ios stock keyboard. Give me the option to get rid of the Text Expander T button. Add support for iOS autocomplete. Give us snippets search in spotlight. Allow for mousing the cursor by holding down spqcebar. Whatever Apple won’t help with, tell us and we’ll fule bugs. I hate that I can’t turn off Apple’s snippet expansion by toggle. There’s a lot Smile could do tomfix this and make it work for the annual fee. They just aren’t developing it. How about a safari extension? How about Grammarly support? Maybe work with Xsearch. Work closer with Drafts App and fantastical to eliminate app updates for snippets.

by Velgor

Given the subscription cost, this REALLY needs attention. Unbelievably awful.

by Fr2n

See many places to sign in but no place to start an account?

by Hotsush

My god… TextExpanderKeyboard crashes 100% more than any of the apps on my iPad Air 4 because no other app crashes….

by Offandonagain

TextExpander used to be a great tool, but it's quickly become buggy and unusable since requiring an account and a subscription.

by Georgeporgepuddingpie

I tried this for three weeks on cross platforms and it didn’t work especially on the iPhone.
Also when typing it would always change a word which was misspelled or had an apostrophe in it and in both occasions it would capitalizes the words; obviously it would have to be changed causing me to turn off Text Expander.

by CoachJeff

I left a one star review if TextExpanderKeyboard because of the support experience. They were short, rude and rather obnoxious. They replied to my review and said they had no record of me contacting them. I forwarded them my original correspondence and they said they would give it “the attention it deserves”. Well about a week later I hear back from them and they basically said well even though it was you using the trial version of our mobile app that is causing you to fail the license check, we will not help resolve that issue for you, even though you are not using the professional features and have removed the trial mobile software from your phone.
To quote them,
We kindly ask for your understanding, that technical support is reserved for paying customers. If you opt not to pay for our work, we will NOT work for you.
Please use our software as-is or uninstall if you experience difficulties configuring it.

I guess my difficulty is the condescending tone of this response and the fact that their mobile app is what broke it and caused it to quit working to begin with. Don’t look to this company for help even if they are at fault.

by FFAMD

TextExpanderKeyboard requires an account, for which I had to go to their site to register for the advertised “free trial.” After entering my info, it wanted me to click a link in an email they sent me to complete the sign up. Three hours later, and after hitting the “resend” button, I still have no email from them. (Yes, I’ve checked the spam box.)

I work in marketing and this is a ridiculously bad waste of a lead. I was planning on subscribing after the trial period was up, but now I’ve just deleted TextExpanderKeyboard altogether and will find another that doesn’t leave me hanging. When I want to make an account, I want to make it right then and there, not hours (or days) from then!

by Conscious Music Lover

App crashes constantly on my iPad (latest iOS, Dec 2020). Too often fails to expand snippets (using the correct keyboard, which itself is prone to error). Seems like the company has given up on making TextExpanderKeyboard genuinely useful on anything except desktop (where it saves me TONS of time ... also works ok on my iPhone, but still kinda sucky there).

by 541154

Been a long time user. Works great on a Mac and even a PC. Edits sync well. There’s my two stars. TextExpanderKeyboard is not nearly as user friendly on the iPad. A TE shortcut doesn’t work where you are typing like on a computer, you have to activate within TextExpanderKeyboard then copy and paste or share to wherever you are trying to use the expanded text. It works but not as smoothly.

My complaint is that every time I try to edit an existing snippet, the iPad app crashes, making it basically worthless and unusable.

by Dr3van

After being a long time user of textexpander I am not a fan of the new versions being a subscription model. I hope they don't move to this model on the rest of their products. It is however still a quality app and they made the pricing for existing customers a bit more fair considering I would usually pay upgrade pricing for the Mac app every one or two versions. In all I am still going to end up paying more with this pricing model and haven't gained anything for it yet, but Smile is a good developer in the past and I hope they have plans to continue to improve on the product with something more than the useless snippet sync/share that this enabled.

by AlchemicKnowledge

My love for Text expander goes back a long time. There is so much you can do with the native Mac app. Unfortunately the iOS version is not great. Some of it has to do with the developer and some of it has to do with the restrictions in iOS. The other issue I have is the moving to the subscription model. I am moved away from TE and shortly after that switch and went with ATEXT on the Mac which works exactly the same and it is only a one time low cost fee. Update… TextExpanderKeyboard has gotten even worse. With the switch to the new app it doesn’t recognize my snippets. I’ve paid the developer 2 twice for a stand alone purchase and for 1 year subscription (through stack social, which i was never able to get it active) Unfortunately there are too many blocks to use this program. I undertand you need to make money but the restrictions put on paying clients is too much. I love TextExpander but moving to Atext on the Mac :(

by LiveStartled

I've used Text Expander for quite a while and was stunned when they went to the subscription model with the new version. Since much of my workflow is connected to TE and my arthritis is getting worse, I needed to keep it. Right now, the TE custom keyboard isn't working on either my iPad or my iPhone. It stays for a moment and then flips to the default. One time the wireless keyboard worked with snippets. One time.
Thought deleting TextExpanderKeyboard and then redownloading might help. Now NO snippets appear. Hoping this improves now that I'm paying for it.

by TheNitai

Been using TextExpander for years. I have no problem with their business model as the subscription is not really expensive for the value it provides.

That said, while the macOS app works great (not so the Windows version but that is another topic), I experience that the iPad and iPhone app crashes quite a lot especially when editing a snippet. Also, TextExpanderKeyboard feels a but “dusty” and just a clone of the desktop app on the iPad.

Not sure why TextExpanderKeyboard gets bad ratings on here as the tool itself is great and I couldn’t imagine working without.

by Simdude

The initial launch of TextExpanderKeyboard was not a good intro which is hurting the reviews. When I first launched the tutorial screens came up obscured by the keyboard so you never saw the sign on button. I used the application picker to swipe away TextExpanderKeyboard and it came up ok.

Once I logged in the first suggestion was to replace snippets with server ones which I did. (I’m a new user so I had no server snippets). This wiped all snippets so the suggested tyvm sniper didn’t work making me think TextExpanderKeyboard was broke.

Finally it’s very important to follow the directions to enable the keyboard and give full access.

The keyboard itself needs some work. Why not make the letters larger so they fill each key? The Apple keyboard dies this and is much easier to read. It also needs the key word suggestions and a swipe to type option.

As for those complaining about a subscription $3.33/ month is a latte at Starbucks. As a software developer myself I will tell you it’s very difficult to sustain a software business over time. You can no longer make a 99 cent app every year and get a million downloads. Perhaps the developer could offer a free version limited to 5 or 10 snippets with an in app subscription purchase but that is up to their market analysis if it would be worth it.

by TPASpeaks

I’ve been using text expander for years. While I’m not thrilled about the monthly access fees, it’s not expensive so I find it worth the monthly charge. The ONLY thing I’m not thrilled about on the mobile app version is the inability for it to insert images into the snippets as well as the text. On the full laptop version for example, I have a details list of directions to my office, complete with pictures of every landmark. When I insert the snippet via phone or iPad it doesn’t transfer the graphics, only the text. When I insert the snippit on my signature card on my laptop it inserts the graphic with my company branding. On the mobile app version it doesn’t. I’m sure there’s a technical reason for it, but it today’s tech age, I’m sure there’s a technical solution to it as well. Once that happens, this mobile app will get 5 stars from me.

by Christin White

This update may not bring many new features I need but I’m really excited about some of the changes Smile is making across the TextExpander line and I have a feeling that using their own cloud service is going to lead to some awesome new features soon! I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Regarding the pricing model, I think it’s absolutely fair, especially for existing users and I think they’re doing right by everyone keeping the old versions available. Software is very time consuming work and I’m happy to see developers find business models that will allow them to continue improving their applications and providing great support and Smile definitely delivers on both of those promises.

by Ishwiwjwnwo

Ah I have not used this yet cause of one problem , the sign in thing , I do not have an account already for it , so I wanted to do sign up . But when I click on it it just disappears immediately when I click on it , it would be great help of how I can fix it !

by Fineconnoiseur

Purchased this hrough a BundleHunt deal and I have no regrets. Although switching keyboards is a bit of a hassle, it works exactly as advertised.

Syncing can sometimes take a while but it is largely simultaneous.

The main value for me is the cross-platform sync between Mac and iOS and the JavaScript functionality on iOS. Although, I do wish that it supports more languages e.g. Python (which is why I still keep Typinator around on my Mac).

by SY Avalon

It doesn’t work.

by MikeyCashGames

TextExpanderKeyboard+keyboard is supposed to allow me to utilize my snippets in any app but it doesn't. Not a single snippet will expand in any app, even ones that support TextExpander. I am totally disgusted by the support of the developers, a company which I truly love to support because their Mac app and other software are very good. But this has little to no support and doesn't do the one task it is meant too. I rely on TextExpander on the Mac and TextExpanderKeyboard should work as well as it does there but it doesn't. In reality it doesn't work at all, so sad. I can't recommend anyone spend their money on this until the developers can fix its fatal flaws. Until then STAY AWAY!

by BAR112

Requires sign-in—what’s that about? Apparently there’s some expensive subscription but I don’t know.

by BSteggeman

iOS 13 on an 11 Pro Max & the keyboard technically works, but the user experience is basically broken. Is this a one-person Dev shop? Great! Don’t release a product you can’t support. If you expect to charge an ongoing subscription, you can’t ship garbage.

by Auliya

IOS 13. TextExpanderKeyboard on iPhone won’t let the keyboard close (?) so you can’t read the introduction or perform any other action. The modal window won’t dismiss and there’s no [x] provided. So I tried it on the iPad. I was able to close the keyboard but once again the modal window would not dismiss and no [x] provided. The only available option was “sign in” and I couldn’t, since that requires an account, one of the many things I couldn’t get to because the modal window wouldn’t dismiss. There’s also colored text in the intro screen that looked like links, but either were not, or were also non-functional. I would wait until they update TextExpanderKeyboard for iOS 13. At time of writing TextExpanderKeyboard was last updated 1m ago.

by Eyv

Two stars because the software is still useful, but I'm done. Goodbye TextExpander. Not with the new business model.
This is not a developer cost being passed on to the consumer -- iCloud already does sync on behalf of the developer, for free. This is a change to the business model which is unjustified in my mind, given the money I already spent: cost 1: Mac version; cost 2: iOS version 1; cost 3: iOS version 2; cost 4: iOS version 3. And now a SUBSCRIPTION model? No thank you.
I MAY pay a flat price for TextExpanderKeyboard , but $4 monthly for a sync service with no added value over iCloud? Maybe $4/year, but not per month, NO! I'm done.

by Toromei

It’s difficult to decide if the benefits of something are worth the price to you when only price is mentioned. And whining doesn’t actually help anyone: neither the whiner nor their audience. Here’s an actual review.

TextExpander is an incredibly useful tool for making shortcuts for commonly typed text snippets. It makes it possible to save a lot of time and effort. iOS actually has a similar feature, but it’s really a nuisance to setup. It just isn’t designed to be used on this level, only for relatively few small text shortcuts (omw > On my way!)

But while TextExpander is indispensable for me on my Mac, the iOS experience is not great. Sure, being able to use extensive snippets I’ve setup on my Mac on my iPhone as well is really great, but for me it’s just not as useful on a mobile device. Part of that is the form factor and onscreen keyboard, but the custom keyboard that TextExpander offers is simply not very responsive, and it differs enough from the standard keyboard that there’s a learning curve. It works, but it doesn’t reach the high bar set by TextExpander on the Mac.

TextExpander, for me, is an integral part of my Mac workflow. TextExpander for iOS, however, pales in comparison, and is only useful to me as a conduit to accessing what I’ve already setup on my Mac. I wouldn’t want to use — or pay for — the iOS app on its own. And maybe that’s why they’re going the subscription route.

by Paper_Queen

I’m a hard core TextExpander desktop user—can’t work without it. Literally.

While the iOS iteration has limitations (baked in, as a result of Apple restrictions), it’s still useful during my on-site research expeditions. Do I wish it worked with bluetooth keyboards? Sure, but again, that’s an Apple limitation—not TextExpanderKeyboard ’s.

Customer service has been bashed a few times here in the reviews, but my experience has been positive. Quick email response (within 24 hours) and an even quicker email exchange to find resolution to my problem. No complaints there.

by LLMMD

This is the same A++ app TextExpander has always been. They've just changed to a fair subscription model, with which you get a free app updates.

You get a discount for upgrading from a previous Mac license. My price for the first year was < $2/month upgrading from my TextExpander 5 Family License.

I use TextExpander at least 50 times every day on iOS and my Mac. Anyone who thinks their pricing model isn't a great deal must not understand how to use TextExpanderKeyboard .