How to Add a Persian (Farsi) Keyboard on iPhone and iPad
Turn on the Persian keyboard on iPhone or iPad in under a minute. The exact Settings path, how to switch between Farsi and English, and how to type ی and ک correctly.
Turn It On in Settings
iPhone and iPad already have a Persian keyboard built in. Nothing to download.
- Open Settings
- Tap General
- Tap Keyboard, then Keyboards
- Tap Add New Keyboard...
- Scroll to Persian and tap it
That is the whole process. The keyboard is available immediately in every app.
The same steps work on iPad. If you use an external keyboard with an iPad, add the Persian keyboard the same way — iPadOS maps the layout to your physical keys.
Switching Between Farsi and English
Once a second keyboard is installed, a small globe 🌐 appears next to the space bar.
- Tap the globe to move to the next keyboard
- Hold the globe to pick from a list, which is faster once you have three or more
The text direction flips automatically. When the Persian keyboard is active, the cursor jumps to the right and text flows right to left. You do not need to change anything else.
One detail that catches people out: punctuation moves too. The Persian keyboard has its own comma (،) and question mark (؟), which are the correct ones to use in Farsi text.
Typing ی and ک Correctly
This is the single most common mistake, and it is invisible.
Arabic and Persian use different characters for two letters that look almost identical:
| Letter | Persian | Arabic |
|---|---|---|
| yeh | ی | ي |
| kaf | ک | ك |
If you install the Arabic keyboard instead of the Persian one, you will type the Arabic forms. Persian readers will understand you, but searches may not match, and some apps render the letters differently.
Apple's Persian keyboard produces the correct Persian characters, so simply picking Persian rather than Arabic solves it.
Predictive Text and Voice Input
Persian predictive text works on iOS, and it is genuinely useful while your spelling is still forming. Type the first two or three letters and the suggestion bar usually has the word.
Voice dictation also supports Persian. Tap the microphone on the keyboard and speak — useful for checking whether your pronunciation is close enough to be recognised.
If the suggestion bar is missing, check Settings → General → Keyboard and make sure Predictive is on.
Practise What You Type
A keyboard on its own does not teach you the script. The fastest route is to learn the letters and then immediately use them.
Start with our free Persian alphabet course to learn all 32 letters and their forms, then type them in daily practice. Typing a word is a stronger memory cue than reading it.