Keyboards sometimes have to open urls, trigger deeplinks or navigate from the keyboard to the main app. This is however hard, since keyboard extensions can’t use UIApplication.main.

KeyboardKit therefore has a KeyboardUrlOpener that can open any URLs from a keyboard extension, without having to use UIApplication.main.

KeyboardKit Pro unlocks a PreviousAppNavigator that can navigate back to the previously opened app, e.g. after dictation. Information about Pro features can be found at the end of this article.

How to open URLs from the keyboard extension

The KeyboardUrlOpener class can be used to open any URL from a keyboard without UIApplication.

The class has a KeyboardUrlOpener/shared instance that can be used from anywhere:

let url = URL(string: "https://keyboardkit.com")
try? KeyboardUrlOpener.shared.open(url)

This is for instance used by KeyboardKit Pro dictation to navigate from the keyboard to the main app.

👑 Pro features

KeyboardKit Pro unlocks a PreviousAppNavigator that can be used to navigate back to the previous app, e.g. after performing dictation in the main app and having to navigate back to the keyboard.

This is a protocol, so any type can implement it:

struct ContentView: View, PreviousAppNavigator {

    var body: some View {
        Button("Go back") {
            do {
                try navigateBackToPreviousApp()
            } catch {
                print(error)
            }
        }
    }
}

As of iOS 17, the PreviousAppNavigator doesn’t work anymore. Make sure to adjust your UI accordingly, until it’s replaced by a working solution.

Documentation

The information on this page is shortened to be easier to overview. For more information about this feature, code samples, etc., please see the online documentation.