Steno Keyboard and Steno Keyboard Pocket bring stenography to the iPad and iPhone.

No steno machine required.

Coming soon, as two separate apps: Steno Keyboard for iPad, and the smaller Steno Keyboard Pocket for iPhone.

See it working

The two input modes: Translate sends on a key press, lift to send fires when your fingers leave the board.

A four key chord held on the Steno Keyboard in its light theme, with the Translate
key highlighted and the word Dogs written above. — The light theme, with traditional rounded keys. The full key bank with the number bar, an authentic wide layout on iPad, and options for key shapes and vowel placement.

Looking a word up from inside the keyboard, without switching apps. Lookup also explains, in plain English, what an entry's formatting codes actually do.

Writing a stroke with no translation, then defining it in place. Add an entry for a word you just wrote without leaving what you were doing.

Sizing the board: input mode, finger zones, lift timing, key widths.

Downloading a starter dictionary and setting the priority order. Bring your own instead if you have one: Plover format JSON or RTF/CRE files from most CAT software import directly.

The full Lookup screen, searching every enabled dictionary in priority order.

Adding an entry in the app, including when the outline is already taken.

What it is

Stenography is how court reporters and captioners write at speaking speed. Instead of one key per letter, you press a chord of keys together and a dictionary translates it into a word, a phrase, or a piece of punctuation. Steno Keyboard is a custom keyboard that does this anywhere you can type on iOS. A rolling buffer means phrases spanning several strokes translate correctly, with undo.

Private by design

Nothing you type leaves your device. There is no account, no analytics, and no server belonging to us. Translation happens locally against dictionaries stored on your device. Read the privacy policy.

Requirements

iPhone or iPad running iOS 15 or later. A steno dictionary, which the app can download for you or which you can import yourself.

New to stenography? The support page walks through turning the keyboard on, adding a dictionary, and writing your first chord.