How to Type Chinese on iPhone and Android

To type Chinese on a phone you add a Chinese keyboard in your phone’s settings, choose a Traditional layout (Zhuyin, pinyin or handwriting), and switch to it from the keyboard when you need it. It takes a few minutes on iPhone or Android. The rest of this guide gives the steps and the choices that matter for Traditional Chinese in Taiwan.

This page is for phones only. For Mac and Windows, see how to type Traditional Chinese, which covers all devices and the way the input method works.

What a Chinese phone keyboard does

You do not type characters directly. You type the sound (or draw the character), and the keyboard offers candidates to tap. Typing 你好 means entering the sound of 你 and 好, then tapping the right characters, often in one go because the keyboard predicts words.

That means three things need choosing.

1. The script. Traditional (繁體) for Taiwan. Check this one carefully when you add the keyboard.
2. The method. Zhuyin, pinyin, handwriting, or a shape-based method such as Cangjie.
3. The variant. Chinese keyboards for Taiwan and Hong Kong offer different methods, covered below.

iPhone

Apple’s guide, Add or change keyboards on iPhone, gives the general process:

1. Open Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Keyboards.
2. Tap Add New Keyboard.
3. Choose the Chinese entry from the list, then choose the layout you want.
4. Repeat for each method you want, such as one for Zhuyin and one for handwriting.

Switch between keyboards while typing by touching and holding the emoji key or the globe key, which opens the keyboard menu. Adding a keyboard may also add its language to your preferred language list.

Apple’s help pages do not list every Chinese layout name by iOS version, so we are not quoting exact labels. Look for entries that mention Traditional, and for layouts named Zhuyin, Pinyin and Handwriting. If a layout you want is missing, check your iOS version.

Android (Gboard)

Gboard is Google’s keyboard and is the default on many Android phones. Google’s help page, Type in a different language, gives two routes.

From the keyboard:

1. Open any app where you can type and tap a text field.
2. Tap the Settings icon at the top of the keyboard.
3. Tap Languages, then Add keyboard.
4. Pick the language, then the layout.
5. Tap Done.

From system settings:

1. Open Settings, then System, then Keyboard, then On-screen keyboard.
2. Tap Gboard, then Languages.
3. Pick a language and turn on the layout you want.
4. Tap Done.

To switch languages, touch and hold the space bar. You can also turn on a language switch key in Gboard’s Preferences.

Menu names vary by phone maker and Android version. If your phone uses another keyboard app, such as Samsung’s, the steps will be similar but not identical.

Handwriting on Android

Google’s Handwrite on your keyboard page says to open the keyboard’s settings, tap Languages, choose your language, and turn on the Handwriting layout. If you do not see it, handwriting is not available for that language. Then touch and hold the globe key and pick the handwriting keyboard. Google also states that Handwriting is not yet available on Gboard for iPhone or iPad, so on an iPhone look for a handwriting layout among the keyboards your iPhone offers.

Which method should you pick?

Method	Good for	Watch out for
Zhuyin	Typing as people in Taiwan do; reinforcing Zhuyin	Requires knowing the symbols
Pinyin (Traditional)	Learners who know pinyin; fastest to start	Pinyin sounds map to many characters, so you tap candidates
Handwriting	Characters you can’t pronounce or recall; practising writing	Slower; needs a legible hand

You can add all three and switch between them. A common arrangement is pinyin for speed and handwriting as a fallback. If you are learning Zhuyin, using it to type is a good way to keep the symbols fresh, and the day-by-day plan pairs well with that. For how the methods compare as a whole, see Chinese input methods compared.

Taiwan or Hong Kong?

For Taiwan, Zhuyin is the native method. Hong Kong keyboards are built around different methods, such as Cangjie and Cantonese-based input. Apple’s own Mac guide lists Zhuyin, Zhuyin Eten, Cangjie and Sucheng under Traditional Chinese input, and lists Cantonese methods separately, which gives a sense of how the options are grouped.

Phones label these choices differently across versions. The practical test is this: after adding a keyboard, check that Zhuyin appears among its layouts. If it does, you have the Taiwan-style option. If you only see Cangjie, Sucheng or Cantonese options, look for another Chinese entry.

A short first test

After adding a keyboard, type 謝謝 (xièxie) in a notes app.

• Zhuyin: ㄒㄧㄝˋ ˙ㄒㄧㄝ (each syllable, then its tone key; the keyboard will usually predict the word), then tap the candidate.
• Pinyin: xiexie, then tap the candidate.
• Handwriting: draw each character in the writing area.

If you see simplified characters (谢谢), the keyboard is on the wrong script. Remove it and add the Traditional entry.

Related reading

• How to Type Traditional Chinese: Setup Guide
• Chinese Input Methods: Zhuyin vs Pinyin vs Cangjie
• How to Learn Zhuyin Fast: A Day-by-Day Plan
• Zhuyin Tone Marks: Why the First Tone Is Unmarked