Apple Expands Indigenous Language Support on iOS

Apple is expanding its iOS keyboard support to include more Indigenous languages, aiming to engage younger generations on their mobile devices. According to reporting from Wired, the company added support for languages such as Nez Perce and Haitian Creole in iOS 26, and further expanded in iOS 27 to include Northern East Cree, Comanche, and Blackfoot.

Apple has a long-standing partnership with the Cherokee Nation, which saw its language become the first Native American language on iOS in 2010. Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, told Wired that the community is facing a critical moment with only about 1,500 active speakers remaining, most of whom are over 70. Hoskin Jr. noted that partnering with tech companies helps accelerate the urgency of language revitalization.

The process is a multi-year effort that begins with Unicode, a neutral consortium led by CEO Toral Cowieson. Unicode standardizes characters and scripts before platforms like Apple can provide font support and orthography. For instance, Apple worked with the Nez Perce community to repurpose the Shift key for accented characters since the language does not use capital letters. For the Cherokee syllabary, Apple implemented adaptive vowel keys on the bottom row to streamline typing.

However, the digitization of these languages is not without controversy. Genner Llanes-Ortiz, a Maya scholar at Bishop's University, told Wired that Indigenous groups remain wary of corporate involvement. He cited Māori speakers who rejected proposals to sell their language to tech firms, reflecting a broader historical memory of dispossession and a desire to protect the storage and access of linguistic materials.