With the introduction of iOS 8 in 2014, Apple unlocked the possibility for adding 3rd party keyboards which are relatively unknown to many. These keyboard extensions function in a similar way to the default keyboard, but usually with an added benefit. For example, you can speed up typing by using the swipe-to-type style SwiftKey or have the powerful search functionality of Google using their Gboard app. TextExpander looks to speed up your workflow and day-to-day life by helping you expand short abbreviations into longer sentences or phrases.

When creating your snippets, they can consist of letters, numbers and most special characters — so adding e-mail addresses or phone numbers are not a problem. To get you started, the app contains a few default snippets that are really useful, such as a date stamp that can be used to quickly paste today’s date in a document or letter.

Overall, if you find yourself constantly typing out the same words on a regular basis, you might want to give TextExpander a try. It’s also available for the Mac and it’ll sync your shortcuts between devices.

If you purchase TextExpander, you will need to activate the keyboard in the iPad’s settings (Settings > General > Keyboard > Add a Keyboard).