The iPhone keyboard blocklist in iOS 27 covers 4,513 English phrases that the keyboard never offers as predictions and usually swaps for another word when you swipe type them. Typing a listed phrase letter by letter always works, so nothing on the list stops you from writing it.
Independent researcher Derik Kauffman decoded the list from the keyboard’s data files and published it on his Swipeblocked site, along with lists for 27 other languages and scripts. The phrases range from slurs and drug terms to political slogans, historical events and public figures, and you can browse them by language.
The iPhone keyboard blocklist changes predictions and swipe typing
When you type the first words of a listed phrase, predictive text will not offer the next word, even if it is the obvious choice. When you swipe a blocked phrase, the keyboard usually picks a different word instead, and it can go back and change a word you already entered. Swipe “left wing” and then “conspiracy”, for example, and “wing” turns into “wrong”.
The keyboard only matches exact word sequences, so a slightly reworded phrase can get through. Some phrases are blocked in suggestions but still work when you swipe them. Apple also labels some single words as offensive and the keyboard never suggests those, while vulgar single words appear only after you have typed them three times.
The English list includes political phrases about both Trump and Biden
The list includes “Dictator Trump” and “Sleepy Joe”, the nickname for Joe Biden, along with “make America great again” and both “left wing conspiracy” and “right wing conspiracy”. Other entries have nothing to do with politics, such as “trailer trash”, “Santa isn’t real” and a phrase about iMessage not working.
The English list has grown from about 1,700 phrases in iOS 14.0 in 2020 to 4,513 in iOS 27.0. “Dictator Trump” arrived in iOS 16.1 and “sleepy Joe” in iOS 16.2, while “President Trump” and “President Bush” were removed in iOS 26.3 after being blocked since a 2022 update.
Apple’s list treats similar phrases differently, since some words are blocked but their variations are not. Kauffman says many entries look machine-expanded from seed phrases, so an odd pairing may come from a template rather than a deliberate choice.
The other 27 languages have their own political entries. Chinese words still appear as candidates when you type pinyin, but the keyboard stops suggesting the next word after you pick one.
Apple says the keyboard is built to avoid offensive suggestions
Apple did not address the findings directly, including the size of the list or why it flags certain political terms. The company said you can always type any word or phrase you want and override predictive suggestions, and that the keyboard is designed to avoid suggesting content that could be inappropriate or offensive.
Apple stores the list as 32-bit hash fingerprints instead of readable text, which keeps the English table under 30 KB. Kauffman recovered the phrases by testing candidate word combinations against that table. A phrase appearing on the list does not show why Apple added it, and entries that could not be decoded are missing.
He estimates the full list across all languages at about 100,000 entries, not counting Chinese characters. The decoding code is public on GitHub, so anyone can rerun it.
Swipe typing uses a separate English list of 2,794 phrases, and every phrase on it also appears on the longer prediction list.
