How to Type Vietnamese on iPhone and Android

You can already say xin chào and cảm ơn — now you need to type them. Both phones already include a Vietnamese keyboard, and turning it on takes about a minute. The learning curve is the keystrokes that turn plain letters into ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư, đ and the five tone marks. That method is Telex, and it works the same on both phones — learn it once, use it everywhere.

This guide covers setup on each phone, compares the two, and finishes with tips and a drill. If Telex is new, our complete Telex guide explains every key.

iPhone: turn on the built-in Vietnamese keyboard

The iPhone has a Vietnamese keyboard built in — no app to download, no account to create. Apple’s own support page gives the path:

1. Open Settings, then tap General, then Keyboard.
2. Tap Keyboards, then tap Add New Keyboard.
3. Find Vietnamese in the list and tap it.
4. Choose Telex (QWERTY) from the input-method options, then tap Done.

Your phone’s menus stay in English — adding a keyboard only adds a typing option. To switch keyboards, tap the globe key at the bottom left (on newer iPhones, press and hold the emoji key). One tap cycles to the next; press and hold to pick from the list.

Why Telex? It is the method almost every Vietnamese phone user relies on, and it uses only letter keys — no number row — which matters on a phone, where numbers hide behind an extra tap. The number-key alternative, VNI, suits a computer better, as our VNI guide explains.

How typing works on the iPhone Vietnamese keyboard

Once Telex is on, the keyboard looks almost the same as the English one. Type the plain letters, then a shape key, then a tone key:

• Double a vowel for the “hat”: aa becomes â, ee becomes ê, oo becomes ô.
• Add w for the “hook” or “bowl”: ow becomes ơ, uw becomes ư, aw becomes ă.
• Double d for the crossed letter: dd becomes đ.
• Add a tone key last: s rising, f falling, r asking, x tumbling, j heavy.

So chào is chaof: c-h-a-o, then f for the falling tone. And cảm ơn is camr own: r adds the asking tone to cảm, w turns on into ơn. If the tones still feel mysterious, our guide to the six Vietnamese tones explains each one.

One habit saves beginners the most frustration: type the whole word first, then the tone key. The phone places the mark on the correct vowel even when the tone key comes last — type chao, then f, and chào appears.

One classic trap: in Telex, f is a tone key, so typing the English word “of” on the Vietnamese keyboard gives you ò. Type f twice — off gives “of” — and the same works for the other tone keys: ss gives a plain “s”.

The long-press alternative — and why it is slow

Without the Vietnamese keyboard, you can still get accented letters by touching and holding a letter key: hold e and slide to é or è. Apple documents this long-press method, and it works in a pinch — for one Vietnamese word in an otherwise English message. As a daily method it is far too slow: every accented letter costs a press, a wait and a slide, and a normal sentence has a mark on almost every syllable. Worse, some letters cannot be reached this way at all: đ is not behind d, and neither are ơ and ư behind o and u. Use long-press for the odd word; learn Telex for everything else.

Android: Gboard Vietnamese with Telex

Most Android phones already have Gboard, Google’s keyboard, installed — free, with no account needed. If your phone uses a different default keyboard, install Gboard free from the Google Play Store first. Google’s help page gives two routes to add a language; the quickest starts inside the keyboard itself:

1. Open any app where you can type, and tap a text field so Gboard appears.
2. Tap the Settings (gear) icon at the top of the keyboard.
3. Tap Languages, then Add keyboard.
4. Pick Vietnamese from the list, then pick the Telex layout, and tap Done.

The Settings-app route is the same idea: open Settings, tap System, then Keyboard, then On-screen keyboard, tap Gboard, then Languages, and pick Vietnamese with the Telex layout. Menu names vary by phone maker and Android version — if one route looks different, try the other.

Switching works as on iPhone: tap the globe key to cycle between languages, or hold the space bar to pick from the list. The keystrokes are exactly the Telex you would use on iPhone: chaof for chào, camr own for cảm ơn, dd for đ. Nothing to relearn when you change phones.

Laban Key: the popular Vietnam-made alternative

Ask a Vietnamese Android user which keyboard they type with, and a very common answer is Laban Key. Made in Vietnam by the Zalo Group (VNG), it is free on the Google Play Store: a Vietnamese keyboard with Telex and VNI input, plus intelligent word suggestions. It has been there since 2013 and is still updated regularly.

Why pick it over Gboard? Its word suggestions are built for Vietnamese: it predicts words as you type, often after just one or two letters, which speeds up long messages. It also offers Telex and VNI in one app, so if you know VNI from a Windows computer you can keep it — although VNI’s number keys are awkward on a phone, so most users still end up on Telex.

To set it up, install it from the Google Play Store and follow its setup screens. Android will warn that a keyboard app can see what you type — every third-party keyboard triggers this warning. If that bothers you, stick with Gboard. Laban Key also exists for iPhone, but the built-in keyboard already does the job well there.

iPhone vs Android: a quick comparison

	iPhone	Android
Vietnamese keyboard	Built in; add in Settings	Via Gboard on most phones; install Gboard free if needed
Input method	Telex (choose it when adding the keyboard)	Telex layout in Gboard; Telex or VNI in Laban Key
Switching keyboards	Globe key (tap to cycle, hold to pick)	Globe key, or hold the space bar to pick
Best alternative app	Rarely needed — the built-in keyboard is enough	Laban Key (free, Vietnam-made, strong word suggestions)
Autocorrect	Vietnamese dictionary once added; turn it off in Keyboard settings if it fights you	Gboard and Laban Key suggest and correct Vietnamese; turn it off in settings if it fights you
Long-press accents	Works, but slow — one letter at a time	Works on Gboard too, and just as slow

The typing itself is identical on both phones.

Five phone-typing tips that save you daily frustration

Setup takes a minute; these five habits take a week.

1. Turn off English autocorrect for the Vietnamese keyboard. Autocorrect does not understand Vietnamese marks, so it “fixes” your words into English ones — cảm becomes “cam”, phở becomes “pho”. On iPhone, switch off Auto-Correction under Settings → General → Keyboard; in Gboard or Laban Key, switch it off there.

2. Type the word, then the tone key. Beginners often add the tone right after the vowel, mid-word, and lose track. Type the plain word first — chao — then one tone key — f — and chào appears.

3. Expect the keyboard to switch back to English — and know the one-tap fix. Phones reset the keyboard when you switch apps, answer a call or restart, and suddenly your Telex keys produce strange letters. This is normal, not a fault. One tap on the globe key fixes it.

4. Turn off autocapitalisation while you learn, too. Phones capitalise the first letter after a full stop — fine in English, but confusing when you are concentrating on tone keys.

5. Practise in real messages, not just in drills. Ten minutes of real texting teaches your fingers faster than an hour of copying word lists. Send one Vietnamese message a day and the keys will become automatic within a couple of weeks.

A 10-word typing drill

Try these ten everyday words now, on your phone. Say each word out loud as you type it. Every keystroke below has been checked against our typing engine.

1. Xin chào — hello. Type: Xin chaof
2. Cảm ơn — thank you. Type: Camr own
3. Tạm biệt — goodbye. Type: Tajm bieetj
4. Phở — noodle soup. Type: Phowr
5. Hà Nội — Hanoi. Type: Haf Nooji
6. Việt Nam — Vietnam. Type: Vieetj Nam
7. Bạn — friend; you. Type: Banj
8. Khỏe — well, healthy. Type: Khore
9. Tôi — I, me. Type: Tooi
10. Nhà — house; home. Type: Nhaf

Notice the patterns: the tone key always comes last (chaof, banj), the “hat” vowels double up (bieetj for biệt), and w does quiet work everywhere (own for ơn, phowr for phở). Once these ten feel easy, our list of 30 essential Vietnamese phrases gives you thirty more in the same format.

Key takeaways

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to download an app to type Vietnamese on my phone?

No. iPhone has a Vietnamese keyboard built in — add it in Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → Vietnamese. Most Android phones have Gboard built in; add Vietnamese with the Telex layout in its Languages settings.

Why does my keyboard keep switching back to English?

Phones reset the active keyboard when you switch apps, take a call or restart — this is normal. Tap the globe key once to return to Vietnamese.

Why is autocorrect ruining my Vietnamese words?

English autocorrect does not understand Vietnamese tone marks, so it “corrects” your words into English ones. Turn off Auto-Correction while you learn — on iPhone under Settings → General → Keyboard, in Gboard or Laban Key under settings.

Can I type Vietnamese on my phone with VNI instead of Telex?

Yes — iPhone offers VNI when you add the keyboard, and Laban Key offers VNI on Android — but VNI needs the number row, which hides behind an extra tap on a phone keyboard. That is why almost every phone user chooses Telex.

How long until typing Vietnamese on my phone feels natural?

Most learners type their first correct sentences within an hour and stop thinking about the keys within two weeks of daily use.

Ready to practise? Open our free typing trainer and work through the tone lessons — the same Telex keys you just set up — then try the Vietnamese typing speed test to see how fast the keys are becoming automatic.