As with Android, this requires typing the note name and then a space before the -sharp. as the shortcut and the symbol as the phrase. On iOS, use Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement, and tap + to add -sharp etc. I could get around this by adding a separate personal dictionary entry for each note, like A-flat, B-flat, C-flat, and so on.

That’s because my phone won’t offer an autocorrection for a partial “word,” like the -flat in A-flat, so I have to trick it by putting in a space, which I can delete after accepting the autocorrect. (On my device it’s in Settings → General management → Language and input → Personal dictionary, but on yours it might be different.) My preferred method is to add -sharp or -flat or -natural as the shortcut, and paste in the symbol as the “word.” Then, when I type A -flat, my phone offers the symbol as a correction.

On my Android phone, I can add words to the “personal dictionary” to incorporate them into the autocorrect feature. Copied on iOS also provides ways of saving clipboard items for future use. For example, Clipper – Clipboard Manager on Android will let me create “snippets” that I can access from a persistent notification, and copy to my clipboard for pasting into text. I can tap the symbol to paste it, or tap and hold to get the option of locking it to the clipboard so it will always be there.Īs far as I can tell iOS does not currently have this feature. Then I can scroll through recent clipboard items and find the symbol I want. (Not all Android devices have this feature.) I tap and hold where I want the symbol to appear, and then choose the Clipboard popup. My Android phone has a clipboard history, so if I have cut/copied/pasted the symbols recently, I can use them again. You can copy and paste symbols from a place you know them to exist, like a web page or your favorite notes app, using your device’s copy/paste method. For appropriate situations, this version is easy, clear, professional, and doesn’t require any special tools or setup. Use a capital letter for the note name, then a hyphen (no spaces), then the name of the accidental in lowercase. Use forms like F-sharp, B-flat, or C-natural.

It’s ugly and unprofessional, and in some cases unclear, plus there’s not an obvious solution for natural.

Not recommended: Use a pound/hash/number sign for sharp, and a lower-case b for flat.

There are lots of ways to handle music symbols like sharps (♯), flats (♭), and naturals (♮) on iPhone/iPad and Android devices:

For iphone download Flats