How to reliably detect if an external keyboard is connected on iOS 9?

Question

Previous to iOS 9, the most reliable method of determining whether an external keyboard is connected was to listen for UIKeyboardWillShowNotification and make a

Answer 1

Private API solution: (have to grab the private header file - use RuntimeViewer).

Works nicely for enterprise apps, where you don't have AppStore restrictions.

#import "UIKit/UIKeyboardImpl.h"

+ (BOOL)isHardwareKeyboardMode
{
   UIKeyboardImpl *kbi = [UIKeyboardImpl sharedInstance];
   BOOL externalKeyboard = kbi.inHardwareKeyboardMode;
   NSLog(@"Using external keyboard? %@", externalKeyboard?@"YES":@"NO");
   return externalKeyboard;
}