Squirrel for macOS Double Pinyin

Squirrel for macOS Double Pinyin | Generated by AI

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Question: Is there an open-source double pinyin (shuangpin) input method for macOS? I currently use WeChat input method but want something open source.

Answer:

The answer is RIME / Squirrel — it’s the definitive open-source choice, and it has first-class shuangpin support built in.

RIME (Squirrel) — The Only Real Answer

RIME is a highly customizable cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) open-source input method engine. It provides the right user experience out of the box and has all the characters you need. On macOS the frontend is called Squirrel (鼠须管), powered by the Rime Input Method Engine and other open-source technologies.

GitHub: rime/squirrel

Install

brew install --cask squirrel

Then log out and log back in. Go to System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit, search “Squirrel”, add it.

Enable Double Pinyin (Shuangpin)

RIME ships with multiple shuangpin schemas out of the box. The most popular ones:

Schema ID	Layout
`double_pinyin`	自然码 (Ziranma)
`double_pinyin_flypy`	小鹤 (Xiaohe/Flypy) — most popular today
`double_pinyin_mspy`	微软双拼 (Microsoft)
`double_pinyin_abc`	智能ABC
`double_pinyin_thunisoft`	紫光

Create ~/.config/rime/default.custom.yaml (or ~/Library/Rime/default.custom.yaml on macOS):

patch:
  schema_list:
    - schema: double_pinyin_flypy   # or double_pinyin for ziranma

Then click the RIME menu bar icon → Deploy (重新部署). Done.

Recommended: Weasel/Rime + 雾凇拼音 dict for better word coverage

The default dictionary is lean. The community-maintained 雾凇拼音 (rime-ice) gives you ~2.2M words:

# Install rime-ice schema pack
cd ~/Library/Rime
curl -fsSL https://git.io/rime-install | bash -s -- iDvel/rime-ice:others/recipes/full

Or manually: iDvel/rime-ice — this is what most power users run. It has a double_pinyin_flypy schema pre-configured with a huge dictionary.

Quick config example (`~/Library/Rime/squirrel.custom.yaml`)

patch:
  # Candidate window style
  style/horizontal: false
  style/font_face: "PingFang SC"
  style/font_point: 16
  style/candidate_list_layout: linear

Summary

Squirrel (RIME) — 100% open source (BSD/GPL), actively maintained, shuangpin built-in, huge community schema ecosystem
Apple’s built-in shuangpin exists but is closed source as you suspected
WeChat IME: closed, phones home to Tencent — not ideal for a privacy-conscious dev workflow

RIME is the standard choice in the Chinese hacker/programmer community. After installing, navigate to System Preferences → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit, and search for “Chinese” to add “Squirrel” to text input options. The initial setup takes maybe 10 minutes, and after that it’s fully local, fully customizable via YAML, and zero telemetry.

References:

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