iOS iMessage keyboard not popping up My keyboard on iMessage won't pop up.  Just the subject/message line is showing at the bottom.  I searched the internet for solutions and tried what was suggested: powering off/on and hard reset (sleep/wake+home).  The only thing next to try is backup and restore but that will take a long time.  Is there something else I can try first?
I had the same problem. Turns out that my iphone was trying to connect to an Apple bluetooth keyboard. I turned off bluetooth on the iPhone and the keyboard re-appeared immediately. No need for a reset or hard boot.