One of the things that bugs me most about my Android phone is the keyboard. It just doesn’t seem to be nearly as good as Apple’s.
I’m not sure if it’s because Android’s keyboard has more keys on it, because they are closer together, or if it’s the touch screen, but it’s giving me a hard time.
The good news is that you can replace the Android keyboard. So I’m now on a mission to find a good replacement.
So far I’ve checked out three: ThickButtons, SwiftKey and Swype.
ThickButtons is nice as it tries to predict which key you’ll hit next and then makes those buttons bigger so they are easier to hit. I like this idea and it seems to work well.
SwiftKey tries to predict the word you’re typing and, once it knows that, then it predicts what word you’ll type next. I have to say, it is pretty good at it too and saves a lot of typing.
Swype is the fancy new kid on the block. All you have to do is swipe your fingers from one letter to the next and when you’re done, it’ll figure out what word you were spelling. It works pretty well, however you have to know where the keys are on the keyboard. Otherwise you feel lost. I think if you used it enough, it’d be a huge time saver.
Have you replaced the keyboard on your Android phone? If so, what did you choose?
I have to say that having a keyboard replacement seems like a really good idea. However I’d be happier if I didn’t have to worry about it at all.
I’ve tried both SwiftKey and Swype and I have to say that I prefer swype for one reason – it is easier to type strange words. If I want to type “superlative” or “engaged”, then it’s much more likely that a swype will type it when I need to type the whole thing out in SwiftKey. Another advantage is that I find it much easier to use one-handed, while walking down a hallway or whatever.
The one thing that swiftkey has that I wish swype had: voice type alternatives. When you voice type in swype, it just puts in the text like on a “normal” android keyboard with the voice button. When you voice type on SwiftKey, it analyzes the sentence that it gets back and tries to guess when the voice recognition went wrong, and gives you three options. Usually one of them is right. It saves some of the strange things that I see come out of voice recognition nowadays.
Have you tried 8pen?
http://www.the8pen.com/
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MC
I have not, but I’ll check it out.
I have used swype, swiftkey, and the stock keyboard for my droid 2. I tend to stick with SwiftKey. I like swype’s concept, and at times it was quick, but i had to many errors and the implementation of spell correction isn’t as nice as others.
It certainly would be nice if keyboard reviews also included using the keyboards in landscape mode as well. Some of us who are left handed, in a world here phones are exclusively manufactured for right handed people, and others who like multi-tasking would greatly benefit from a more thorough review. Thanks.
I use my keyboard in landscape mode almost all the time. It works great.