Most of us may have gone through the experience of purchasing a shiny new android smartphone, and then realizing the fact that you are used to typing with the help of a keyboard. The new android smartphones rarely come preinstalled with the best touch-typing software, and we are left in the lurch after we have bought the phone.
However, one need not worry or fret. There are a number of keyboard apps that are available in the Android Market. You can download them and then continue to enjoy the experience that you had with your older phone models that came with keyboards.
Some of the most popular keyboard apps are listed below, for your convenience.
• SWYPE: The latest models of android smarphones do come preinstalled with two varieties of virtual keyboards, i.e. a QWERTY keyboard app or SWYPE. One can go to either “Settings -> Locale and Text” or “Settings -> Language and keyboard” and install the keyboard from there. In case, SWYPE is not preinstalled in your phone, then you can download it from swipe.com. The SWYPE keyboard is different from other keyboards, in the sense that you do not need to tap on individual letters to write a word. With SWYPE, you can glide over from one letter to another and type in the word. The intuitive software ignores the unwanted letters to spell out the correct word. In case, the word is not present then you can add it to the dictionary and then it will be available for future use.
• ICS keyboard: This keyboard app was designed by a company called BlindType. However, before the app could be launched, it was purchased by Google and became a part of the keyboard that was launched along with the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The keyboard app was subsequently hacked and put up for download in the Android Market. This keyboard app can be used by individuals who are using phones with older opera ting systems. The keyboard has several unique features such as speech to text for select languages, built-in dictionary, multi-touch and configurable auto correction. Additionally, it has custom vibration intensity wherein one can long press the “/” key in URL option to get domains or long press “Enter” key to bring in alternative characters.
• Touchpal: It is similar to the SWYPE keyboard app, but with a few tweaks and innovations. Once, an individual has gotten used to the keyboard layout, Touchpal allows the user to blind type on the touch screen. The keyboard app learns the patterns of data input by the user and according adapts to it. In addition to predictive text, Touchpal has other unique features such as support for gestures. A down swipe would allow you to input special characters and an up swipe will input numbers. This keyboard app is in the beta phase and can be downloaded for free from ‘www.cootek.com’.
• Go Keyboard: This is a great looking keyboard app that is available for free on the Android Market. It allows users to customize the app, and comes with a variety of themes. Other great features of Go Keyboard include multi-point touch keyboard, auto-correct as one types and slide input support.
• SwiftKeyX: This is a great keyboard app for those who have fat fingers. The predictive capacity of the app has to be experienced to be believed. It quickly adapts to individual user style of typing and makes input of data a whole lot easier. However, the keyboard app is free to use for only one month, after which users have to pay to use SwiftKeyX.
If you have used any of these or more, let us know which is the best android keyboard app ?
