Keyboards

Chances are you'll spend a bit of time and effort typing on your android device.  As the default keyboard is rather basic, it's definitely worth looking at the alternatives for something that will make the experience more efficient and enjoyable.

There's three main ways to type on Android, each with it's following.  There's standard typing; there's sliding across letters; and there's suggestion picking.

For the latter, SwiftKey X Keyboard is quite impressive.  It supports different languages, automatically switch to the one you're using, and the relevancy of the suggestions will blow your mind.  When I tried it, I could type whole sentences with just a few letters.  For example, typing "G" as a first letter will bring "Good" and a suggestion, and picking it will suggest "morning" for the second word.  The sentences just build themselves...

On the down side, there's a version for tablets and it's sold separately.   So if that's the right keyboard for you, you may have to pay for it twice to have the same experience across all of your portable devices.  Considering that the value of this keyboard resides in it's suggestion engine and not in the graphical layout, you're really purchasing the same thing twice :(


What if don't like hitting keys and prefer sliding across instead?  I never developed the technique, so I can't bring personal experience.  Many phones come with a swype keyboard to tempt you in, and the market offers SlikeIT Keyboard which have good reviews and comments.  Might be worth giving it a look...


And now for the last type, which I prefer.  Keyboard are meant for typing right?  My personal favorite is Thumb Keyboard.  The value of this keyboard comes from it's different layouts and customization options.  It offers different layouts for phones and tablets and different ones in portraits and landscape modes, all to make better use of the available screen real estate.

You can add or remove rows for arrow keys, special keys, completion words, resize the keys to your liking, change the skin to anything from boring clones of the competing mobile OS' gray keyboards to neon-lit keys over the background image of your choice.


Now for a bonus app...  Say you have a lot of typing to do.  Nothing beats a real, physical keyboard right?  There's many bluetooth keyboards available that will (almost) turn your phone into a portable PC.  Perfect for sysadmin support over the weekend anyway...

If you do purchase such a device, head over to the market and install Null Keyboard.  Null keyboard offers just what the name implies; no keyboard.  This way you'll prevent the on-screen keyboard from popping up and clogging the screen when it's not needed :)