Thursday, November 5, 2015
6 Best Android keyboard innovations 2015
With so much variety on the Google Play store, it was tough to pinpoint the six keyboards we really wanted to put to the test here. If they’re to compete with many of the popular third-party keyboards, they’ll need to offer an effective typing solution, but also look to bring in new features that can save you time. The likes of Swype have long been the preferred choice for avid Android users who are looking to replace the stock keyboard offering, so we needed to choose keyboards that we thought would be suitable replacements for them and have the selection of features and general usability to match. After much deliberation, we settled on a shortlist of six truly unique keyboards.
Each one includes their own array of features to make it stand out from the crowd, and to decide which one was the best, we designed our own typing test. We tested out each keyboard by attempting to type out the following sentence in the quickest amount of time: “I love messaging people on my Android device, but I could do with a new keyboard as the stock one just doesn’t work for me.” We then measured the success of each keyboard by timing how long it took for us to complete the message and track how many errors we needed to correct once we were done. So which one of the shortlist was up to scratch, and which should you be adopting? Read on to find out!
dodol Keyboard
Price: Free
Download:
After switching to the traditional keypad mode, typing is surprisingly accurate. / y long pressing on specifi c buttons, you have quick access to the most common punctuation. Its real problem lies with its speed, as having to manually select each letter slows it up.
W10 Keyboard
Price: Free
Download: bit.ly/W10Keyboard
W10 takes a while to get used to, but is by far one of the most ingenious keyboardsavailable. Instead of offering the entire alphabet, you instead have ten of the most commonly usedletters, and you combine their shapes together to create the other 16 letters. For example, swiping a ‘c’ and ‘i’ togethe rcreates a ‘d’!
MessagEase Keyboard
Price: Free
The keyboard fits into a tiny part of your tablet’s screen and contains only the most used letters. Users then swipe at letters to access the rest of thealphabet. Its size means it’s incredibly easy to use, the keyboard can be moved around freely and the accuracy is spot on.
TouchPal Keyboard
Price: Free
Download: bit.ly/TouchpalKeyboard
Although the sliding input of TouchPal isn’t necessarily unique, it combines it with a prediction system which looks to keep mistakes to a minimum. As you type, the keyboard looks to auto-fill words for you, which can lead to the wrong word being added.
Minuum Keyboard
Price: £2.48/$3.99
Download: bit.ly/MinummKeybord
The lack of space that Minuum takes up is a real godsend for people who don’t like some of the more clunky keyboard offerings. Every letter and number is listed in a panel, which makes for really quick typing and the included auto-correct dictionary is very accurate.
iKnowU Keyboard
Price: £0.63/$0.99
Download: bit.ly/iKnowuKeyboard
iKnowU’s design makes it look like a standard keyboard, but the typing experience is entirely based around gesture. / y performing certain directional flicks with your fingers, different letters and phrases will begin to appear, but it does take some getting used to.
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