The best (mostly free) virtual keyboards for your Android phone
Maybe you’ve got a keyboard — and it’s awkward to use. Or maybe you don’t have a keybaord at all. Your native keyboard app is okay. I mean, it works, right? Meh.
Swype
Swype, designed by the man behind the well-known T9-word entry system, allows for continuous “swoosh” typing, without letting your finger leave the on-screen keyboard. It’s an awesome system, and I was lucky to get in on the brief beta, the day before I actually took posession of my phone! The beta is unfortunately closed (as of August, 2010), but you can register for updates when/if it reopens. Swype tips and tricks
ShapeWriter
Not quite-as-good-but-still-better-than-discrete-typing is the ShapeWriter keyboard. Unfortuantely, due to the company changing hands, the app was indefinitely pulled from distribution on June 19, 2010. If you use your google-fu, you might be able to find some cached copies in various distribution sites. I recently found a copy here (no guarantee it will be there tomorrow).
JetKeys is…. different
JetKeys from Jet-Way technologies (the alternate website @ http://www.jetks.com has less info, but actually has a .apk available) has an interesting idea and layouts — but it too weird to be practical. Maybe if I used it rigorously for a while I might get used to it — but it’s variation on T9 entry just doesn’t look like it could be faster than the glides of Swype or ShapeWriter
Zeta Type
ZetaType /zee’-ta/ has “3 main zones or buttons on the touchscreen that are programed to recognise 8 directional slides and 1 tap action.” This is like the JetKeys system, only colorful, and slightly blurry. Plus, way more confusing, and not as modular. There’s a very nice demo , which you’ll really need to find out how to get punctuation, etc (short story: looooooong press).
Tap Tap KEYBOARD
Tap Tap KEYBOARD (yeah, all-caps). Their (flash, ugh!) website proudly proclaims Tap Tap KEYBOARD allows you 3X faster average typing in only ONE week!
Okay, this IS a weird one — neither QWERTY nor anything else. Which makes sense — QWERTY, AZERTY and even Dvorak were design for 10 fingers; on most androids you’re using one finger. Tap Tap recognizes this, but fails to recognize something else — we are USED to those legacy layouts. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons….
Tap Tap is even stranger than JetKeys or ZetaType. I get their point, and I believe in it — but I am not going to spend an entire week writing 140-character tweets that take 20 minutes to find the buttons. I did that when I was 12. I’ve moved on.
List of other keyboards (details to come)
AnySoft Keyboard - follow on Twitter , also see cyrket or appBrain
Handcent Keyboard - the SMS client has a nice keyboard, too
Math Keyboard - by w-ll.org; there’s another of the same name for the AnySoft keyboard system.
SwiftKey - also has word prediction
ThickButtons uses a predictive entry algorithm to make the keys you’re more likely to hit next larger.
Touch Input (comes with HTC Incredible) - some versions have T9 entry; either my version does not, or I can’t find it.
Vlingo - this voice-command app has its own keyboard, with a special key to switch to voice.
WiFi Keyboard — this is a bit of a cheat, as its not a soft on-the-screen virtual keyboard, but uses wifi to allow you to type with your computer’s keyboard. As a friend pointed out, “so why don’t you just use the computer in the first place?” Yeah, good question.
See Also
A user on Android Enthusiasts (originally: Electronic Gadgets) asks [is there a b]etter keyboard on Nexus One? and I chime in briefly.
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