Droid virtual keyboards discussion....

[JDW]

Didn't quite see this in a search, so, I'll bite.

I'm pretty much running with the Native, Better Keyboard w/oil slick skin, and SWYPE. The latter two seem to be my most used.

They all have their good points I guess, and I'm still on the fence among them.

Among these (or any others I'm oblivious of for that matter), any pros/cons that anyone cares to discuss that might be interesting?

Does the native do stuff the others like Better Keyboard really don't? I don't use it much and I see a lot of people go back to it. Any reasons?

I know I love SWYPE but it really drives me crazy with whacky predictive words and it seems to slowly get polluted with weird words I can't delete. And, just plain does weird crap under some conditions. If it's dictionary was highly (and easily) editable to get rid of the stupid stuff, I'd probably LOVE swype the most.

If you're bored.... Discuss?

 

[UBRocked]

Swype rocks...but you have to get used to is and BE WILLING to give it a shot. If you play with it for 2 minutes...you probably won't like it. If you use it for a week, you may love it...or you still may hate it! The downside to swipe is that it SUCKS to type on like a normal keyboard (key pressing entries).

Better keyboard is better than the stock keyboard IMO (hence the name Better Keyboard).

Now, not to get into a "root" conversation cause this is in the wrong place...the native keyboard on Bugless Beast 7.6 is the best

CORRECTION: The native keyboard on Bugless Beast is and has always been the default Android Keyboard. Sorry for the confusion. I had a theme by KrazyKrivda on AllDroid installed and didn't realize it changed the keyboard.

 

[JDW]

I've used SWYPE for months and am very good at it. It does rock, one handed portrait typing with my thumb actually and I fly on it, till it does stupid stuff. Lotsa odbball words and stuff that seems to get learned and they can't be removed etc. Removal of words is not always functional. Cap issues when swyping upwards off the keyboard I often all these "oI" kI" things and gibberish words pop up. I assume i must have "taught those" somehow, but I don't think I did...

Upon first install, "haha" was haga" and that is in the dictionary. Umm, what is Haga? And I wanna delete "hags" after leaving THAT as a comment on some female friends FB page (oops) and can't Lotsa words I can't delete. I'll never type "Utah" and "yeah" ALWAYS gets Utah... Ugh... if I could taylor the profram, I'd be smiling.

Love it, but lotsa whacky stuff I find with it that frustrates me huge.


Wish it would predictively suggest words I use commonly higher up in "suggestions" after a few uses. It doesn't seem to learn.

Bugless beast keyboard huh??? Hmmmm

 

[Shadowtech]

Personally I have used Swype since it was leaked and really don't have many issues with it. I have tried the normal keyboards out there and have found I make way more mistakes with those. A lot of people say the problem with Swype is not being able to see the keys as you slide your finger, while this can be true at the start, once you pretty much memorize the layout, Swype gets a heck of a lot faster to use. After I added most of my commonly used words and names, the detection has been pretty good.

I will say however, that if you do use the normal keyboards, make sure to get one of the newer roms that fixes touchscreen responsiveness. It made a world of difference in my limited usage of the standard keyboards.

 

[UBRocked]

I feel you on the "wacky" side of Swype but it is still in beta correct? I can't find it on the market so I believe it is not released as a "final" version.

Bugless has a "default" keyboard layout but Pete has added some what I would call "virtual" spacing between the keyboard (like cell padding with a second border). I'm not sure that it is "actually" any different than the default, but it feels better and I type words correctly and faster than ever. It may be mental...but it works! Also keypress vibration is really good...short and accurate...that is new to me cause most keyboard's tactile feedback is so bad I turn it off.

CORRECTION: The native keyboard on Bugless Beast is and has always been the default Android Keyboard. Sorry for the confusion. I had a theme by KrazyKrivda on AllDroid installed and didn't realize it changed the keyboard.

 

[Shadowtech]

Swype will probably never be on Market as the company that designed it stated they do not make products for the end-user. So unless they change this stance, the only way we're likely to see a final revision is pre-installed on some new device in the future. Hopefully at that point it can be ripped out and ported to the Droid. This stance might have already changed, I don't know, but it's what was floating around when it was originally leaked,

 

[UBRocked]

Swype will probably never be on Market as the company that designed it stated they do not make products for the end-user. So unless they change this stance, the only way we're likely to see a final revision is pre-installed on some new device in the future. Hopefully at that point it can be ripped out and ported to the Droid. This stance might have already changed, I don't know, but it's what was floating around when it was originally leaked,

Good Info. So WHO is responsible for the version we are using? I mean it works fine (in general) on the droid and I only know this to be on the Omnia II. Now, the omnia has a 3.7" screen like the Droid so I guess it didn't need any resizing but I didn't know if it was the exact same version.

 

[JDW]

Swype would be AWESOME with some fine tuning... It's pretty amazing as is. Just needs to have some good tweaks. If it had them, I probably wouldn't have started this thread, haha.

 

[tman065]

I downloaded SlideIT Keyboard Lite from the market. It's like Swype

 

[UBRocked]

Bugless beast keyboard huh??? Hmmmm

I "think" this is the keyboard from BB 7.6...but I'm not sure cause the new BB doesn't have it and I have applied so many different themes. This is what I was talking about. Doesn't look like much but I can fly on it.

CORRECTION: The native keyboard on Bugless Beast is and has always been the default Android Keyboard. Sorry for the confusion. I had a theme by KrazyKrivda on AllDroid installed and didn't realize it changed the keyboard. Looks nice though huh?

 

[ccousinsjr]

I wish Swipe had a skin feature like Better Keyboard.

 

[trekgraham]

I use smart keyboard, uses true multitouch but still is a work in progress

 

[stevonyc34]

Has anyone used ShapeWriter?

 

[Scottyent]

I will say however, that if you do use the normal keyboards, make sure to get one of the newer roms that fixes touchscreen responsiveness. It made a world of difference in my limited usage of the standard keyboards.

ROMS are only installable on a rooted phone right? If so, do you know of any different types of keyboards that we can install to improve the normal keyboard without rooting?

 

[The_Chief]

I like Bugless Beast 1.1's 2.1 keyboard with speech-to-text entry. It gets more accurate every day, and is far faster than even Swype. I talk, it enters.

 

[Scottyent]

Do you have to be rooted to use bugless beast?

 

[The_Chief]

YEP. You need superuser permission to rewrite the phone's ROM