why is it that android keyboards are so awful?

[slackerinabox]

i temporarily switched from a galaxy note 9 to my wife's old iphone 7 and let me tell you - i've gone from 80% accuracy to right every single time with the iphone (on a smaller screen to boot). I've tried so many third party keyboards and the default note 9 one and i almost always spend a few extra moments correcting typos. Is it something finicky about the note 9's screen or is there something fundamentally better about the iphone when it comes to typing?

 

[Zaap]

No.

You're just used to the iPhone keyboard. It's muscle memory. I'm the opposite ... I pick up an i-device and can't type for anything on it. And the choices of replacement are abysmal (or atleast they were last I bothered with an i-device).

There's plenty of choice on Android. Find a keyboard that mimics Apple's and what you're used to. That, or get used to something different.

 

[clamum]

I've never had an iPhone so can't comment on that, but I've used the Swype input for years on Android and like that a lot, though each version seems to have its slight little quirks when I've gone from phone-to-phone (for example, swiping "haha" on my Galaxy S10 will *always* capitalize it to "Haha" which is f'ing annoying). And you'd think I'd be pretty accurate with it, but eh, not quite. I get a lot of words wrong (if I'm not paying real close attention and trying to be accurate). But I think it would be much better than actually typing in each letter.

 

[Oyeve]

The beauty of android is you can switch KBs really easy. Swiftkey is great. iphone KB suck, IMO, and even if you could switch KBs on an idevice it wont switch for everything KB related.

 

[Rifter]

swiftkey is where its at.

 

[Zaap]

It's things like keyboard, system font, launcher/dialer/text app choice that I like most about Android but don't get too used to anything.

I've watched as Android's given up so many of it's advantages to be just another 'ho hum' platform it would NOT surprise me in the slightest to one day see all the choice stripped out of Android in favor of bland vanilla 'us too! Us too!' crap.

Things I never in a million years thought people would give up have gone for no advantage to the user what-so-ever.

For now, I love being able to choose, but I don't trust any of these big conglomorates not to screw up Android beyond all recognition. If Google had their way truly, they'd wall in that garden too and dumb the whole thing down to kid sister level, I've not the slightest doubt.

 

[dawheat]

The lack of long press for numbers and symbols kills me every time I use my wife's iPhone. On the other hand, sometimes Google Keyboard on my S10+ gets me 100% of the time, and once in a while it endlessly butchers what I'm trying to write. It's almost like the ML models behind it go haywire for a short period of time.

 

[TheStu]

The lack of long press for numbers and symbols kills me every time I use my wife's iPhone. On the other hand, sometimes Google Keyboard on my S10+ gets me 100% of the time, and once in a while it endlessly butchers what I'm trying to write. It's almost like the ML models behind it go haywire for a short period of time.

Long-press would be nice to have on the iPhone; on the iPad though I do like the drag down gesture that exists (ex. drag down W to type a 2, very quick to use)

 

[JJChicken]

Good thread. Apple has or had a patent on keyboard entry wherein the software would predict the most likely next letter based on partial word completion and the dictionary to then increase the hitboxes of the most likely next letters - its a really simple but super effective idea and is why the iphone keyboard is good.

Not sure if the patent has expired

 

[shortylickens]

LG Voyager

Best keyboard evar

 

[Ackmed]

No.

You're just used to the iPhone keyboard. It's muscle memory. I'm the opposite ... I pick up an i-device and can't type for anything on it. And the choices of replacement are abysmal (or atleast they were last I bothered with an i-device).

There's plenty of choice on Android. Find a keyboard that mimics Apple's and what you're used to. That, or get used to something different.

Yep, I can't use an iPhone to text for anything. I feel like I'm trying to play a FPS on console when I've been playing on PC. Just slow and terrible. Ridiculous how a simple period isn't already on the screen.

I've been using SwiftKey for a very long time, love it. Like most things, more practice the better you'll be.

 

[mrochester]

I've always found this to be the case too, despite many protestations from the android crowd to say otherwise.

 

[QueBert]

did Nintype ever make it out of Alpha on Android? I use it on my iPhone and it's the best keyboard out there imho. And I've used them all. Swiftkey's good but if I had to go back to an Android and it doesn't have Nintype any more, I don't know what I'd do. The learning curve for me was huge, but once I did it was a whole new experience.

 

[MrSquished]

did Nintype ever make it out of Alpha on Android? I use it on my iPhone and it's the best keyboard out there imho. And I've used them all. Swiftkey's good but if I had to go back to an Android and it doesn't have Nintype any more, I don't know what I'd do. The learning curve for me was huge, but once I did it was a whole new experience.

just checked and it's still on the play store but it's early access and now known as Keyboard 69 - going to check it out now.