There are so many keyboard apps / alternate keyboards for
Android and iPhone now. It seems like each week I hear about another one. I
decided to test drive a few different keyboards. Below I give you screen shots,
what they do well, what their weaknesses are, etc. After using all of these I
may be using Word Flow the most in the future.
Fleksy (Free) Amazon,
Android, and iOS – Very customizable, I especially like that you can switch
keyboard fonts and the size of the keyboard. It has a minimal keyboard option
if you want to use gestures for spacing and other options. Multiple free themes
to choose from. Great auto correction, good suggestive text, and it’s easy to
switch to emoji or toggle settings. It has Giph functions and extensions to make
for easy launching of sharing. It has hot keys to remember often used words,
usernames, emoji, etc. Has a one hand mode for easier typing with your right or
left hand. Weaknesses it takes some time to figure out how to use it because it
has some special gestures and hidden features that show up on long press. There
are several useful extensions but users are only allowed to choose three. The
biggest disappointment was the absence of swipe or glide typing which I use a
lot. https://fleksy.com/
G Board (Free) iOS [Android
system keyboard] – Made by Google this keyboard’s search and suggestion skills
are the strongest of any keyboard. As I understand it, the reason that it is
only available for Apple products is that the keyboard is available in the most
recent version of the Android operating system. It learns how you type and
suggests words extremely well. It can suggest emoji for words that you type or
you can search for an emoji (instead of hunting for that sushi emoji you were
looking for). It can search Google for you my just tapping the Google ‘G’ on
the keyboard. It has good swipe / glide typing. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gboard-search.-gifs.-emojis/id1091700242?mt=8
GIPHY Keys (Free) iOS only –
A keyboard focused on Giphs and emoji. You can search for them multiple ways or
use the magic eight ball to get a random giph. There are also some interesting
word art choices for users. Weaknesses: there isn’t auto correct, customization,
or swipe / glide type https://giphy.com/gifkeyboard
SwiftKey (Free) Android and
iOS – One of the best, if not THE BEST, at auto correct and word suggestion. It
can automatically switch between languages which is good for bilingual (or
multilingual) users. I like it because it remembers frequently entered
information and it’s the best at mimicking the way I type. The keyboard’s swipe
functionality is one of the best. Weakness, not very customizable and if you
want colors other than black or white, it costs extra. No giph or easy emoji
functions although it does remember your most used emoji.n https://swiftkey.com/en
Word Flow (Free) iOS only –
I have heard a lot of great things about this keyboard and it did not
disappoint. Users can customize the background a lot, more than any other
keyboard tested, you can use one of several backgrounds or upload your own
photo to make a keyboard. {In the pictures below you will see two custom
keyboards I created} Word suggestion and auto correct are good but probably
gets better the more you use it. Easy to switch between functions and has
different gesture controls. One-handed mode is really cool. Well designed and easy to use swipe ability.
Weaknesses, word suggestion was not very good and users can not choose
different fonts or size keyboards. No giph or emoji look-up / extra functions.
