What are the best Android soft keyboards?

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31

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Considered

531

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Recs.

Jan 11, 2019

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 3 of 22 OptionsWhy?

Best Android soft keyboards	Price	Platforms	App Stores
94 Gboard - the Google Keyboard	FREE	Android, iOS, Android Wear	Google Play, Apple/iTunes
92 SwiftKey	FREE	Android, iOS	Google Play, Apple/iTunes
92 Fleksy	FREE	Android, iOS	Google Play, Apple/iTunes
86 Minuum Keyboard	$3.99	Android, iOS, Android Wear	-
-- AnySoftKeyboard	FREE	Android	Google Play, F-Droid

See Full List

SwiftKey

Top Pro

Highly acclaimed for its constantly improving prediction engine

The prediction engine of SwiftKey is continuously being improved by using data from social networks, text messages or even emails from the user's device. Predictions appear above the keyboard as soon as a letter is typed. By adjusting to the user's writing habits and style, it really helps to save time when writing. See More

Top Con

High processor/memory usage makes it unusable on older devices

SwiftKey is extremely resource-intensive compared to many of its competitors, and will often lag even on high-end smartphones. See More

Dan Armano's Experience

Excellent keyboard which learns the words I type most often, supports multiple languages simultaneously (no need to switch!) and helps me type like a daemon on my Android phone and tablet. The reason why I don't get a Windows tablet (like I'm very often tempted) is because I can't find SwiftKey for it. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS

App Stores:Google Play, Apple/iTunes

Top Pro

Can be customized with plenty of themes available

Swiftkey offers a wide range of different themes to add personality to your keyboard (some are free.. others paid for via in app purchases). See More

Top Con

Privacy, automatically saves unknown words

E.g. passwords entered in plain text fields, place names, people names etc. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

I've been at this Android business for a long time and one of my favorite parts is always looking for better solutions than the ones I'm using because the pace of innovation on it is staggering. While I still keep trying out new keyboards every few months, none of them has been able to unseat Swiftkey as my favorite for over four years. Swiftkey really has learned how I write and the prediction engine is so good that I can often write sentence after sentence only having to type the first three words of each one. When I tap into a username field, the three predictions are always my most-used e-mail addresses and the names of projects, suppliers and colleagues that I frequently reference always appear right when I need them mid-sentence. It's not perfect, it is a resource hog, but it's so worth it and only keeps getting better. See More

Top Pro

Has a large number of languages available

Has 61+ languages available that can be downloaded. So chances are the languages you need will be available. See More

Top Con

Swipe recognition not as smart as Swype

It requires much more precision, if you miss one letter you have little chance of having the desired word, which makes it difficult to use in some situations. See More

Top Pro

Multiple simultaneous languages

Keyboard can integrate multiple languages into one seamless autocorrect engine. See More

Top Con

No language separation or weighing

If you load several languages, you can choose any keyboard for any of them, but it won't help the recognition algorithm, which insists on giving other language words in the most absurd situations. Again, no help from their support to arrange the situation. See More

Top Pro

Can be resized to as large or as small as you want

You can choose between five different sizes to resize the keyboard. See More

Top Con

High data bandwidth usage

This product consumes several MB per week, sometimes per day. The fact that SwiftKey doesn't fix the bug despite many similar reports is not really reassuring. See More

Top Pro

Gestures typing or tap typing

Swiftkey supports both popular methods of typing. Either way the methods integrate perfectly with the predictions featured above the keyboard. See More

Top Con

Themes are in app purchases

Like most third party keyboards, Swiftkey offers tons of themes but of course they cost money and have to be purchased through the app. See More

Top Pro

Can be customized to have a numbers row in easy reach

Users can optionally display a number pad above the keyboard. See More

Top Con

Bought by Microsoft

Will undoubtedly lead to less innovation. See More

Top Pro

Can be undocked

The feature may seem odd but the ability to undock the keyboard is extremely useful in certain situations. For example when creating content or using difficult websites. See More

Top Con

Predicting and inserting word combinations faulty

Recent update enabled Swiftkey to predict short word combinations. In principle this should be quite convenient, but so far it turns out this new algorithm is defective and way too aggressive. Too often it inserts combinations that are completely meaningless, or inserts English combinations in Dutch sentences or the other way around. Has almost doubled the amount of corrections needed. See More

Top Pro

Supports Google voice dictation

Even though SwiftKey is a third party keyboard, Swiftkey still uses the preferred Google voice dictation. See More

Top Pro

Free

Swiftkey is free to download and use, though there are in app purchases to unlock more features. See More

Top Pro

Fast access to Emojis

When users type the name of the desired Emoji, a small list will come up where the right one can be selected. See More

Top Pro

Users can view in-depth usage statistics

SwiftKey will even provide you exciting data about how you type such as a heatmap. The more you use SwiftKey, the more your heat map will transform from perfect circles into blobs where you tend to press. From the Heatmap you'll know where you tend to make mistakes and how SwiftKey is improved. Other stats provided include: Distance flowed in meters Keystrokes saved Typos corrected Words completed See More

Top Pro

All the typing information saved from SwiftKey is synced across devices

Any learned words, phrases (inc. email addresses) will be backed up to the cloud and available across multiple devices. See More

Top Pro

Ad-free

SwiftKey is competely ad-free. See More

Top Pro

Various convenient layouts available, also for tablets

Among the layout choices is a split keyboard which anchors each half to the lower corners of the screen, where one would naturally hold a tablet device while typing, with the option to place a dedicated 10-key number pad in the unused space between them. See More

See All

Fleksy

Top Pro

Gesture system

The most unique aspect about Fleksy is it's gesture system. The middle row of keys that is grayed out serves as the gesture row. The gesture row uses swipes to input spaces, periods, and correction all while you are typing. Of course this new way of typing will definitely take some to get used to. See More

Top Con

No swipe input

Fleksy does not use the popular swype function for typing. See More

UnderstandingBran's Experience

It was a bit difficult to use it at the beginning but after some days you save lot of time thank to Fleksy to write messages! See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS

App Stores:Google Play, Apple/iTunes

Top Pro

Personalization

Like other alternative keyboards Fleksy can personalize your predictions based on your social media, Gmail, SMS, and device dictionary. See More

Top Con

Requires swiping to change the language

Requires swiping to change the language, making it difficult for users who mix multiple languages in their conversations. See More

ResourcefulAhti's Experience

Love the facilty of the keyboard. Switching between languages . Access to other apps from keyboard . See More

Top Pro

Type without looking at the keyboard

Fleksy is made by the creators of the alternative keyboard BlindType that was acquired by Google. As a result many of the technologies developed in BlindType are reinvented in Fleksy. The combination of accurate prediction and gestures allow you to focus on the text you are actually typing not the keyboard. See More

PreciseKulla's Experience

It's really unique and easy to use. Once you get used to the gestures, you miss them when using other keyboards. Plus the extensions are useful too, it has so many features. See More

Top Pro

Minimalist design

ArtisticDemeter's Experience

El mejor teclado para smartphones muy rápido y preciso. See More

Top Pro

Modern design

The Fleksy experience from the opening tutorial to the design of the keyboard is extremely well developed and very modern. Almost all reviews note the appearance as one of it's best features. See More

Top Pro

Smooth Popup keypress

Fleksy has a very smooth keypress. See More

Top Pro

"Mini" mode

Fleksy is able to offer a "mini" sized keyboard that is shorter in height because the whole row of keys with the spacebar is hidden. Fleksy is able to do this because spaces, periods, and corrections can all be performed with simple gestures. "Mini" mode can be accessed at any time by swiping the keyboard down with two fingers. "Mini" mode saves critical screen real estate. See More

Top Pro

Extremely accurate autocorrect

Fleksy uses a very accurate auto correct that has allowed the app to break the speed typing record on a mobile keyboard as well as allow users to type without even looking at the screen. See More

Top Pro

Light, dark, and blue themes

The Fleksy themes can be changed in the look feel section of the settings. See More

Top Pro

Holds world record for fastest typing on a touchscreen

Fleksy broke the world record by typing "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human." The record holder typed this message in just 18.19 seconds, beating the old record by 1/4 of a second. See More

Top Pro

Support extensions

Extensions enable user to customize the keyboard according to their need. See More

Top Pro

Emoji support

Fleksy features over 800 emoji that the user can use when typing. See More

Top Pro

Private by design

Fleksy is completely private and never mines people personal data - www.fleksy.com/privacy/ See More

Top Pro

Invisible mode

Fleksy has an extension that makes the whole keyboard transparent, useful when you can already blind type with it. See More

Top Pro

Works on Gear 2 smartwatch

Fleksy is able to be installed on Gear 2 watches, making for a whole new way to type to ones phone or tablet. See More

Top Pro

Good support for more then one language

Offers strong auto-correct in a lot of languages. See More

See All

19 Other Options Considered

Minuum Keyboard

Top Pro

Uses less than half the vertical space

All three rows are smashed into a single row, with prediction driving the typed words. Uses gestures to complete space, backspace, and return for even more space saving. This design is great for devices with smaller screens. See More

Top Con

No longer updated

Hasn't recieved significant updates since 2016. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS, Android Wear

Top Pro

Full keyboard when needed

Swiping two fingers up will open the full keyboard when more precision is need or when Minuum does not know the word you need. See More

Top Con

Can't type URLs

Sloppy typing only works on words in its dictionary. You can't enter words without a space between them, because it wants to "correct" the first word you have already accepted. This makes it impossible to type many URLs, unless you do it letter-by-letter, or go back and erase the spaces, which is tedious. See More

Top Pro

Hover mode

Has a mode where you can move the keyboard around across the screen. See More

Top Con

Only major languages

Only supports the most used languages at the moment. See More

Top Pro

Easy access to emoji

Bonus panel lets you get easy access to your most frequently used emoji. See More

Top Con

Difficult learning curve

Takes a while to get used to, if used while minimized. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use UI

Easy access to cursor movement keys, cut/copy/paste, share and more. See More

Top Pro

Customizable keyboard colors

Minuum Keyboard has a chameleon feature where the user can change the color of the keyboard. This allows for users to match their devices color, case or wallpaper. See More

Top Pro

Multiple Languages

Works in 13 languages. See More

Top Pro

Smartwatch support

With the small size of the Minuum keyboard it makes and ideal use case for smartwatches, due to their limited screen real estate. See More

See All

Hacker's Keyboard

Top Pro

Open source

Hacker's Keyboard is an open source project meaning that anyone can use the available code for free. See More

Top Con

Poor auto correction

The auto correction on Hacker's Keyboard does not work that great, especially when compared to other offerings on Android. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android

App Stores:Google Play, F-Droid

Top Pro

Supports a lot of keyboard layouts and dictionaries

Hacker's Keyboard support 31 different languages and many different layouts such as AZERTY and QWERTZ. See More

Top Pro

Mimics the look of a desktop keyboard

Including punctuation, arrow keys, special chars (tab, esc), etc. Also gives access to Ctrl, Shift, etc. Particularly suited to terminal applications. See More

See All

TouchPal Emoji Keyboard

Top Pro

Great integration between slide and predict

Other keyboards do one thing well, or predict or slide, touchpal integrates both very well See More

Top Con

Many ads

There are ads on the lock screen, pop-up "bubble" ads on the homescreens, full page ads, notification panel ads, "Daily summary" popup (which can be disabled) which is basically a full screen excuse to show more ads, "Boost charge" which shows ads when charging (again can be disabled) and many complain that once they have purchased the full version, it still has ads. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Touchpal offers a very smooth and speedy UI, something quite noticeable over some of the other more popular keyboards on Android. See More

Top Con

Settings and setup do not work in landscape on tablets

When accessing settings or setup on a tablet the UI is only oriented for landscape, forcing the user to rotate their device to read them if they are in landscape. See More

Top Pro

Comprehensive dictionaries

Touchpal offers many regional dictionaries, some are free and some cost money. The extra dictionaries can be convenient for those that do not wish to have the keyboard learn words from their usage or wait . See More

Top Pro

Great support for gesture to input numbers and symbols

See All

MessagEase

Top Pro

Fast input, quick full access to all symbols

Your hand(s) will memorize the gestures and soon you will reduce the information displayed (some make it blank). The number of combinations of the gestures allows a direct access to nearly all usual symbols (punctuation, accented letters, etc.). See More

Top Con

Breaks habits, needs some training

It is not a keyboard for everybody, it needs some efforts and training to be efficient. Still, it is relatively intuitive: my 11 years old son used it without asking first how to use it. It as a comprehensive help, lot of settings, and has a companion game to train in a playful way. See More

Specs

Platforms:iOS, Android, Android Wear

Top Pro

You can type almost everything a regular keyboard can

This keyboard has up, down, right, left, copy, paste, select all, hide keyboard, tab. And they're all one swipe on the main screen. And you can easily type things that usually require either a bunch of shifts, or are impossible, like ôǒöòó¿¡°[]{}1¹2²3³. See More

Top Pro

Easy to type with one hand

Because the buttons are big, it's easy to type with one hand while holding it. That is, unless you have a giant phone or tablet. There aren't many keyboards that you can easily type with one hand unless it's lying flat. See More

Top Pro

Supports lot of keyboard layouts and dictionaries

Keyboard layouts are adapted to each language, as they are based on the frequency of letters in this language. Beside, it allows reconfiguration of the keys to better fit your preferences. It also has good word prediction / correction. You can configure several keyboard configurations (advice: better stick to one, the one you will use the most, as speed is based on hand memory) and several dictionaries, and you can switch with a simple gesture. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

You can choose your color (can depend on language), the rounding of keys, the position of characters, the size and disposition of the keyboard, etc. See More

Top Pro

Support of clipboard, macros, editing keys

Macros: define frequently typed sentences associated to an abbreviation. Type the abbreviation, the macro is listed in the word prediction area. Tap-Drag-Go: on a gesture (hold on Num key, Tap), it displays icons on which you can move (Drag) and release (Go). It inserts a predefined sentence, like macros, but with a faster, more visual interface. Clipboard: cut, copy, paste, select all Android commands available with a swipe. It has a memory of the last 10 clipboard contents. Editing keys: swiping on the space bar allows to move the caret left, right, up or down. Swipe and return move by word. Swipe and return on the backspace key allows to delete a word on left or right. See More

Top Pro

Exists on lot of devices

Including iPhone, smartwatches, car navigation systems, etc. See More

See All

Graffiti Pro for Android

Add Video or Image

MOX Words

Top Pro

Indian languages supported

New layouts, MOX Saral. See More

SwiftKey Neural

Top Con

Experimental and in Alpha

Dasher

Add Video or Image

Steno Keyboard

Adaptxt Keyboard

Top Pro

Location based suggestions, correction and predictions

Adaptxt has location based functions in that it can correct, suggest and predict based off of the users location, making for a seamless change in user customized help. See More

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