When comparing Joey for Reddit vs Gboard - the Google Keyboard, the Slant community recommends Gboard - the Google Keyboard for most people. In the question“What are the best Material Design apps?” Gboard - the Google Keyboard is ranked 14th while Joey for Reddit is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Gboard - the Google Keyboard is:
The Google Keyboard supports swiping along the keyboard to spell out whole words.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Has screen lock feature
This is the only app with a screen lock feature.
Pro Fast and fluid
No lag or stutter, smooth as butter.
Pro Streams all GIFs
No waiting for download of entire GIF. Streams instantly.
Pro See all the ancestors of a comment
You can see not only parent of a comment, but parent's parent and so on of a comment with single tap.
Pro Read AMA in magazine style Q/A format
AMAs are available in magazine style Q/A formatting. works for multi author AMAs too.
Pro Can collapse the comment thread from anywhere
You can collapse the comment thread from anywhere inside the comment tree.
Pro It has the fastest GIF loading speed
This is the faster reddit app, when it comes to loading GIF files.
Pro Ad-free
No ads.
Pro Supports TTS
Only client which reads out content to you.
Pro Amoled night theme available
Power saving with Amoled night theme. Normal night theme also present.
Pro Streams comments
Streams match threads.
Pro Most powerful text editor
One of the few mobile apps that has support for inserting tables, codes, headings.
Pro Reader view
Read web articles without the clutter.
Pro Easy to view albums and read image descriptions
It has vertical cards for albums, so swiping for next image and reading description is in same direction.
Pro Lets you filter posts by flair
You can filter posts from r/science, r/LifeProTips, r/IAmA, r/askscience by flair.
Pro Supports live threads
Full support for Reddit live threads.
Pro Swipe to close
Swipe to close is available for everything.
Pro You can add upcoming AMAs to your calendar
Upcoming AMAs can be added to calendar, so you never miss an AMA.
Pro 16 million colors for customization
Both primary color and accent color have 16 million options.
Pro Auto theme change
Change themes automatically.
Pro Level-N-Collapse
Collapse comments at any level of your choice.
Pro Color coded usernames
Highlights users who have participated earlier in the comment chain.
Pro Omni Subreddit Finder
Searches your subscriptions and the web simultaneously.
Pro Shows which AMAs are going on
It shows live AMAs going on currently, so you can participate in them.
Pro Beautiful animations
Has very beautiful and smooth animations. For example when upvoting or downvoting stuff.
Pro Real trophy case for reddit trophies
This is the only app that has got the Reddit trophies correctly.
Pro Beautiful error screens
Even the error screens have cute animals.
Pro Doesn't put strain on eyes
The sepia theme is very easy on the eyes.
Pro Swipe support
The Google Keyboard supports swiping along the keyboard to spell out whole words.
Pro Learns preferred words
After using a gesture a few times and clicking the correct word, Google Keyboard learns that the gesture should result in the word you've manually selected as the correct word. Swype doesn't seem to learn this, so even after 100 times clicking 'this' instead of 'thesis', it still produces 'thesis', where Google Keyboard learns that you meant to say 'this'.
Pro Material Design
Google Keyboard has material design themes the user can skin the keyboard with.
Pro Swipe to punctuation
Hold down the key in the lower left hand corner and a keyboard if punctuation appears. Swipe over to the one you want, lift your finger, and the original keyboard pops back. It's very fast, and makes it much easier to spot the punctuation mark you want - instead of trying to squint at the secondary symbols in the keys.
Pro 100% free from Google
This keyboard is not a free trial nor will it hold back any new features to sell you a paid version. The keyboard is completely 100% free.
Pro Minimalistic design
While other keyboard options may be very functional, their visual design tends to differ from the rest of your Google device. The Google Keyboard was designed by Google and it looks like it.
Pro Fast, low memory usage
Alternative keyboards tend to suck up system resources, often making them nearly unusable on older phones. Google Keyboard is very quick to open when typing and the keys rarely lag.
Pro Has built-in Google search
The keyboard has button that allows searching Google straight from the keyboard, and use the search results in the currently used app.
Pro Emoji search
The GBoard has an emoji search that's very convenient, saves time looking for a specific one if you don't know/remember what category it's in.
Pro Dynamic floating preview
The dynamic floating preview appears while gesture typing. Most gesture keyboards only show the preview above the keyboard in the suggested corrections. The dynamic floating preview is great because it makes it easier to gesture type by keeping your eyes focused on what you are typing.
Pro Can use alternative layouts not just QWERTY
For those that are used to typing on a Dvorak keyboard or prefer not to need multiple key presses to access special symbols they can enable these as additional quick switch options. Using the English PC layout for example gives the user a number row.
Pro One-handed mode
Makes it easier to type with no more than a thumb.
Pro Suggestions don't get worse over time
Google keyboard does not promise to be as "smart" as other keyboards besides offering a personalized dictionary. Surprisingly this is actually a good thing for some because with many "smart" keyboards predictions and corrections actually worsen over time. With Google Keyboard the experience will remain constant because it requires you to manually "touch again to save" before it changes your personal dictionary. This prevents mistakes from becoming part of your personal dictionary.
Pro 120 languages support
Pro GIF support
Pro Cloud backup
Pro Pre-installed on most Android devices
Most Android devices have GBoard installed.
Cons
Con Typing is not always smooth
Sometimes typing lags.
Con Horrible Word Prediction
Unable to remember frequently used words.
Con Adds periods in random places and there is no way to disable it.
Con Lacks some features
Does not add contacts, does not save clipboard, and doesn't show the correct spelling of words or underline them, even though it's in settings.
Con Very little customization
Google Keyboard allows you to enable or disable
vibrate on keypress
sound on keypress
popup on keypress
double space period
These are pretty useful basic settings but most other keyboards offer more options. Google also allows you to edit the personal dictionary.
Con Restricted customization (few skins)
Con Terrible layout in landscape mode
Con Takes up a lot of storage
If you are using multiple languages and predictive text, the app can use up a lot of storage.
Con Prediction isn't as good as SwiftKey
Con Uses a lot of RAM
Con Symbol order is (slightly) different from full-sized QWERTY keyboard
Instead of the first four symbols being !@#$%^& (i.e. shift+1 through 7 on a QWERTY keyboard), they're @#$%&. This is fine if you know the symbols in your password, but if you're like me and you just hold the SHIFT key and type a long number, you'll have to consult a real keyboard to figure out your password.
Con Other languages not available in transliteration mode
Unlike Google Indic Keyboard where you can type by transliteration, compact, and handwriting, you only get the fixed layout for other languages.
Con It doesn't have arrow keys
Several times it is much better to navigate through a long text using arrow keys than scrolling and tapping the place where you want the cursor to be. SwiftKey has arrow keys (via an option), Gboard has not.