When comparing TouchPal Emoji Keyboard vs MessagEase, the Slant community recommends MessagEase for most people. In the question“What are the best Android soft keyboards?” MessagEase is ranked 7th while TouchPal Emoji Keyboard is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose MessagEase is:
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.).
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great integration between slide and predict
Other keyboards do one thing well, or predict or slide, touchpal integrates both very well
Pro Fast
Touchpal offers a very smooth and speedy UI, something quite noticeable over some of the other more popular keyboards on Android.
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 .
Pro Great support for gesture to input numbers and symbols
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.).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Exists on lot of devices
Including iPhone, smartwatches, car navigation systems, etc.
Cons
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.
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.
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.