Based on materials from androidcentral.com
The keyboard is one of the most important components of the user experience of any smartphone owner. Not only can it be the keyboard that can turn this experience into both sheer pleasure and true torture. It is also important from a security point of view. This does not mean that it makes sense to constantly worry about the keyboard app spying on you and stealing your passwords. However, security issues are worth considering when you are about to download a completely unfamiliar application.
There are a huge variety of keyboards – from extremely simple to ultra-sophisticated, with a huge list of functions that often surpass the functions of the smartphone itself. And finding one that suits your lifestyle is a great success.
We bring to your attention the top 5 keyboard apps, and you can traditionally share in the comments your experience in choosing the keyboard that is right for you.
1. SWIFTKEY
An application that is simply impossible not to mention when talking about keyboards. This is one of the more popular Android keyboards out there year after year, surpassing Google's own keyboard and pre-installed on many phones and tablets. Her predictive input method called the fluency engine kept users and developers coming back to her over and over again. It came pre-installed on many devices, such as Samsung's previous flagship, the Galaxy S4.
The application itself is paid, but in the last year the keyboard became free, and users pay for the themes.
2. Swype
Like the previous keyboard, Swype is a recognized leader in this area, replete with a variety of chips. You can swipe in words or whole sentences, and for bilingual users there is a function of simultaneous input in two languages. The app has a free version, the full one costs a dollar, and for two you get access to themes. Someone will be interested in the theme from the cartoon Frozen, and someone will be interested in themes created for football fans.
The Swype keyboard is included in the Accessibility section at Android for TalkBack and Explore By Touch, making it easier for visually impaired users to learn it on their own. The Copy / Cut / Paste functions are built in here as gestures.
3. Google Keyboard
If a few years ago Google's built-in keyboard for Android lagged behind others, now we can say that this situation has been fixed. It is completely free, supports gesture input of both words and whole sentences, in many languages. There is a modest set of themes here, but this was the first keyboard to support all emoji from Android KitKat last year. The latter can hardly be called a serious conquest. But if you think back to the creepy emojis from other keyboard makers, what KitKat offered was a change for the better and attracted a lot of users to this keyboard before other keyboards had emoji support.
Google Keyboard has its own voice recognition system and many of the advantages of recent years in this area, which it owes to Google Now and Android Wear. The predictive input system is not well developed here, but it learns from Google services as it is used.
4. Fleksy
And this is a keyboard for those who care about the stylish look of the application, it has a minimalistic design and a set of artistically executed themes. It's not cheap though – there is a 30-day trial version to help you decide if you want to fork out $ 1.99. And even if you do this, you will have to pay separately for the selected themes.
In addition to traditional customization options, such as the fifth row for numbers and support for more layouts, there are additional options like the ability to send pictures while remaining invisible. There is also a curious badge and reward system that encourages the user to master the keyboard and its chips.
5. TouchPal
This keyboard is perhaps the least well-known on our list, but several useful features have made it more than 10 million downloads. The freemium model with a free keyboard and a set of paid themes, paid synchronization with the cloud appeared here earlier than SWIFTKEY and others went this way. However, you don't have to pay for a theme, but just upload a background image from your collection.
Among the advantages of this keyboard is the close connection between the developers and the beta-testers community, and from the point of view of use, the ability to remove the last word by swiping from the backspace key and access to the emoji collection by swiping the space bar (support not only emoji, but also emoji art and emoticons) .
