New Keyboards

[MaxO]

smart keyboard pro is the best with the evo.. im typing out at speeds even faster than i could with swype.. though swype was great to have for quick one or two word texts.. only thing i dont like about smart keyboard is the cost.. which sucks..

 

[PM-Performance]

Spending more time with swiftkey I notice it doesnt do all that well with prediction and correction. I thought the beta might have been a little better, but might be my imagination. I guess since I paid $4 for it I will keep it. . but like typing stuff random corrections are made. It wont always correct like dumb stuff like "the" when you type "teh", but when you type something like "hello" it will change it to like "airplane"

Not that extreme, but I couldnt think of a real example so I put in the first thing that came to mind to show how ******ed the prediction is at times

I just downloaded smart keyboard pro and seems nice soo far. Wish the keys were bigger, but I need to test. I like that it has alot more customization though!!! Iphone skin seems to work decent for me.
I wish more keyboards had the HTC version button to hide the keyboard. Not sure why alot do not incorporate that

 

[bubbatex]

Spending more time with swiftkey I notice it doesnt do all that well with prediction and correction. I thought the beta might have been a little better, but might be my imagination. I guess since I paid $4 for it I will keep it. . but like typing stuff random corrections are made. It wont always correct like dumb stuff like "the" when you type "teh", but when you type something like "hello" it will change it to like "airplane"

Not that extreme, but I couldnt think of a real example so I put in the first thing that came to mind to show how ******ed the prediction is at times

I just downloaded smart keyboard pro and seems nice soo far. Wish the keys were bigger, but I need to test. I like that it has alot more customization though!!! Iphone skin seems to work decent for me.
I wish more keyboards had the HTC version button to hide the keyboard. Not sure why alot do not incorporate that

Smart Keyboard Pro has a "swipe down" option to hide the keyboard - though it sometimes takes a few swipes, or does not work at all when doing a Google search from the Search widget.

 

[PM-Performance]

Ill have to check that out. I been tinkering with it and I think this is my favorite soo far. I like the customization even though I dont know what some of it is. Gives me time to tinker.
I couldnt find the mic button . took me a little to realize its because the .com button had to be disabled

 

[Bigfire]

Smart Keyboard Pro has a "swipe down" option to hide the keyboard - though it sometimes takes a few swipes, or does not work at all when doing a Google search from the Search widget.

Swipe down may be nice, but any keyboards out there come with a feature where you can press a button or do something to automatically launch the keyboard? Certain parts of facebook don't pop the VKB when tapping on the status text box (and a couple other places). I think this is one of the things I really miss about my Palm Pre. The KB was ready when I wanted it, and there were shortcuts, like copy and paste, that you can't do on a slab.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

 

[PM-Performance]

the swipe features dont seem to work that well. Swipe down to hide does hide, but it swipes all the way up the sms chain then. lol
Swipe left to delete a word doesnt delete. Just puts it to the beginning of the word.

 

[phillysdon04]

Ultra Keyboard is the best so far. It has everything.

 

[2_hotty]

I'll try a few more suggestions in this thread, but only if there is a trial version. I feel I wasted $4 on swift key. I agree with PM-Performance that the auto correction on swift key sometimes spits out some completely random words when I'm typing. It also constantly gets the same words wrong. It's even auto corrected with words that I didn't even know were words.

For me, it was just a bad experience. Swype for me was great though. It rarely made mistakes in auto correction for me. Maybe I was just lucky, or I don't type enough weird words. Who knows. I will try some more trial versions in the hopes that I can purchase Swype one day.

 

[kd0axs]

Of all the keyboards I have used, I like SwiftKey the best. I really like the number input on SwiftKey over any of the others. Only thing it's missing is the ability to customize/theme it. Word over on SwiftKey's site is that this ability is coming soon though.

A close second for me is the stock HTC keyboard.

I did try Ultra Keyboard, it definitely has potential. I really like the tool bar and some of the other features, but the keyboard really seems to lag.

The Droid X keyboard also works great, you can get it over on XDA. It's available with many different themes.

(This will work on a stock Evo, rooting is NOT needed)

(updated 9/28/2010) Droid X multitouch keyboard 2.2 addition themed - xda-developers

 

[lnong]

Which keyboard app(s) has that mic/voice feature? sorry, there's so many posts here that I lost track which post was mentioning it...

 

[kd0axs]

Which keyboard app(s) has that mic/voice feature? sorry, there's so many posts here that I lost track which post was mentioning it...

Most (if not all) of these aftermarket keyboards can do voice-to-text.

 

[PM-Performance]

I absolutely loved the DX and HTC Mime keyboard on 2.1. Since 2.2 though I find them a little shoddy.
The stock board was great in 2.1 minus those stupid arrow keys (which is why the HTC MIME was ncie), but after the last OTA the stock keyboard is a little random for my liking.

I wish I would have did the refund on swiftkey in time. I wasted $4 IMO.
That smartkey is awesome at the moment. Hopefully it holds up through time as things get updated

 

[supchaka]

Slideits speed and accuracy blows Swype away. If anyone thinks differently, they have downs. I've switched back and forth alot. Slidelits word suggestion is also lower, closer to the keyboard which is also quicker.

What does suck about slideit is there are no long press numbers, which blows... alot.

 

[I.R.R.V.]

Didn't want to start a new thread so I am going to ask on this one. Is it possible to set a different keyboard for different tasks? What I'd like to do is set the stock keyboard for docs2go while using SwiftKey for everything else. So far as I can see, it is either or as default for everything. Thanks

 

[Mdorty]

Didn't want to start a new thread so I am going to ask on this one. Is it possible to set a different keyboard for different tasks? What I'd like to do is set the stock keyboard for docs2go while using SwiftKey for everything else. So far as I can see, it is either or as default for everything. Thanks

I'm pretty sure its whatever you set as default will be used for all applications. However, its pretty easy to switch between them. Just long press on the text box and choose "input method" to switch which keyboard you want to use.

 

[MaxO]

anyone else had swiftkey force close ALL the time? it has a lot of nice features but i cant really give it its chance if it closes all the time

 

[sincityk9]

Nope. I use it all the time. Works great.

 

[Jesse]

For my money (literally) it doesn't get any better than Smart Keyboard Pro. I first bought it when it was featured here at Android Central (back when I had my Droid) and although it was good, it just didn't do so well on the Droid's screen. Now the Evo on the other hand. I feel like it has the perfect layout and size on the Evo's screen. If you own an Evo, I can't recommed it enough. If you allow yourself a bit of time to get used to it, I think you'll find that it's a very useable keyboard. It's quick, accurate, has a great layout, and best if all, no tiny, too-small-to-always-miss spacebar.

Sent from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk Pro.

 

[bkrodgers]

I wish more keyboards had the HTC version button to hide the keyboard. Not sure why alot do not incorporate that

The back button closes the keyboard.

 

[AdamC]

Is it possible to set a different keyboard for different tasks?

That would be amazing. Also, I'm honestly surprised to see how many people have had problems with swiftkey. Tried ultra keyboard but I really don't need *that* many features in my keyboard. Felt a little clunky.

And for those looking for the keyboard-away button, try long press on back, or long press on menu depending on the app/keyboard you're using.