Looking to Identify Keyboard Being Used

[yopete525]

Hello all,

I saw someone using a keyboard on an Android phone that looked nothing like any other keyboard I've seen. It had all sorts of colors & animations as they typed, and it seemed like input was gesture-heavy. The background was dark (probably black), and it looked ultramodern and very fast.

I know that's a vague description but does anyone have any idea what it may have been? It looked like a fully-baked keyboard (rather than just a keyboard theme) given the fluidity and extravagance of the animations. It almost looked like they were playing a game because of everything going on, but they were typing very quickly.

I believe I've ruled out the majority of the options that first appear when you search "Keyboard" in the Play Store (e.g. SwiftKey, GO Keyboard, Fleksy, ai.type, etc.). Again, it looked like the keyboard was more than just a themed basic keyboard, because of how fully-formed the animations looked. Really curious to find this keyboard if anyone has any idea what it could have been.

 

[SpookDroid]

Can you describe the animations? SwiftKey has some animated themes that you could not see if you just install it and try it for a few seconds. Their Hanuka and Christmas themes are quite elaborate, and you do have a fully fledged keyboard there.

 

[yopete525]

The animations were multi-colored, with what looked like sparks and other lights appearing. It looked like Swype-style gesture typing, but with words appearing over some of the keys that were swiped to select as well. They didn't really look to be a holiday-based theme or anything like that, more of a general dark theme with lots of colorful animations.

I apologize for the vague description but I only saw it for about ten seconds and don't really remember too many specifics. I'll take another look at the SwiftKey themes and see if anything lines up. Thanks for the quick response!

 

[SpookDroid]

SwiftKey does have some themes like that and definitely swiping gestures, but it doesn't pop-up the words as you swipe, it only pops the letters up as you select them. In some, the trace does have some lens flare and trailing effect.

 

[yopete525]

While I haven't found one that is as animated/colorful as the keyboard I saw, some of the Swiftkey themes are definitely nice. Do you have any examples of themes that have more of the lens flare-type effects? I've gone through the included themes & free ones, and haven't found one that's too similar, but obviously some of the paid ones might be more sophisticated.

Or if there's a way for me to get a refund on themes I don't like, I can just sample them myself--I don't have any experience with IAP's.

 

[SpookDroid]

I don't like buying themes for a keyboard either... too expensive for something so simple. But the ones that have more animated items, at least the ones I've used, are the Christmas/Hanuka themes (the Hanuka one actually looks kinda techie) and the Ice theme. All others (the free ones at least) have different gesture streaks but no flares or lights, just the fancy trail.

UPDATE: I just saw this. It doesn't have lights or flares or too many animations, but it does pop up suggestions as you swipe... would this be it? If so, that's the stock Lollipop keyboard, I believe...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrX9m8I4d6w

 

[yopete525]

I might sample a paid theme or two just to see what they're like.

I definitely wasn't seeing the Android L keyboard, I'm actually running Lollipop on my Nexus 7. It's really kind of bizarre trying to explain what I saw that person using, because it was completely unlike any other keyboard I've seen or heard of. It really did look like they were playing a game, with lights/sparks/colors appearing everywhere, but they were very clearly typing letters and selecting suggested words.

Still a mystery for now...

 

[SpookDroid]

The only two keyboards I've seen that pop up suggestions are the L and the BlackBerry 10 one... Which is weird because the BlackBerry one was developed by SwiftKey...

 

[Rukbat]

The Swiftkey doesn't pop up suggestions, but it puts them in the suggestion bar at the top of the keyboard. (And it's pretty good after it gets used to your writing style - I can sometimes put in a whole sentence by typing the first word, then choosing from the suggestions.)

 

[yopete525]

I actually realized that TouchPal actually allows you to drag words down to the space bar that appear over letters as you type. Unfortunately the rest of the keyboard is really bloated and the themes are **** ugly.

Edit - The new beta version of TouchPal is actually pretty nice. Not what I was originally looking for but I'd recommend checking it out as a standard keyboard replacement.

 

[SpookDroid]

Did you ever find out which keyboard this was?

 

[yopete525]

Unfortunately no, I haven't come across anything that seems to be a match. I'm still looking around though. If I find it I'll definitely share, it was extremely cool.

 

[yopete525]

So after looking into this a little more again, I think they may have been using Fleksy, with a darker theme and the "Rainbow Pops" extension enabled. Rainbow Pops dynamically colors key press popups, and if you press and hold the numbers button (or any other long-press enabled key) and drag, you get an array of colorful popups. There aren't any sparks or gesture trails however, because the keyboard doesn't have gesture typing, so either my memory is off or I'm still missing something.

Case probably closed...

Edit: If you type in the text that appears in the Fleksy app ("Check it out!") and hit enter, you unlock the Black Rainbow Theme, which by default has the Rainbow Pops, as well as slightly enhanced animations. Probably safe to say this is the theme/keyboard I saw in use.

 

[AndroidTechH3lP]

That should be SwiftKey

 

[bprochon]

If you saw it on an iPhone, than my guess is Nintype. My favorite keyboard and it sounds like it was coming to Android but has stalled or delayed for some reason. Either way it doesn't look as if were getting a full / complete version anytime soon. Check out the video below...

nintype - Bing Videos