What Keyboard is best?

IslandGuy

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I used to use SwiftKey but it became untrustworthy. Its predictions are now so gnomic that you have to look at it all the time to correct the mistakes. This really slow you down and thus defeats the whole purpose of swiping. Gboard, however, is rock-solid. I love that most punctuation is just a long-press away on the letter keys and you can have a numeric line on top. Also it puts a space and a capital letter after a full stop (aka a period). If you pause after you swipe your word it inserts a space and really speeds things up. Top tip: press and hold the full stop at the bottom right; you then get access to a whole raft of punctuation characters. There is no need to switch to the alternate numeric/special characters keyboard. Best thing? You can set it up in a dark theme.
I've been using Swiftkey for years with multiple devices and considered it the best. I installed Gboard on my wife's phone and she loved it but I kept on using Swiftkey. Lately it has gotten really quirky causing a ton of mistakes. Sometimes when I hit backspace once it would just keep deleting despite not touching the keyboard at all. Long story short, I tried Samsung's stock keyboard and loved it. Then I decided to give Gboard a twirl and loved it even more. Swiftkey now uninstalled.
 

eljeffe58

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I was not aware of this issue with Cheetah until you just made me so. I disconnected from Cheetah. Back to Swiftkey or Gboard; probably Gboard! Thank you so much.
 
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aldo82

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I used to find SwiftKey horribly laggy on the key press animations such that I couldn't use it. But a few months back I tried the beta again and the animations were fine and I've been using it since.

This thread made me try gboard again and I'm amazed to find that the animations seem to lag on there so much more the SwiftKey. It's strange but the key press pop ups are so slow I can't bring myself to use it!
 

WinOMG

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I use Flesky and SwiftKey. Flesky is the fastest keyboard for me since the predictions are pretty good and you can quickly delete things by swiping left. I also like the invisible keyboard option because if the keyboard is covering an app then I can see through the keyboard. It's also so amazing you can type perfectly with your eyes closed. I like SwiftKey as well because it offers so many features. Gboard is nice but not customizable enough for me. Ginger Keyboard is also super nice but I don't find anything special with the typing experience. AI type is nice but drains my battery. Adaptxt is nice but discontinued. I would rate it 1. Fleksy 2. SwiftKey 3. Ginger Keyboard 4. Gboard 5. AI Type 6. Adaptxt
 

Martell545

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Sorry but I've used 20+ keyboards even the iPhone keyboard and still hands down SwiftKey beats them all. Love the fast predictions and wide keys for even the person with the fattest fingers to type correctly.
 

bigguh

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i don't no how people are using Gboard when you have secure folder enable?
talking about Gboard sync data, does not work with secure folder that's the only reason i will use SwiftKey...

Just like with any app being used in Secure Folder, you have to install the app on that side.
 

bigguh

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SwiftKey used to be my favourite, but now prefer the simplicity of Gboard. SwiftKey has so many themes but none I really like. However I think predictions were better in SwiftKey and accuracy.

Stock LG and Samsung are ok, but I just prefer the stock Android feel. Still think iPhone has the better keyboard, despite not using one for the last few years.

Swiftkey literally has the themes that are available for GBoard.
 

bigguh

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I'm just curious. When you say Swiftkey is more accurate are you referring to auto correct or your typing accuracy is better using Swiftkey? I have been a long time Swiftkey user, but I've been using Gboard on the Note 8 and it's been very good for me. Honestly, I am not which one I prefer at this point.

So, Swiftkey's prediction is what makes it the best. When they had their separate Neural keyboard and it was amazing. It was only short on the other features typical to Swiftkey. Once they integrated it into the main app, it made it even better. I use the Beta version and I can often type full sentences with hitting less than ten letters. That is how good the prediction. The autocorrect is great as well. I really want to like GBoard. Every couple of months, I go back to it. However, the predictions simply cannot compare to Swiftkey. The neural engine makes sense of what you're typing and often gets the next word right without typing the first letter. It looks at more than just the last word, which it seems like GBoard still does. The neural engine looks at your previous words to predict what you are going to type. That is the difference. When the next word doesn't pop-up, after hitting the first or second letter of the next word, it's a guarantee that your word will pop up. It's just that good.

On top of that, the clipboard works great. I have also created shortcuts for phrases that I want to enter quickly. As an example, when I type CFA, the whole word 'Chick-Fil-A' pops up just like that. It saves me from having to type the dashes and caps. LOL. Don't worry - I know it is a bit OCD and that I can just type it without dashes. It's just me. LOL.

The settings are quite comprehensive and it can be tailored to your liking. I do wish it was easier to switch to one-handed mode, like it is in GBoard. However, the layout options allows for customization to anyone's liking.
 

bigguh

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I've been using Swiftkey for years with multiple devices and considered it the best. I installed Gboard on my wife's phone and she loved it but I kept on using Swiftkey. Lately it has gotten really quirky causing a ton of mistakes. Sometimes when I hit backspace once it would just keep deleting despite not touching the keyboard at all. Long story short, I tried Samsung's stock keyboard and loved it. Then I decided to give Gboard a twirl and loved it even more. Swiftkey now uninstalled.

Gboard might be more likeable for those that like typing full words. Nothing can compare to Swiftkey's prediction.
 

bigguh

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Sorry but I've used 20+ keyboards even the iPhone keyboard and still hands down SwiftKey beats them all. Love the fast predictions and wide keys for even the person with the fattest fingers to type correctly.

Yep.

I also think experiences differ with the type of phone and RAM/processor capabilities.
 

kitmo

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I really like the Samsung keyboard and I have selected the high contrast one and it is perfect i.e. easy to see, and the yellow with black stands out for typing. .
 

o4liberty

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I use the Blackberry keyboard it works great very little mistakes and it's Auto correction is one of the best I have used.
 

bialy

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I just switched from the originally stock samsung keyboard to SwiftKey, since folks talked highly of the predictive algorithm.
1. Does the free version without setting up an account provide the great predictive algorithm Or does one have to set up an account and/or allow it access to other accounts like facebook, gmail etc and/or have to pay money ??
2. It would be nice to customized the secondary keyboard (key on lowest left) to have my favorite symbols like semicolon and carrot; is there anyway to do that without paying money ?? ((i know you can access those and other symbols on the primary keyboard with a long hold down, but nice to have secondary way))
The samsung stock keyboard was fine including good prediction, but I thought I would experiment with this one. Predictions are not great with Swift so far but it has only been a couple days so too early to compare.
 
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stuckingoo

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I've tried Swiftkey several times and end up back with Gboard. Swiftkey for me errs on words that I practically never use while Gboard tends toward commonly used words. I do have a tendency to swipe fast which may contribute to that preference. I don't see the iPhone keyboard as being particularly accurate or inaccurate. You're basically just aiming for a spot on the screen and you either hit it or you don't. They don't know how to implement a good swiping keyboard which is what I prefer.
 

Bricorn

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I like SwiftKey, but there's one niggle; I need the navigation arrows, but having them BELOW the keyboard is a nuisance, I keep hitting them instead of space. There doesn't seem to be any way to move them to above the keyboard.
 

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