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My usage case is probably a very edge case, but my biggest complaint with Android 3rd party keyboard ecosystem is how hard and inconsistent is to switch between
by sirn 12y ago
My usage case is probably a very edge case, but my biggest complaint with Android 3rd party keyboard ecosystem is how hard and inconsistent is to switch between third party keyboards. I like SwiftKey, but I use about three languages daily and SwiftKey is not good enough for two other languages I use (Japanese, Thai), so I have to use other keyboard.
Switching between multiple keyboards in Android is totally pain. This was over a year ago, but back then I have drag down the notification area, choose Change Keyboard, select keyboard I want to use and go back to typing (maybe optionally switch the layout to the correct one before that) instead of a single button press. Some keyboard do provide a way to switch to other keyboard, but they're mostly non-obvious (e.g. in Google Japanese IME, you have to long press the layout switch [A/あ] button for few seconds, then choose "Change keyboard"). Even though most non-English keyboards also provide English layout, but most of time they're simply half-baked or just downright bad.
I don't know how Apple designed their third party keyboard API, but I truly hope they have some kind of guideline regarding the keyboard switcher, and that third party keyboards in iOS are per-language so all non-English keyboards out there don't ended up implementing a half-baked English keyboard. Either way, I'm really happy to see SwiftKey coming to iOS, even more so when my favorite Japanese IME (ATOK) announced they're going to release a keyboard for iOS.
- speedyapoc 12y agoYou can switch keyboards just like you would when changing from English to Emoji, etc.
- y4mi 12y agoyou can switch keyboard layouts like that (i.e. swiftkey english to swiftkey japanese), but he wanted to (my example) change from aosp keyboard for japanese to swiftkey for english. This is often also possible, but the way differs for keyboards. i believe aosp keyboard put a button left to space which you can long-press in order to get the switch keyboard popup. but his biggest gripe was probably the settings which default for some keyboards after changing the standard...
- blueprint 12y agoApple's keyboard API requires that you implement a button for switching to the 'next' keyboard, in the same way that existing iOS keyboards have the button for switching.
- chadk 12y ago+1. This has been my longest standing complaint after switching to Android a couple of years ago.
- sirkneeland 12y agoThe Nokia N9 had a fantastic way of switching keyboards. In keeping with the "Swipe UI" theme you would just swipe the keyboard horizontally and it would roll over to the next one. Brilliant, elegant, buttonless, consistent.
- bchallenor 12y agoI don't know about SwiftKey, but the Google English, French and Japanese keyboards all bring up the input method dialog when you long-press space. So these three at least are consistent.