A rundown of keyboards for Android phones
There are a ton of keyboards you can use instead of the Android default. Here’s my take on them.
Default (pre-gingerbread)
Nice, quick and simple. Light footprint and does decent job with the auto correction. No multi touch support, no alternate layouts, nothing fancy.
Swype
The current leader in the swipe typing category, in competition with the ShapeWriter and SlideIT. Does a pretty good, although I’ve found that recent-ish updates have vastly increased the size of the dictionary which means that it recommends stupid words that I would never say and have never heard. Also runs a bit sluggish on my phone. Also annoying is that it’s still in Beta which means that you have to download it through Skype’s website rather than the market and you must manually update.
SlideIT
Basically Swype but with slightly less accurate prediction/correction (at least in my experience). At least this one’s in the market, though.
ShapeWriter
In my experience, vastly superior to both Swype and SlideIT. Runs well on my phone and has good prediction. Downside is that it’s no longer on the Android market and there’s not even an official place to get it, so I had to resort to getting it through a random forum post, which is shady at best.
Smart Keyboard Pro
A great, flexible, multi-touch keyboard with a load of options, layouts, themes, etc. Did a pretty good job correcting my typing, even with me using two thumbs and going as quickly as possible. Not sluggish at all, themes look good, and the settings (although there are tons of them) are laid out logically. Fun to use.
Better Keyboard
Basically the same as Smart Keyboard Pro but with themes listed as separate market apps, not quite as many options, and (at least in my experience), slightly less accurate typing correction. Still worth a try.
SwiftKey
This is the one I’m using as my primary keyboard now. The thing that sets it apart is its contextual word prediction - it predicts what you’re typing based on which word makes the most since to go after the words before it, and also based on what you have typed in the past. This means that it predicts a word before you even start typing it, and lots of commonly used expressions can be typed out by just hitting the space key over and over. Also has good multi-touch and looks nice (although there’s only 1 theme). Runs a little sluggish on my phone but not enough to really complain.
