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Help Best virtual keyboard app?

S

sammmy

Newbie
What's the best keyboard application for LG Optimus V?

Swipe works well with shorter words but with the longer ones, either I get confused while swiping the word or it can't predict/correct the word if it's not in its dictionary.

I tried Smart Keyboard but still I make lots of typos with it due to the small keys.

Is there a better keyboard with keys that are wide enough to type comfortably without hitting the near-neighbor keys?
 
The Gingerbread keyboard performs best of all I tried so far: Swipe, Better Keyboard 8 and Smart Keyboard.

By performs best I mean I make fewer typos.
 
If you don't mind paying a little, give Ultra Keyboard a try. Skinable with more features than you can shake a stick at. The ability to have a swype type keyboard in portrait and a standard keyboard in landscape is killer.
 
I''ve tried everything with my large, but not humongous hands, and have completely failed on all these new Android keyboards. I've had to resort to my PDA standbys, Graffiti and MessagEase (I find it hard to recommend them unless you already know them, because of their learning curve). I also like using Swype, but only for common words.

Do people use their thumbs, striking with the pad? My thumb's pads seem to be misaligned with where they appear to be from looking at the other side of them when typing. Or forefingers? Or strike with the nail? Do you always go landscape? It astounds me that I see so few people complaining, when I cannot type anything of length without more corrections than successful letters.

What are your virtual keyboard secrets?
 
jj2me said:
Do people use their thumbs, striking with the pad?

What are your virtual keyboard secrets?
Click to expand...

Thumbs are bad...
I think there is a keyboard for people who use thumbs, though. Maybe that will work better?

If I get stuck I will sometimes use the side of my index finger, it makes the contact spot a bit smaller. Not the most comfortable way, but it does improve accuracy when it's needed.
 
Haven't tried it but ppl in the optimus s forums are raving about Steven Lin keyboard. Just search Steve Lin in market. I use better keyboard 8 for gingerbread on my optimus s and it works nice after a Cpl weeks of adding words that aren't there its predictions are great for me
 
gvc said:
use voice command?
Click to expand...

Thanks, but voice command seems like swype in that it does common words, but not the unpredictable words, like URLs or passwords or similar. Those I just can't seem to accurately tap into keyboards.

(Will have to look into voice apps to see if there's any that take spoken characters, like speaking "A B C".)
 
hbimajorv said:
Haven't tried it but ppl in the optimus s forums are raving about Steven Lin keyboard. Just search Steve Lin in market. I use better keyboard 8 for gingerbread on my optimus s and it works nice after a Cpl weeks of adding words that aren't there its predictions are great for me
Click to expand...
That is the Gingerbread keyboard.
 
Leslie Ann said:
Thumbs are bad...
I think there is a keyboard for people who use thumbs, though. Maybe that will work better?

If I get stuck I will sometimes use the side of my index finger, it makes the contact spot a bit smaller. Not the most comfortable way, but it does improve accuracy when it's needed.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you generally use index fingers flat, requiring both hands?

Hovering my index finger (flat, not on its side) over a letter on the Android keyboard in portrait mode obscures just about 4 keys in that row. My thumb is only a little wider. Maybe they're just too wide?
 
jj2me said:
I''ve tried everything with my large, but not humongous hands, and have completely failed on all these new Android keyboards. I've had to resort to my PDA standbys, Graffiti and MessagEase (I find it hard to recommend them unless you already know them, because of their learning curve). I also like using Swype, but only for common words.

Do people use their thumbs, striking with the pad? My thumb's pads seem to be misaligned with where they appear to be from looking at the other side of them when typing. Or forefingers? Or strike with the nail? Do you always go landscape? It astounds me that I see so few people complaining, when I cannot type anything of length without more corrections than successful letters.

What are your virtual keyboard secrets?
Click to expand...

The reality is that there are some people that can't type well on a virtual keyboard...especially if you have larger hands. If I had to do much manual text input I wouldn't have an Optimus. Fortunately I can do most of mine via voice recognition, but if I buy a higher-end Android phone down the road, it will have a physical keyboard again. I started with the Intercept but it was a dog performance-wise.

The one other thing to remember is that you have a much larger virtual keyboard to type on when the phone is in landscape mode.

It's too bad the Motorola Atrix is the only Android phone with a laptop dock. I do see there are mini bluetooth keyboards that are supposed to be Android compatible, but I've never heard of anyone actually using one, yet.
 
TVCCS said:
The reality is that there are some people that can't type well on a virtual keyboard...especially if you have larger hands. If I had to do much manual text input I wouldn't have an Optimus Fortunately I can do most of mine via voice recognition, but if I buy a higher-end Android phone down the road, it will have a physical keyboard again. I started with the Intercept but it was a dog performance-wise.

The one other thing to remember is that you have a much larger virtual keyboard to type on when the phone is in landscape mode.

It's too bad the Motorola Atrix is the only Android phone with a laptop dock. I do see there are mini bluetooth keyboards that are supposed to be Android compatible, but I've never heard of anyone actually using one, yet.
Click to expand...
I have a mini bluetooth keyboard for the PS3...I wonder if it would pair up with the optimus? Hmmm...you got me thinking now! LOL
 
jj2me said:
Sounds like you generally use index fingers flat, requiring both hands?

Hovering my index finger (flat, not on its side) over a letter on the Android keyboard in portrait mode obscures just about 4 keys in that row. My thumb is only a little wider. Maybe they're just too wide?
Click to expand...

Often yes, but I sometimes do the one handed thumb thing. Again, the side of your thumb helps at times.

Big fingers are probably as much of a hassle as fingernails, I would imagine.
 
If I need to input text, especially in the car, I have a stylus handy...the same type used for an iPad/iPhone. There's another thread about styli here.
 
Has anyone noticed that most of the other virtual keybords seem to cover up the text view as you type? I love Gingerbread keyboard but I can't see the text as I type unless I remove the word prediction panel (but I want that!) I keep reverting back to swype.
 
On my Inc I had Vlingo and loved it. Mainly because the speech-to-text worked a lot better than stock.

Now that Swype is pre-installed on this phone I'm making myself try it for a week or two. If I decide I'm not with it, I'll download Vlingo again.

Vlingo used to be $10 but it became free a few months ago.

Voice to Text Applications Powered by Intelligent Voice Recognition | Vlingo specifically Android Voice to Text and Voice Recognition Apps | Vlingo

Note that it has a keyboard but it also allows you to control your phone in many ways by voice, for example texting while driving can be done entirely with your voice.
 
I tried most of the keyboards and settled for smart keyboard. My biggest issue is that I have big hands and need to type with one hand so I hold the phone in portrait and I use the compact layout which is similar to the blackberry's suretype (pearl) layout. The included dictionaries are not perfect but the more I use it the better it gets.
 
I love Swipe, at first I didn't like it but I was making lots of mistakes taping out letters so I decided to try to learn swipe and after a few days I was sweeping my finger across the screen like I was born to swipe. Felt like the first time I learned to tap out text messages using the numeric key pad, I use to be super fast on that too.
 
I LOVE and I mean LOVE SlideIt, kind of the same idea as Swype but I like SlideIt much better...
 
I did not like swype or the stock android, but today i got the Swiftkey and I like that a lot.
Was pretty good Amazon put it up as their free app of the day.
 
I use HTC Sense Keyboard (by XDA Devs :P) suited for low res phones like Optimus V. I looked all over the place for a good T9 keyboard app but couldn't find one for free and I'm glad because this keyboard rocks! It turns into a full qwerty keyboard if your screen is in landscape mode and its a very good T9 keyboard when the screen is in portrait mode.
 
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