Using the Stock Keyboard

[crewchief227]

Am I missing something or am the only one using the stock keyboard and seem to be doing just fine. I mean I just can't see myself paying the $4 for something like swiftkey when I just typed this post almost as fast as I type on a regular keyboard.

 

[Brian360]

There is no way you typed that as fast as you can type on a regular keyboard. Tapping to text is so annoying. Swype Beta is free and I payed like 6$ for "Slide It" keyboard. I can text and hold the phone with one hand, can you do that? Probably not...

 

[jparker71]

I still use stock keyboard, it really suits me fine. I tried slideit and I did not like it at all. Different strokes I guess.....

 

[TheBlackPrince]

I imagine you could type really short messages like SMS and text really fast on a touchscreen keyboard like the stock one, but type longer messages like emails faster on Swype or a hardware keyboard. At least, that's how it is for me...

 

[takirb]

I can text and hold the phone with one hand, can you do that? Probably not...

Why you say that? I can text just fine one-handed on the stock keyboard. I stopped using Swype for that exact reason, too hard to swype one-handed. Just 'cause you can't do something doesn't mean others can't

I've tried several diff types of keyboards and still end up reverting back to stock (mainly for the arrow keys). I used Swype longer than any other additional keyboard, but it got old and i noticed i was forcing myself to use it cause it was different, vs being the most comfortable for me. I really could fly on Swype if i wasn't doing it one-handed though. But I'm still looking for a better keyboard than anything i've seen thus far.

 

[Steve.sukaninc]

My swype stopped swyping. What do I do? Where do I get it? Can't seem to find it anywhere. Appreciate any help. I have admit it's the best especially for a bad typer like myself.

 

[Shane112358]

I've actually started using the voice feature for inputting text a lot (when I'm alone). It's superior even to a physical keyboard, obviously. Otherwise I use Swype or stock KB depending on the content (Swype sucks for lots of acronyms or punctuation)

 

[Cobravision]

Android stock is the best keyboard I've ever used. It's not the HTC stock on the Evo, but rather the stock froyo keyboard ported from the Nexus One. Rather than rehashing everything I love about it, here's my post in the tips & tricks forum:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-tips-tricks/149296-froyos-keyboard-evo-4g-loving.html#post1587973

You can scroll up to the top of the page to download the apk and throw a thanks to the OP.

If you installed Vlingo, the Vlingo keyboard is the stock 2.1 keyboard with a dedicated Vlingo voice button. That is great if you like to use voice to text -- if you tap on a word, it will highlight the entire word and offer you suggested alternatives or let you replace that word with voice or via keyboard. If you like using voice to text, it is simply the only keyboard you should be using.

My biggest problem with the stock keyboard is the ultra strict policy of adding any non-standard word to the user dictionary and the lack of smart spacing. And even in landscape, I make so many typos that I need the cursor buttons. With the Android keyboard, I really don't make enough mistakes to warrant them. It's too twitchy to use one-handed in portrait mode, so I would always shift to landscape with the stock HTC keyboard. Now I stay 99% of the time in portrait mode since it's really no faster for me when I switch to landscape. I hit the wrong keys all the time, but the software compensates with the suggested words. The HTC keyboard software is just not as good in this regard.

BTW, one of the problems with Swype was that it didn't work with gremote or RDP. So I would have to manually change the keyboard whenever I used those apps. But it didn't really matter in the end -- I just didn't like Swype.