Android, Google’s mobile operating system, used to feel like a science project set loose upon the world. A little rough around the edges, but with a powerful center that showed the platform had plenty of growth and room for expansion. For the Android fans out there who’ve been using the platform for years, the one constant has always been that Android was going to get better.
And it absolutely did. Google has a lot of hands in a lot of different projects, some that don’t work out as well as others, but Android is still one element that simply refuses to get left behind. Android is immensely popular, which is obviously the biggest reason Google can’t give up on it, but it’s also incredibly adaptable. It can change in huge and minute ways, all in one software version to the next.
Even more than all of that, it’s a functioning and capable playground for both manufacturers and real world owners. Android can be what you want it to be, and you don’t even need to root the device (anymore). A lot of the biggest ways to change parts of Android are freely available in the Google Play Store and just need to be downloaded and installed.
One of the more common changeable elements is the keyboard. But it also might be the one area that doesn’t really need to be changed anymore.
When I was diving into changing Android to my liking, which meant rooting as many devices as I could back then, one of the things I changed first was the stock keyboard. Google’s efforts back then, and up until just a few years ago in my opinion, weren’t very good in the keyboard department. Especially not compared to the likes of Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Apple’s iOS.
Using third-party keyboard may be a new aspect for Apple’s mobile operating system, but it’s a pretty common practice on Android, and it used to be an essential one as far as I’m concerned. Using options like Swype and many others meant new baked-in features, like the ability to just slide your finger from one letter to the next to spell what you want, and in some cases keyboards that simply had better accuracy while fingers activated digital keys.
Here we are in 2016 and Google’s stock keyboard for Android is really good. It has the features that people have been using in third-party keyboards for awhile, and its accuracy is top level at this point. It looks great as well! And considering how often you have to look at the keyboard on your phone, that’s kind of a big deal (for some).
When Apple introduced third-party keyboard support for iOS I didn’t really give it a shot. I’m a fan of Apple’s stock iOS keyboard so I didn’t really have a reason to. And I know quite a few people who are fans of Apple’s effort, but tried a ton of third-party options (and still try them) simply because they’re happy they have the option to now.
Now looking at Android, I can’t help but think it’s the same thing. In the newest Android devices that I’ve used, I have immediately gone into the Play Store to download the stock keyboard and replace the one manufacturers have as their stock options. And I haven’t considered a third-party keyboard recently, either.
That got me curious about those of you out there that use Android every day, and your keyboard preferences. Do you use Google’s stock option, or are you a fan of a particular third-party option? Or do you use the stock keyboard that came with your phone from a particular manufacturer? Let me know!