Slightly OT: I installed SwiftKey (currently the top option under iOS on this website), and I really like the concept (would at least like to try it out, even though I've developed a pretty good proficiency with two-thumb typing), but I don't like the fact that it's hard to re-do/correct the last word. I can either type slowly, which defeats the point of the keyboard, or type quickly and have to do the slow process of backspacing the last word and re-swiping it (which slows you down a lot).
Is there some magic gesture I'm missing, or is there a different third-party keyboard that has a similar idea but is better in this regard? I'm tempted to pay the $1 for Swype but I don't want to bother to do that and then discover it has similar problems.
With Swype (my favourite), a single backspace deletes a word you just typed. Alternatively, you can select a correction of the word from the correction bar.
I don't know about the iOS version, but on Swiftkey on Android swiping your finger from right to left across the whole keyboard deletes the previous word.
I'm using the ordinary typing mode though. I don't know if this works if you have the Flow mode enabled.
You should try fleksy. It's what I currently use after running into the same issue you mentioned. Fleksy let's you swipe up and down to scroll through the list of suggested words, so if the keyboard ends up picking the wrong word based on your input, putting "passing" instead of "padding" say, you are one flick away from having the correct word instead of having to delete the entire word and retype it again, hoping that the keyboard picks the right completion this time.
I have tried all of the keyboards on the list for Android, and it's because of this swipe feature that I can't use anything else.
For Android, I really like SwiftKey, and have been using it for years. Its predictions are very accurate and it (un)learns very quickly.
But since the last updates (maybe when they added emojis? I'm not sure) it has become laggy and unresponsive, sometimes I end typing a phrase and have to wait several seconds while I see the text painfully appearing one letter at a time in the screen. Also there is a period of 1-2 seconds after I send a message when I can't press any key, as it will be ignored. I don't use Flow.
However, it has something that I can't find in any other keyboard: two simultaneous languages. Every keyboard allows to select several languages and change between them, but in SwiftKey they work at the same time and you can use both seamlessly, and for me that's irreplaceable.
If you like another keyboard but need the functionality that Hacker's Keyboard provides, you can try JuiceSSH, which augments any keyboard with control characteres, function keys, etc.
PerfectKeyboard for Android? I use it daily thanks to the T9 layout (not sure if that's the correct name for it, but the old Nokia style phonepad layout)
I was going to note that 8pen[1] was left out of the Android list, but it doesn't appear to be on the Play Store right now. According to their website they are working on a new version.
Most of the iOS ones have been on Android for a long time. Obviously, it's easy to get yourself up to speed on the new platform when you've already done all the R&D and just need to do a port.
Slightly off topic but I have been less than impressed with iOS 3rd-party keyboards compared to their Android counterparts. I noticed they take a bit longer to load and are really inconsistent on when they load. Open AppA, get stock. Open AppB, get Swiftkey. etc. On my wife's iPhone 5 she just wouldn't get a keyboard at all sometimes.
Anybody else uncomfortable with the fact that these drop-in keyboard replacements are effectively sanctioned keyloggers that send keystrokes to a remote server?
When you turn them on, Android will even warn you of that possibility. SwiftKey has some sort of cloud (opt-in) feature[1] so it's a keylogger with benefits.
I occasionally get uncomfortable with this. I had an eerie experience with SwiftKey on Android a few months ago where I was sending someone my bank account details over SMS (I know, I know) so they could wire me some money, and I typed
"My bank account number is"
And the next suggested word from my keyboard was my actual bank account number. Same thing happened with my sort code. I guess I sent my details to someone a few months before and it just remembered the info.
Other than that slight "oh crap" moment though, the fact it listens to and remembers everything I write comes in super handy. Turns out I use the same few phrases a lot more than I thought I did, and swiping away at my keyboard, and having it predict my next word quickly and accurately saves me SO much time.
It doesn't appear that SwiftKey allows for swiping across the keyboard unless you give it full access. I just installed it and then removed it because of this.
This is the primary reason that I chose swype over swiftkey on iOS. It doesn't require internet access, so as far as I understand it, all my keystrokes are completely sandboxed inside it.
No way I'm agreeing to have everything I type transmitted to a third party.
Can anyone elaborate on this (or at least confirm)?
I can deal with "remote keylogger" _if_ I feel I can trust the business (however ill-defined that may be). Real sore point is ye ole NSA/FBI/whoever being able to demand/siphon that data, so on-device sandboxing is much preferred.
SwiftKey is pretty neat, but may switch to Swype once I'm convinced it's worth the few bucks for a local secure sandbox.
I have more practical concerns. I might "trust" the company not to abuse or sell my data - but do I trust that they are actually competent enough to secure it? It is abuse by hackers which gain access to the data that I am worried about.
Am I the only one uncomfortabke with a third party managing my keyboard? I wish Android had a sane security policy for keyboard controls but they don't.
By definition it must be able to see your keystrokes. What sort of policy are you looking for? I guess you could deny them internet access on a more granular level, but otherwise, it seems like they need pretty terrifying permissions to even work.
You might want to replace the screenshots of the Android keyboards - you're using the screenshots of the cross-platform keyboards running on iOS devices, and they look different when running on Android devices.
Hey all, we make one of the keyboards on the list, Minuum. It has been really fun to see the iOS community jumping on to third party keyboards so whole-heartedly.
I'm curious, since I've never really asked the HN community about this: what do hackers look for in a virtual keyboard? We all have strong opinions on optimizing our hardware keyboards, (I suspect HN has one of the highest proportions of DVORAK users out there) but I've seen less debate for soft keyboards.
Software keyboards have the potential to be much more flexible and customizable than hardware ones, is this something that we want or need? Is lack of a good coding keyboard the thing that stops us from really writing code on a tablet?
Minuum is great, one of the first I downloaded for iOS8. One thing that I would like to see more of is text expansion. Apple's stock keyboard has it but I don't think I've seen it in 3rd party keyboards. I also really like gestures if they are implemented correctly
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 109 ms ] threadIs there some magic gesture I'm missing, or is there a different third-party keyboard that has a similar idea but is better in this regard? I'm tempted to pay the $1 for Swype but I don't want to bother to do that and then discover it has similar problems.
I'm using the ordinary typing mode though. I don't know if this works if you have the Flow mode enabled.
I have tried all of the keyboards on the list for Android, and it's because of this swipe feature that I can't use anything else.
But since the last updates (maybe when they added emojis? I'm not sure) it has become laggy and unresponsive, sometimes I end typing a phrase and have to wait several seconds while I see the text painfully appearing one letter at a time in the screen. Also there is a period of 1-2 seconds after I send a message when I can't press any key, as it will be ignored. I don't use Flow.
However, it has something that I can't find in any other keyboard: two simultaneous languages. Every keyboard allows to select several languages and change between them, but in SwiftKey they work at the same time and you can use both seamlessly, and for me that's irreplaceable.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.ju...
Android keyboards have been around for much longer and you'd expect them to be more competitive surely.
[1] http://www.8pen.com/
[1] http://swiftkey.com/en/more-about-cloud/
"My bank account number is"
And the next suggested word from my keyboard was my actual bank account number. Same thing happened with my sort code. I guess I sent my details to someone a few months before and it just remembered the info.
Other than that slight "oh crap" moment though, the fact it listens to and remembers everything I write comes in super handy. Turns out I use the same few phrases a lot more than I thought I did, and swiping away at my keyboard, and having it predict my next word quickly and accurately saves me SO much time.
If you do enable full access, then yep, anything is fair game. But that's a tradeoff users can make.
[1] - https://twitter.com/SwiftKey/status/514540356918972416
[2] - http://swiftkey.com/en/blog/swiftkey-require-full-access/
[3] - https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Genera...
No way I'm agreeing to have everything I type transmitted to a third party.
I can deal with "remote keylogger" _if_ I feel I can trust the business (however ill-defined that may be). Real sore point is ye ole NSA/FBI/whoever being able to demand/siphon that data, so on-device sandboxing is much preferred.
SwiftKey is pretty neat, but may switch to Swype once I'm convinced it's worth the few bucks for a local secure sandbox.
I'm curious, since I've never really asked the HN community about this: what do hackers look for in a virtual keyboard? We all have strong opinions on optimizing our hardware keyboards, (I suspect HN has one of the highest proportions of DVORAK users out there) but I've seen less debate for soft keyboards.
Software keyboards have the potential to be much more flexible and customizable than hardware ones, is this something that we want or need? Is lack of a good coding keyboard the thing that stops us from really writing code on a tablet?