Curious to know which keyboard everyone is using?
Been rocking swiftkey since it's launch
So I want three key features on my smartphone keyboard:
- Swiping — I think this is best/fastest for one-handed** use (on smaller phones) and getting into a flow state
- Cursor control — Move the cursor without leaving the keyboard to use Apple's magnification tool
- Select and transform — select text and cut/copy/paste etc
Unfortunately Apple doesn't allow third party keyboards to select text/cut/copy. Pasting from the clipboard is also limited...
So the keyboard I want to use is
Nintype. It supports swiping. It supports not just the left-right cursor control but up-down (four way) movement. It even supports swiping quick delete and
undo! I love using those features:
and although selection/transformation is limited by Apple's restrictions, Nintype also supports some nifty tricks like capitalization:
However I hesitate to recommend Nintype because it is a overwhelming app with almost too many features. This is how it appears to beginners:
I first learnt to use a swiping keyboard with Swype (on Android) and prefer its simple one-handed use**. Nintype defaults to an advanced two-handed operation. I dove deep into the
manual and configured it as best I could to operate like swype (as in my gif above) and disabled as many unwanted features as possible but I still inadvertently launch a menu every now and then (every key can launch an edit mode - pure insanity). There's a proposal to release
a simpler version of Nintype but for now I have to use an alternative.
My backup simpler keyboard is
Typiora. It's 'free' but a little weird; it's linked to some Facebook game and makes money selling themes and coins. Needless to say I didn't grant it Full Access and didn't link a Facebook account but it seems to work regardless. It supports most of the same features as Nintype: swiping, quick delete and undo (I actually discovered this feature in Typiora first before noticing it in Nintype :0), text case control etc. It doesn't work as well as Nintype though; it is slower and less accurate. I turned off almost all the advanced features, swiping included, and use it as though it were a slightly advanced form of the stock keyboard with cursor control & quick delete/swipe undo.
So the two keyboards I want to use are
Nintype and
Typiora. However the keyboard I end up using the most is the stock Apple keyboard simply because third party keyboards just keep crashing all the damn time. I even had the Notes app in my dock for a while because it was the only sure-fire remedy for launching a disappeared third party keyboard. Every third party keyboard falls victim to Apple's RAM restrictions. It's unfortunate that the many talented keyboard developers are shackled from delivering their best work on iOS; every multi-platform keyboard (Swype, Swiftype etc) is much better on Android. It's a goddam disgrace that Apple hasn't fixed these issues on iOS9 and I'm tempted to switch...
**NB: while I personally prefer one-handed typing, others may prefer two-handed typing in portrait mode (especially on the larger iPhone 6+) in which case Nintype's two-handed typing mode — the only such swiping keyboard available — is the best option out there
Addendum: review of iOS stock keyboard
- Swiping — hahahaha... nope
- Cursor control — shitty left+right arrows keys on iPhone*+ landscape keyboard. modal 3D touch sliding on iPhone 6s/+ (requires pressure and a slight delay compared to simple sliding on space key as above)
- Select and transform — shitty cut/copy/paste only on iPhone*+ landscape keyboard. modal 3D touch sliding on iPhone 6s/+ (requires pressure and a long delay; harder to use one handed).
Verdict:
