The recent news that Microsoft purchased Swiftkey keyboard has seen several Android users looking for alternatives. Given that there are many people who don’t like Microsoft for its invasiveness and lack of respect for users recently, this comes as no surprise.
There are several alternative keyboard apps in the Google Play Store, but I will list the top five options out of the lot that I’ve tried and think are the most worthy replacements for Swiftkey Keyboard. The apps are listed in no particular order.
1. Minuum Keyboard
Minuum Keyboard brings a whole new typing experience to your Android smartphone. If you’ve ever been disgusted by the sheer amount of screen space that some keyboard apps use up, Minuum may just be what you’re looking for. The app takes up a very minimal amount of screen space but still works very efficiently when typing. When you want to enter a URL or password, you can easily summon the full-sized mode for that purpose. The auto-correct feature of Minuum is quite excellent, and you also get other standard features such as emoji, voice typing and word prediction. Other useful options such as cursor control, search, and clipboard tools (cut, copy and paste) are also included in the package.
Price: Free (30-day trial) / $3.99
2. Flesky Keyboard
Flesky is my personal favourite in this list, and it’s not hard to see why. It holds the Guinness world record for typing speed and offers several extensions that can ease the typing experience for you to a very large degree. Flesky offers an unmatched autocorrect feature, so you really do not need to hit the correct character, as the app can automatically correct your mistakes for you. Also included in the package are tons of emoji, built-in gifs, several themes, keyboard layouts (QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ, DVORAK or Colemak) and much more. Flesky was previously a premium app, but you can now enjoy all of its features for free.
Price: Free
3. Google Keyboard
Google Keyboard comes preinstalled on a number of Android devices such as the Nexus and Android One devices. It doesn’t have any special features such as built-in gifs, but it has a decent word prediction, auto-completion and gesture typing that works really well in my experience. The emoji selection is also very large, and more are being added all the time. You can also syncronize all your customizations and history across several devices with a Google account.
4. TouchPal Emoji Keyboard
TouchPal is another excellent keyboard app that offers a lot of neat features that you will love. In addition to standard options like emoji, smileys and word prediction, TouchPal supports over 90 languages and also allows for extensive customisation with hundreds of themes and wallpapers available for your use. You are even allowed to create your own theme or set a custom wallpaper (such as your photo) if you wish. In addition, TouchPal offers a gesture typing feature (TouchPal curve) that works fine and useful clipboard tools that make copying and pasting from app to app a breeze.
5. Ginger Keyboard
Ginger Keyboard is one of the highly-rated keyboard apps in the Play Store with a couple of unique features of its own that may appeal to you. The app aims to improve your typing speed and quality by offering grammar, spelling and punctuation correction as well as next-word prediction. Ginger Keyboard also aims to entertain you with several simple games that you can play right from within the keyboard. The smartbar provides integration with several apps such as Wunderlist, Evernote, Todoist, Google Calender and much more, so you can quickly create events or take notes quickly and faster than ever. You can also add your own selection of apps to the smartbar if you wish to.
Let us know which Swiftkey alternative you’ve decided to go with and why in the comments below. If you know any other decent keyboard apps that you think should be included here, we’d love to hear about those as well.
Ayo Isaiah is a freelance writer from Lagos who loves everything technology with a particular interest in open-source software. Follow him on Twitter.
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