I used a non standard keyboard a long time ago and while it did deliver, the most important thing I learned is that non standard things tend to disappear and the time spent learning it was wasted.
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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Try to use open source software. Harder for it to disappear.
My experience is it's not worth it unless you're looking for maybe a one-handed keyboard and want to type blindly (like, send a quick text while talking to someone without looking at your phone much).
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the default AOSP keyboard and Gboard. 70 WPM is more than good enough for texting, Slack, emails, and posting on social media.
A bit of an addendum: I think the limiting factor of a mobile keyboard is going to be that you have 1-2 fingers available for use rather than all 10.
A lot of those alternative keyboards seem to rely on some swiping gestures or drawing symbols. That's good when you're not looking at it as it's very tolerant to misalignment, but if you already move fast and precisely, that feels like it would get in the way.
Looking at my fingers while I type, I'm already moving my thumbs as fast as I can without getting too sore: where it goes next doesn't matter, it's the same amount of time. Having to press and then move and release, in theory should only slow me down because by the time I finish the drag motion and lift the finger, I would have just moved my finger over the next key and pressed it. So that kind of layering is out of the window.
I can't think of a way to type faster without involving mnemonics and chorded entry, but with two fingers you don't gain that much.
Also I feel like the bottleneck there is how fast I can think of what to say next anyway.
How do you measure your WPM on a phone? I'd like to try myself. 😅
I just Googled "typing test" and picked the first result which was typingtest.com. I don't know if it's good or accurate but it checks out for the score I expected.
Minuum supposedly measures wpm and has been my favorite mobile keyboard since release. Unfortunately it hasn't been updated in years.
Interesting idea regarding how it works. I've never seen it before now.
I've never felt the need for such a thing, but why limit yourself to just one? Just try both and see if they work for you.
The fastest touchscreen keyboard I've ever found is OpenBoard with Gesture Typing: it's both a regular keyboard and a super-fast Swype-like keyboard. It's open-source and it doesn't connect to the internet, so you don't need to freak out because the APK is 2 years old.
But it uses google glide typing
I thought OpenBoard originally used GApps libraries like HeliBoard, but maybe it changed since I last used OpenBoard years ago...