Although Swype is often cited as the best third-party keyboard available for the HTC EVO 4G, it may be getting some serious competition from the multitouch keyboard that was recently ripped from the upcoming Droid X.
What makes this keyboard interesting is that it lets you press more than one key at a time, which means that you can hold down the Shift key while pressing a letter key to capitalize it (yes, like on the iPhone). Being able to do this actually takes some time to get used to if you have a lot of experience with other on-screen keyboards and/or the Sticky Keys feature in Windows, but it's handy once it becomes second nature.
The original keyboard highlights are red to match the Droid X's color scheme, but enragedpaza from the xda-developers forum just released a modded version with green highlights to match the EVO a little better. A black version is said to be in the works.
The green version wasn't out when I grabbed the keyboard the other week, so I have the original red one.
I've been using this Droid X keyboard off and on for about a week now, and it's really good. The layout is clean, the keys are large, and the multitouch integration is great. It's definitely worth checking out for yourself.
Need help? See the "How to use a different keyboard on your HTC EVO 4G" tutorial.
I’ve been using Swiftkey for Android and it’s also pretty good. It actually tries to predict your NEXT word BEFORE you type it! It generally works pretty well. http://www.swiftkey.net/
Both Swype and Swiftkey are great except for the missing Voice to Text button, though. It would be great if some of these special features of the various keyboards came together in one super keyboard!
Tried to download and they ask me to email them to get real app.
I like this keyboard better than the stock sense keyboard, im a lot more accurate with it. Maybe because of the spacing between the keys.
Hi Jenn, I like the looks of this keyboard. Did you just go to the developer’s website, download the zip and then email him the password as he suggests? or is there some easier way to get it? Thanks
I just downloaded the original red one from xda.
SlideIT has the voice to text button, and I love typing/swyping with one hand only.
I have been trying this keyboard, but it has several issues that keep me using Swype.
1) it doesn’t auto capitalize the pronoun “I”
2) No cursor/arrow keys. This is a killer for me.
3) When I use it in landscape, the text area becomes too small. This is to make room for the large keys, but it makes checking what I am writing too difficult.
So I think I still stick with Swype.
I have been using Swift and it has predicted more than one entire sentence of words a lot. It is in Alpha so the upgrades most often lose data but once it is in beta and beyond it’s accuracy of predictability will be higher. Using it on rooted Hero and EVO.
phone doesnt have to be rooted to do this does it?
Nope. Very easy to do. Just go to the xda site on your phone, download the .apk file to your phone and install. Easy schmeazy. Then go into setting-keyboard-and turn it on.
Ummm… you could alwys come visit us here in hawaii. We love your tourist money. Just dont be a typical european tourist snob
http://www.thickbuttons.com/
thickbutton was a pretty cool concept too. if they could all be merged into one, thatd be perfect.
Yeah, it’s not too bad. You can see from the first image in the post that I have ThickButtons installed.
Any props for Smart Keyboard Pro? I’m really interested in the auto-text feature (e.g. “idk” turns into “I don’t know”). Perhaps there is a better keyboard for accomplishing the same thing?
I bought Smart Keyboard Pro thinking it would solve my issue of constantly.hitting.the.period.button.when.I.was.trying.to.hit.the.space.bar.
It didn’t. I guess I have fat fingers. But I’ve seen other folks complain about it, too.
Other than that, it was great. I liked the auto-text feature but rarely remembered to use it. And the text prediction seemed much better than stock.
I use past tense because I’ve since switched to Swype. There’s no looking back, in my opinion, once you retrain your brain to use it.
SlideIT isn’t as good as Swype at predicting/interpreting me.
The black version is done and there is a variety of other colors available. But it should be noted that this only runs on a rooted device.
The Froyo unrevoked for EVO is due out tonight, so hopefully I can try it then.
Wasn’t able to get this to work with my nonrooted Evo.
cant get this to work, force closes over and over.
i think it does not work with froyo