Kii Keyboard for Android

One of the things that I most enjoy about Android is the fact that the keyboard itself is changeable, and that you could merely install an app that will change everything about the keyboard that you could think of, including such innovations as displaying word predictions and entering text via ‘swiping’ gestures rather than clicking each key individually.

Kii keyboard, which is currently free while in beta, offers both swiping gesture input as well as keyboard predictions. It  addition, it offers multiple language support, multiple skins, long-press shift entry for special or additional characters



There are plenty of good and/or interesting keyboards for Android, so I will cut to the chase and list a few reasons why I like this one (a.k.a. the PROS section).

• Very nice ‘swiping gestures’ input. If you haven’t seen this you must try it. There are other keyboard that offer this that are mostly paid apps (Swype, SlideIT), but the only free option is TouchPal Keyboard, and, at least for the time being Kii Keyboard as well. Note that you have to enable the
• Has a nice ‘feeling’ to it: it feels great from the get go. I know this is subjective, but it’s the whole reason why I am writing it up at all.
• Themes and customizability: many skins to choose from. See screenshot above right.

Cons:

• Adding a custom word to the dictionary seems rather more involved that it should be. They should add a simple ‘add this word’ option right then and there whenever you type in the new word.
• It is frequently difficult to discern some of the special characters that can be invoked via long click. They really should be made more clearly visible.

The verdict: a very nice keyboard, especially if you’re looking for swiping gestures input, which is implemented very nicely.
It does not seem to ‘learn’ and predict your frequently used phrases and words as efficiently as Swiftkey, but it is an excellent keyboard nonetheless that has found a spot as the default keyboard on my Android, at least for now.
Get Kii Keyboard here (free while in beta).

Kii Keyboard for Android