Database Info

Gesture Input Method / Keyboard

I've done a cursory search looking for something like this but have been unable to find something...
Does anyone know if there is an app/keyboard replacement which has a screen much like the gesture search screen, allowing a person to draw individual letters and have them placed into the input box? Yes, it has shades of Graffiti (from the-company-which-shall-not-be-named), but would make typing while the unit is in a car dock, or just when standard keyboards are a pain in the ass, much easier.
I can't believe something doesn't already exist, so I turn to all of you.
Help me, XDA, you're my only hope.
+++++++++++
N1, CM6
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Well, it would appear something kind of comes close ... graffiti or stroke keyboard work, tiny input area. But MobileWriter looks to be very much along the lines of what I had envisioned, but does anyone know of something with the same sized writing area which doesn't cost 5 bucks?
I'll get mobilewriter if nothing turns up, but hey...free is cheaper than 5
Thanks!

Graffiti has been ported to Android. Search for it in the Market.

The input box is still quite small. I'm thinking of something where one could essentially be inputting with one hand (using the thumb of the hand holding the device) without even needing to look at it, so a large forgiving graffiti area would be best. Thanks for the tip though.

[Q] Looking for HTC keyboard! (T9)

I've searched throughout XDA and can't seem to find a keyboard that I can install that brings back my beloved T9! Searching the market brings up little as well.
I just recently got CM6.1 + Kernel #43 (+ various other things) but before this i was still using MoDaCo's 1.5 ROM and although I love [almost] EVERYTHING about CM6 - I can't find a way to get the dial-pad keyboard with T9 for texting. I'm assuming it doesn't exist.
I just want to know what keyboard is good and simple and includes a T9 dialpad-style keyboard for portrait view. Preferably free... but not required.
Some keyboards I've heard of, but no verification of T9:
Smart Keyboard Pro
Swift Key
SWYPE

YoshioDuo said:
I've searched throughout XDA and can't seem to find a keyboard that I can install that brings back my beloved T9! Searching the market brings up little as well.
I just recently got CM6.1 + Kernel #43 (+ various other things) but before this i was still using MoDaCo's 1.5 ROM and although I love [almost] EVERYTHING about CM6 - I can't find a way to get the dial-pad keyboard with T9 for texting. I'm assuming it doesn't exist.
I just want to know what keyboard is good and simple and includes a T9 dialpad-style keyboard for portrait view. Preferably free... but not required.
Some keyboards I've heard of, but no verification of T9:
Smart Keyboard Pro
Swift Key
SWYPE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my HTC IME thread Has compact QWERTY and T9 modes

THANKYOU!
This is fantastic!
EXACTLY what I was looking for. I can type extremely fast now (even in the car... shhhh) and at first, I was glad to have to T9 back but the keyboard itself looked a bit goofy. Then I saw the 'AOSP generic look'; it is perfect.
Thanks so much!

Follow up
Ok - I had to follow up on this again after using the keyboard for a few days. I don't think I did it much justice.
This keyboard is incredible. Not only is it simple looking (although you can apply other themes if you wish), the customizability (is that a word?) is insane. I spent forever just going through and playing with all the settings. Sometime it takes a while since you have to kill the keyboard and wait a second for it to come back in a typing app to test it, then go back to the settings menu, tweak, rinse & repeat.
I was thrilled to see that there are custom smiles because when I do use the smilies, which isn't often, I don't like them to have the 'dash' noses (ex. ) I prefer the simple but maybe I'm just really picky. Having the customizable smilies is awesome. You could even just replace them with anything you use often. One downside however is if you add too many, they'll just run off the screen and you'll not have access to them.
The custom swipes is a nice feature as well. When you swipe along the keyboard in one of four directions, you can assign custom functions. I have my 'swipe-up' set to 'Shift' so I can get capital letters quickly. I know it doesn't seem quicker than pressing the shift key but it is for me. It just feels more natural too when I'm texting or emailing. You can even set a swipe to change languages , I think this would make multi linqual people very satisfied. Type BOOM Tipo BOOM 类型 BOOM Тип.
There are many other settings including the organization of buttons, word prediction and spelling settings, and much more. You can even save and restore settings!
Best of all... it's FREE!
Edit: Thanks again!

YoshioDuo said:
This is fantastic!
EXACTLY what I was looking for. I can type extremely fast now (even in the car... shhhh) and at first, I was glad to have to T9 back but the keyboard itself looked a bit goofy. Then I saw the 'AOSP generic look'; it is perfect.
Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YoshioDuo said:
Ok - I had to follow up on this again after using the keyboard for a few days. I don't think I did it much justice.
This keyboard is incredible. Not only is it simple looking (although you can apply other themes if you wish), the customizability (is that a word?) is insane. I spent forever just going through and playing with all the settings. Sometime it takes a while since you have to kill the keyboard and wait a second for it to come back in a typing app to test it, then go back to the settings menu, tweak, rinse & repeat.
I was thrilled to see that there are custom smiles because when I do use the smilies, which isn't often, I don't like them to have the 'dash' noses (ex. ) I prefer the simple but maybe I'm just really picky. Having the customizable smilies is awesome. You could even just replace them with anything you use often. One downside however is if you add too many, they'll just run off the screen and you'll not have access to them.
The custom swipes is a nice feature as well. When you swipe along the keyboard in one of four directions, you can assign custom functions. I have my 'swipe-up' set to 'Shift' so I can get capital letters quickly. I know it doesn't seem quicker than pressing the shift key but it is for me. It just feels more natural too when I'm texting or emailing. You can even set a swipe to change languages , I think this would make multi linqual people very satisfied. Type BOOM Tipo BOOM 类型 BOOM Тип.
There are many other settings including the organization of buttons, word prediction and spelling settings, and much more. You can even save and restore settings!
Best of all... it's FREE!
Edit: Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem man, happy to help out

One more quickie
One last question... I noticed you posted the keyboard in CMDA Hero, but would this also work on my Galaxy S Tab?

YoshioDuo said:
One last question... I noticed you posted the keyboard in CMDA Hero, but would this also work on my Galaxy S Tab?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No this will not

although you are obviously happy already, i found that the keyboard in the above thread doesnt work for my 6.1 setup. for others who run across this, see this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8050661&postcount=2587
its the same thing, and it doesnt force close.

steve19137 said:
although you are obviously happy already, i found that the keyboard in the above thread doesnt work for my 6.1 setup. for others who run across this, see this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8050661&postcount=2587
its the same thing, and it doesnt force close.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never had a FC... are you running the correct version for low res?

theimpaler747 said:
I've never had a FC... are you running the correct version for low res?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im pretty sure i was. but im not worried about it anymore, i have that link, and it works so yeah.

steve19137 said:
im pretty sure i was. but im not worried about it anymore, i have that link, and it works so yeah.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, well so long as it works then

So the wife can't live without her stock HTC keyboard. I'm going to flash AOSP's CM7 build for her, but I was wondering if anyone knows of a plain old stock HTC ime that will work with GB and specifically this ROM? Thanks.

[Request] x/160 for CM 6.2 stock messaging APP

Title pretty much says it all.... I really would like to be able to see how many characters out of 160 I have used when im texting. I dont really know how possible this is, if it even is at all; but if if someone out there could make me a flashable.......... . .. ... .. .. . tweak? I would really appreciate it
If it matters, im running CM 6.2 (31 Dec) with the "no dash smilyface keyboard" tweak
I have NO IDEA what developing stuff like this takes, and if what im asking for is a GIANT task, then forget it lol

I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but when you get close to the limit, it shows you either how many characters you've used (150/160) or how many you have left (10), I just don't remember exactly. It shows up underneath the send button.

BlaqkAudio said:
I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but when you get close to the limit, it shows you either how many characters you've used (150/160) or how many you have left (10), I just don't remember exactly. It shows up underneath the send button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only when typing in portrait mode. If typing in landscape, you don't get any sort of display.

Yeah, If someone could extend that to show ALL the time, it would be great.

Stock keyboard text prediction nightmare.

I would like to keep the stock keyboard because it offers many things such as easy access to handwriting recognition, clipboard etc. However I find the text prediction maddening.
It clearly does not comprehend basic English usage.
For instance, a common word like "in". If I attempt to type "in" it will default to the much longer and rarely used word "instance". I have to manually select "in" if that is what I want. This is just one example. It seems to always default to the longest possible word. This is counter intuitive. It should default to the shortest possible word and build from there.
It also hasn't a clue as to basic spelling or punctuation.
I'd like to use this keyboard but this is intolerable. Any ideas one how to make this work better? Please no suggestions of other keyboards. I am aware of those. I just wish to make this one work.
Thanks
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

I have to admit, this is a real pain in the behind! It can be rather temperamental with things. But, I have a feeling that the way it's made is that it actually adapts to your handwriting. Mine is terrible yet it seems to get it right quite a lot.
From what I'm able to gather, the predictive text for the touch input keyboards does not apply. But, if you go into your keyboard settings > Handwriting. You can see that there are a few options. If you haven't been into this bit at all I recommend you take a look at it. You can change things such as recognition time, pen thickness, colour and the recognition type.
This type of thing is just something you need to keep practising at. I do agree with you that the punctuation is rather awful, though. Trying to put an exclamation mark in and constantly getting "i." is a pain! But, as far as handwriting recognition goes, this is the best I've seen in a long time. It's one of those things where developing something like that is really complex and needs to be incredibly fine tuned.

My handwriting is so horrific it would take a quantum computer a week to decipher. I can barely read it and I wrote it.
I miss the old days where you could change your keyboard in app. Having to go to Settings to change it seems like an odd design choice to me. If it were the old way I would just use Thumb Keyboard most of the time then switch over on the fly when I needed stock features.
** Update: Yes there is a way to change the keyboard in app. Just click the little keyboard icon on the status bar next to the clock. Cool
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

I change my keyboard in app all the time.

mitchellvii said:
My handwriting is so horrific it would take a quantum computer a week to decipher. I can barely read it and I wrote it.
I miss the old days where you could change your keyboard in app. Having to go to Settings to change it seems like an odd design choice to me. If it were the old way I would just use Thumb Keyboard most of the time then switch over on the fly when I needed stock features.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an 'input method switcher' hot button next to the clock whenever you're typing... it looks like a little keyboard, but you actually press the icon as opposed to it being in notifications like it does on a phone...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Lol shockingly I never noticed that. I suppose I was just used to the old way and wasn't looking for it.
Thanks
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

So, some of you actually use the predictive text on the stock keyboard? I tried it for a couple of days and found it intolerably bad -- more often than not, I found myself absolutely fighting with the predictive text to actually type what I wanted, and so gave up on it.
I miss having just the word suggestions as I type that I can select so I don't have to finish typing each word -- I don't really need predictive text, as I can actually type pretty fast on the Note 10.1, but the word suggestions would be nice to have without needing to use another keyboard.

I use 7notes with mazec for HWR and Swiftkey for text prediction. Very satisfied with both.

toenail_flicker said:
I use 7notes with mazec for HWR and Swiftkey for text prediction. Very satisfied with both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swiftkey has never typed anything but gibberish for me on any device I have tried it.

You mentioned that before. I find that so odd. It does a great job for me. I have a lot of friends who use it, too, and they get excellent results. I doubt SwiftKey would have the sales and ratings they have if everyone had that experience. Have you emailed them about it?

wingzero2085 said:
So, some of you actually use the predictive text on the stock keyboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the greatest I've used but it's fine. It does seem to learn and gets better over time. In Mitch's example for "in" all you have to do is hit the space bar when "in" is highlighted in blue and it inserts it with a trailing space. Also, you can add words to the custom dictionary yourself which makes things a lot faster and more accurate.

wingzero2085 said:
So, some of you actually use the predictive text on the stock keyboard? I tried it for a couple of days and found it intolerably bad -- more often than not, I found myself absolutely fighting with the predictive text to actually type what I wanted, and so gave up on it.
I miss having just the word suggestions as I type that I can select so I don't have to finish typing each word -- I don't really need predictive text, as I can actually type pretty fast on the Note 10.1, but the word suggestions would be nice to have without needing to use another keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! I find it giving me nonsensical predictions and I get kinda mad at it (sounds silly I know) but if you have ever used like for say, an original Asus Tf, you will find the responsiveness of this keyboard a godsend.
But one thing, this keyboard is actively learning our typing habits right? I'm using it as I speak and it seems more tolerable and accurate to my intentions. It's only really bad when I type something slighty off.
the whole GALAXY to NOTE about...counting down from 10 to 1.

BarryH_GEG said:
It's not the greatest I've used but it's fine. It does seem to learn and gets better over time. In Mitch's example for "in" all you have to do is hit the space bar when "in" is highlighted in blue and it inserts it with a trailing space. Also, you can add words to the custom dictionary yourself which makes things a lot faster and more accurate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point is that it never highlights "in", it highlights "instance" by default. If I press the spacebar after typing the letters "in" it enters "instance". Very very odd default action to prefer the longer word. If I keep correcting "instance" to be "in" it finally seems to learn in that session. However, if I close the app and re-open it later it has forgotten and goes back to the old way.
Sadly, like so much Samsung software, it seems like they turned it in on the day it was due and not when it was done.
I love Samsung hardware. Like HTC, their software pretty much gets an incomplete.

mitchellvii said:
My point is that it never highlights "in", it highlights "instance" by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's wierd. On mine, the box on the far left tracks what I'm typing in blue. In your example I'd see "in" in blue while a bunch of suggested words would appear to the right. If I hit space bar or tap "in" while it's highlighted it inserts (only) what I've typed. The space bar turns blue (on mine) to show it's set up to bypass prediction. It's black normally. Are your settings set up like mine?

I don't know get predictions on my stock board only on SwiftKey
Sent from my GT-N8013

Mine works like Barry's. Confess! What did You change?

BarryH_GEG said:
That's wierd. On mine, the box on the far left tracks what I'm typing in blue. In your example I'd see "in" in blue while a bunch of suggested words would appear to the right. If I hit space bar or tap "in" while it's highlighted it inserts (only) what I've typed. The space bar turns blue (on mine) to show it's set up to bypass prediction. It's black normally. Are your settings set up like mine?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I know, it is bizarre. That's why I said at the start that I don't exclude the idea I have done something wrong here.
For some reason when I type, it is defaulting to the SECOND word on the list instead of the first. I know, right? Weird.

Ok, I just returned all settings to stock and this is what I get.
If I type "the" I get:
the | then | They | they | Then | there
It is highlighting the second word, not the first. Freakin WEIRD.

mitchellvii said:
Yeah I know, it is bizarre. That's why I said at the start that I don't exclude the idea I have done something wrong here.
For some reason when I type, it is defaulting to the SECOND word on the list instead of the first. I know, right? Weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any other keyboards installed? Maybe there's a conflict.

BarryH_GEG said:
Do you have any other keyboards installed? Maybe there's a conflict.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have Thumb Keyboard. That is my preferred keyboard anyway. I'll just go with that and switch over to the stock keyboard when I need to use any of the custom features.
We'll just file this one under weird and leave it at that.

[Q] what is most responsible for IME cursor precision?

Hi there, not sure what is the confluence of factors....
But I find it horribly nasty in Lollipop with the google keyboard to place my cursor by tapping text I am editing. It just doesn't go where my thumb and eye thinks it should. It is getting more and more annoying.
I used Smart Keyboard Pro in KitKat, and it had a "calibration" subroutine that I thought was responsible for hitting the actual keys, but do you think it also helped text entry selection?
Do IME rules govern the text cursor placement? I am now used to the google keyboard layout but find the precision horrid.
Thanks for any thoughts on subject.

Hah. Just tested Smart Keyboard Pro again... after calibrating. It feels like I can enter text again right away. It was very buggy during the Android version bump, but updates have made it work great again!
Now just another layout reconditioning....d'oh

nednednerb said:
Do IME rules govern the text cursor placement?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. All an IME can do is read what is in the text field (for correction) and what type of text field it is (plaintext, password, username, number-only, etc) through the system (not the text field itself), and tell the system to input keystrokes (it doesn't input them itself).
It has no direct contact with the text field itself.
A keyboard app is really just a UI and sometimes also a text corrector.

Hmmm. I wonder about how Smart Keyboard Pro works its "calibration"... and then I wonder why without fail, switching keyboard is letting me navigate the text field better.
Something in the story you give is missing perhaps. Text correction for instance indicates going "into" the text field...
I notice the little handle to drag the cursor also feels way less buggy. I was having trouble even grabbing the handle in Google Keyboard. It also looks like a different handle.
Maybe things have changed from KitKat to Lollipop....perhaps somehow related to not being able to use any alternative IME if the default IME was removed. I saw others complaining about that. Some input method functions that were "deeper than the IME apk" are now placed differently...
I am not a dev though and wouldn't know where to begin to look in version manifest to see this described.
It makes sense a keyboard app dev would try to make entry work better if they COULD somehow fool the screen to better "read my mind" which is totally the aim of Smart Keyboard Pro's calibration function.
Not saying you're wrong exactly, but curious because I'm always learning and enjoy understanding and my test has seemed to work in my favour!

nednednerb said:
Hmmm. I wonder about how Smart Keyboard Pro works its "calibration"... and then I wonder why without fail, switching keyboard is letting me navigate the text field better.
Something in the story you give is missing perhaps. Text correction for instance indicates going "into" the text field...
I notice the little handle to drag the cursor also feels way less buggy. I was having trouble even grabbing the handle in Google Keyboard. It also looks like a different handle.
Maybe things have changed from KitKat to Lollipop....perhaps somehow related to not being able to use any alternative IME if the default IME was removed. I saw others complaining about that. Some input method functions that were "deeper than the IME apk" are now placed differently...
I am not a dev though and wouldn't know where to begin to look in version manifest to see this described.
It makes sense a keyboard app dev would try to make entry work better if they COULD somehow fool the screen to better "read my mind" which is totally the aim of Smart Keyboard Pro's calibration function.
Not saying you're wrong exactly, but curious because I'm always learning and enjoy understanding and my test has seemed to work in my favour!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing a keyboard app can "calibrate for accuracy" is on the keyboard view itself, not the text field. Both the text cursor and text field are 100% handled by the system and in some cases the app you're typing in, never the IME application.

Okay, thanks.. hmm. What kind of system features may be responsible for precision?
There are "responsiveness" differences between kernels and ROM combos... but assuming I like my ROM and kernel, what kind of potential tweaks to settings might make the touch screen more snappy and stable for text editing?
I notice thermal throttling when using phone when charging definitely worsens ability to type. Way more lag.. for example, cursor will jump around. Key presses will hang.
Thank you @Lethargy for your time spent thinking.

nednednerb said:
Okay, thanks.. hmm. What kind of system features may be responsible for precision?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what you mean here. It uses InputMethodManager/InputMethodService, and text fields are managed by TextView.
nednednerb said:
There are "responsiveness" differences between kernels and ROM combos... but assuming I like my ROM and kernel, what kind of potential tweaks to settings might make the touch screen more snappy and stable for text editing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROMs have no influence unless one has a terribly written feature which lags the entire thing. Kernels don't affect anything themselves either - the kernel settings do, which are also user tunable anyways (default settings on a kernel are usually just what the builder prefers themselves). Neither have anything to do with text cursor placement accuracy, and no ROM should be messing with how the IME works anyways as it'll cause problems for more people than solve.
And there isn't anything you can do to make it more accurate other than physically (via using a stylus or having smaller fingers), since each touch is registered on an individual pixel, not the entire surface area being touched.
nednednerb said:
I notice thermal throttling when using phone when charging definitely worsens ability to type. Way more lag.. for example, cursor will jump around. Key presses will hang.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessarily thermal throttle. An IME will run fine on a Nexus 5 even if you underclock to 1GHz. More likely its just your CPU usage being high and the IME isn't as high a priority as what is keeping up lets say 75% of your CPU.

So perhaps I might have less lag if I overclocked a bit? I guess that is obvious...
Do you know of not too invasive methods of altering the IME priority or tweaking the touch responsiveness in general?
Also, I am being more careful about my large thumb's "one pixel" touch point, and I am noticing an improvement already.... although I had already switched back to the 3rd party keyboard which seemed to help right away with input accuracy.
I also found a google android issue with 51 stars regarding generally buggy input issues in the Nexus 5 on Lollipop... so I am not too crazy about noting my issue perhaps!
Thanks for your help in understanding IME, @Lethargy.

nednednerb said:
So perhaps I might have less lag if I overclocked a bit? I guess that is obvious...
Do you know of not too invasive methods of altering the IME priority or tweaking the touch responsiveness in general?
Also, I am being more careful about my large thumb's "one pixel" touch point, and I am noticing an improvement already.... although I had already switched back to the 3rd party keyboard which seemed to help right away with input accuracy.
I also found a google android issue with 51 stars regarding generally buggy input issues in the Nexus 5 on Lollipop... so I am not too crazy about noting my issue perhaps!
Thanks for your help in understanding IME, @Lethargy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Overclocking might not help that much, and I don't know of an easy way to force priority.
I don't have such issues with any sort of IME, so it's likely a per-user issue rather than affecting everybody. I also use the AOSP and Google keyboard.