5 Best Keyboard Apps for Android

If you own an iPhone you can use any keyboard you want—as long as it’s Apple’s. But if you have an Android phone, there’s a wide variety of third-party keyboards available for download that can suggest words as you type, let you swipe between letters for faster one-handed input and a whole lot more. Want to change to a split layout, have all the numbers up top all the time or customize the entire look and feel of your keyboard? You can do all of that and then some with our five best keyboard apps for Android phones and tablets.

SwiftKey Keyboard

There’s a reason why Samsung and BlackBerry have licensed SwiftKey’s technology for their own keyboards. This Android app is so smart it can predict the words you’re going to type next. Just tap the suggestions above the layout as you compose emails, respond to texts or post Facebook updates. In some cases you can enter entire sentences without touching the individual letters. If you grant permission, SwiftKey can also learn from what you type in Facebook, Twitter and Gmail to boost accuracy. Our favorite feature is SwiftKey Flow, a trace-type option that one-ups Swype by letting you string multiple words together without your finger leaving the display.

Swype Beta 1.4

The original swiping keyboard just keeps getting smarter. Not only can you type up to 40 words per minute with Swype Beta using a continuous tracing motion, it can suck in your contacts from text messages, Facebook, Gmail and Twitter. Plus, Swype offers next word prediction, tons of gestures (including ones for cut and paste) and a Living Language feature that updates your dictionary with trending words. We love the Dragon Dictation voice integration, which is fast and remembers all of those tricky proper nouns. Although it’s not available from the Google Play Store, this free app is well worth the download from beta.swype.com.

Perfect Keyboard

Those who love to personalize their phones should download Perfect Keyboard, which lets you choose from multiple keyboard themes (from Honeycomb and Stone to Silicone and even iPhone). You can also tweak everything from the button to font color and download additional skins in the Play store (such as Tron Style for 99 cents). Perfect Keyboard also supports multiple layouts, including a split version with numbers in the middle that’s ideal for tablets. The customization fun continues with vibration-intensity settings and gesture-option shortcuts when swiping in any direction.

Thumb Keyboard

Tailor-made for tablets and phablets, Thumb Keyboard’s split design makes it easier to type faster without having to stretch your fingers out of their sockets. There’s also a special layout for 5-inch devices and a one-handed operation mode for large-screen handsets. Our favorite feature is the customizable key row above the letters, in which you can place numbers, symbols and even command shortcuts like Delete Word, Copy and Paste. The deeper you drill down with Thumb Keyboard, the richer the rewards.

Kii Keyboard

Not a fan of long-pressing letters to enter numbers or switching to numeric mode? Kii Keyboard gives you the option of showing a top number row in landscape and portrait mode. We also like the multiple gesture options; you can either enable gesture typing for Swype-style input or activate other gestures, such as swiping left to delete words and swiping right to show Emoji. Last but not least, you can create multiple text shortcuts activated by abbreviations or your own custom keywords, which is a real time-saver.