You know what ’s weird ? type on your phone . We expend two thumbs to peck out Holy Scripture on a keyboard design for ten fingers — a keyboard designed to be slow . You know what ’s weirder ? Smartphone keyboards designed to trump our blemished typewriting monetary standard . Here are 12 of them .
You probably do n’t know it , but there are heaps of substitute smartphone keyboards loaf out there in the app market , or on Kickstarter and its like . They all have the same battlecry : QWERTY just was n’t designed for two thumbs typewriting on shabu . It ’s not like anyone would disagree — we use predictive text rectification algorithms just to make using a full keyboard in a 6 - in ( or small ) outer space supportable these sidereal day . The only understanding we do n’t have anything well is because change is intemperate .
If you ’re willing to re - memorize how to typecast , though , you ’ve got a lot of alternative . Let ’s see ‘ em out .
MessagEase
desire to cut your 26 - samara keyboard down by oh , about 17 letter ? Check outMessagEase , a keyboard with just nine basic keys . Each keystone is its own letter of the alphabet , but cabbage by from it in a specific counseling ( notice by another missive , of course ) produce a different type . The company says its best typists can get up to 80 words per minute and , well , I almost believe them . This is one of the few keyboards from this collection I actually establish myself , and it ’s extremely usable with a lilliputian practice ! Just call up to move around on predictive text and go download a wordlist : it ’s a task to type out each individual letter of the alphabet .
CrossTap
This is probably the most ambitious smartphone keyboard I ’ve ever interpret : it ’s not just a rearrangement of letters and keys , but a gesture - based system of rules that wants to redefine how we learn to type . you may use bare taps and swipes to pick at out individual letters on its two touchpoints , but it ’s really design around memorization . The control grid system permit for thousands of unique motion , and CrossTap ’s Lord wants every discussion in the English language to have its own gesture . “ typewrite with words , ” he say — just like how you talk .
It ’s a wild coco - banana estimate . Properly learning the system would take years of memorization . It would need to be wide adopt and integrate into canonic education to have any chance of success . But hey , what ’s institution without ambition ? Sadly , this is one you ca n’t try — CrossTap only exists as an internal prototype for now , but ifthe project ’s Kickstartersucceeds , it might finally come out as a veridical keyboard .
8Pen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99vsUF4NuLk
Enjoy drawing loops and figure - eights ? 8Pen is the mobile keyboard for you . Gizmodo first covered this choice typing methodback in 2010and … it ’s just as odd today as it was back then . Letters are divided among four dissimilar sloping itinerary . To type a type , you swipe in the direction of a alphabetic character and then move your fingerbreadth around the keyboard a number of quarter turn equal to how many letters away from the pith your chosen fictitious character is . Yeah , it ’s complicated — enough so that 8Pen itself has removed the app from Google Play and posit on its website that it ’s gone “ back to the drawing board . ”
The HERO Keyboard
This keyboard calculate kind of like a rotary telephone set — looping the alphabet around a rotary spacebar key in two row . It ’s design to kink to the rude wholesale move of your thumb and reduce the amount of distance your fingerbreadth need to travel to tap more commonly used letter . It ’s uncommitted for iPhone right now , but the Divine is hoping to get enough funding via Kickstarter to continue make grow it . Looks kind of like the superhero telephone dial from DC Comics ’ “ Dial H For Hero ” does n’t it ?
Chorded Keyboard
Okay , maybe gestures are n’t your affair . What about piano chords ? That ’s the idea behind the chorded keyboard : a type system that employ specific button combining ( or “ chords ” ) on a limited set of key to reproduce any keystroke . It ’s a weird idea , but it is n’t new : Douglas Engelbart , inventor of the humble computer mouse , helped introduce the ideaway back in 1968 . It did n’t catch on .
https://gizmodo.com/45-years-ago-doug-engelbart-gave-the-most-important-te-1479427396
That should n’t stop you from enjoying the institution now , though — theChorded Keyboard GKOSAndroid app offer big , friendly , chorded buttons . It ’s pretty easy to employ , don you could memorize the layout : tapping any push button will type it ’s prescribed letter of the alphabet while hold a button deepen the functions of the buttons around it . I ca n’t say if it ’s a good full - time keyboard replacement , but at the very least it ’s a coolheaded face into computer history .
EZ Gesture
Do n’t let the name fool you : write on theEZ Gesture keyboardis neither light or gesture - based . alternatively , the app provides you with a grid of nine circles that you could utilise to pull right - angled imitation of letters and numbers that sometimes turn out to be the eccentric you were reckon for . It ’s kind of like script recognition , but less nonrational .
FlickKey
Want something with a shallower learning curve ? You ’re looking forFlickKey . This keyboard features a layout standardized to ( but not quite exactly like ) QWERTY , but favors quick , 8 - directing flicks over button presses . In fact , it ’s the only non - QWERTY keyboard on this list I was able to use right away … though I ca n’t say that it ’s really honorable than my SwiftKey standard . It ’s too supernumerary for my smartphone but it has potential as a smartwatch keyboard .
FlickKey is based on the melodic theme that it ’s more exact to jerk a “ magnanimous ” key fruit than attempt to touch a modest key . Ca n’t flick fast enough ? Do n’t worry — predictive schoolbook moderate G of words that are usable with the flick of a finger , presumably speeding up typing and taking a shorter length in on - screen dragging to complete a sentence .
QWERTY, But Bigger
One of the worst things about cramming a full - sized keyboard into a small blank space is how cramped things get . It ’s easy to tap the wrong key and lease autocorrect run rearing with your mistakes .
Some keyboard solve this by only rent up more space : KeyZag Keyboard , for illustration , places the normal QWERTY layout on a zig - zig offset to give each character ample room to touch . It ’s a decent idea , but I found that it woefully unfitting with my QWERTY common sense memory — I might as well learn one of the more basal layouts above .
Adaptive primal - size keyboard likeThick ButtonsandDynamic Keyboardwere a little easier . These keyboards utilize prognosticative text to transfer the size of the keyboard keys as you typecast — making the characters you ’re most likely to apply next larger and harder to miss . I like the theory a lot , but found the morphing Florida key distracting and too slow for my ( unabashedly braggable ) fast fingers .
Make Things Smaller
If making QWERTY braggart does n’t work , what about making it smaller ? Not without a badass auto - right algorithm — but that ’s the whole peak behind theMinuum keyboard . This app reduces the smartphone ’s input down to a undivided line of letters and somehow , through some magic algorithm , corrects all of the error have by this deceptively inefficient layout . I do n’t know how , but it ’s shockingly good . I just kept having to catch myself from move my fingers up and down to “ rows ” that no longer live .
Give Up And Use PopKey Animated GIF Keyboard
There are a lot of good , innovative keyboard estimate here , but they all hurt the same disastrous flaw : they employ letter and number . Is that the futurity of online communication ? Of course not . The forward-moving thinker knows just what to do — skip over to an enviable future where all communication happens through meme - based moving picture . That ’s precisely what PopKey Animated Keyboard proffer .
After all , if you ca n’t say it with a GIF , is it really worth saying at all ?
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