Android Keyboards Suck

There's nothing more frustrating and annoying than to have a keyboard on your phone that doesn't get the job done. And sadly, most Android users who want to type Urdu in their phones are in this state and can't do anything about it. Let me tell you why some of the perhaps most famous keyboards on the Android phones just suck for Urdu typists.

Gboard:

Gboard is perhaps the most widely used keyboards in Android phones because the cheap brands like Infinix, Realme and all the stock Android phones come with it as the default keyboard and I personally think that it's the smartest keyboard for English typing in Android. However, when you turn on its Urdu mode, you begin to hate it. The normal keyboards have only three rows for the alphabets and for languages like Urdu which have more characters than English, some particular keys on the three rows are used to type a letter underneath them. Like if you want to type letter (ڈ) of Urdu, you can do that by long pressing the (د) key or by using the shift key. Gboard 'tried' to solve this problem by creating a fourth row of letters like (ڈ) on top of the keyboard like the number keys. But this is a mess. If we get used to typing Urdu in Gboard, we will forget the real pattern of keyboard and nobody wants that.

Samsung Keyboard:

Samsung is perhaps the best-selling android phone brand in the word. So, if it does something disappointing, that hurts. And when it comes to their Urdu keyboard, it hurts bad. Samsung Urdu keyboard is the only keyboard in which you can swype the whole word even if the word contains the letters underneath the main letter button. Yes, no other keyboard has this perfect swype feature in their Urdu keyboard. So, where is the problem? Well, you go to Samsung keyboard settings, turn on Auto Spacing and start typing/swyping. Auto Spacing isn't gonna work. Surprised? Well, try it. Also, the Samsung keyboard misses the (اعراب) and letters like (ؤ). And when your keyboard doesn't provide you with the letters or symbols essential to type a language, what good is it?

SwiftKey:

SwiftKey has been on the Playstore for a very long time now. It has beautiful themes and some unique features to offer. In fact, it is so good that Huawei uses it for their default keyboard. But have you tried typing Urdu on it? Let me tell you what's wrong with its Urdu keyboard. First, you cannot swype to write a word that contains the letters inside a letter button. Meaning, you can easily swype the word (دھول) but it's impossible to type (ڈھول). And for that, you will have to type, not swype. Would you like to write on your smartphone in two different ways, i.e; by typing and swyping? No, you'll abhor it. Another problem with SwiftKey is that it also misses some of the symbols (اعراب) like (کھڑی زبر).

Also, in neither of the keyboards perhaps you don't have a dash. The dash is what's put at the end of Urdu sentences like full stop in English.

So which keyboard is the best of Urdu typing? The sincere and true answer is "None". However, if you still want to type Urdu in your phone, you must use SwiftKey cos it has (ؤ). And although it may not have (کھڑی زبر) in it, the words like (زکوٰۃ) will automatically appear in the suggestion bar. BTW, if you happen to have a Samsung phone, you must use the default keyboard for your Urdu typing via swype feature cos it's fast and switch to SwiftKey for (ؤ) words. Also, wait till android keyboard developers read this article and make the necessary changes suggested by me. 

Happy typing!