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Improve the keyboard in the Samsung ICS update

Posted: 14/06/12

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I'm a recent Samsung Galaxy convert and underwent the upgrade from Android Gingerbread (2.3) to Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)/Android 4.0. After upgrading I noticed I simply couldn't use the keyboard! Despite using Android keyboards for over 2 years, everything I typed came out garbled. How so?

Well after digging around I came to conclusion that a few things have been messed up in the keyboard on the new update:

- The word suggestion row pops up and down as you type. This causes flickering around where your eyes are focused and easily causes eye-strain.

- The dictionary and auto-completion features are more akin to crappy T9 predictive text of yester-year than a modern smartphone. Why even build it in, let alone have it activated!

- Capitalization and Auto-full stops go out of the window. Overnight, I've been turned from an eloquent man into an illiterate pleb.

The outcome was simply I was using my phone less for work email, less for communication with friends and I'd given up tweeting. I'd defeated the point of having a smartphone. My productivity began to slide.

Fortunately, I decided I couldn't be the only newly illiterate and eye-strained person on in the world, so I hit the Internet for help. It came. As a result, I can confirm that my favourite Android app of 2012 is...

Keyboard from Android 2.3!

Yup, it's simply the keyboard, how we are used to it! My eyes are now grateful and my friends are appreciative of my newly recovered literacy. Cheers Steven Lin!

Keywords for this post: android, keyboard, 2.3, 4.0, samsung, ics, text, type, xt9, galaxy, g2, g3