Windows Phone Keyboard Design is a major Issue

[danj210]

My accuracy has stayed the since since pre-nodo to 7.5. I wouldn't want to use any other keyboard and the autocorrect just knows exactly what I'm typing. Ive had smartphones since the first PDAs and I have to say that the WP keyboard is the best. Not many people have wp8 yet cause it hasn't launched.

 

[Cuteness Overload]

The Windows Phone keyboard was a godsend when I moved from my Galaxy S and SwiftKey. You can't beat a keyboard that inputs almost always what you are typing most of the time. I like how the autocorrection on the keyboard is way more realistic than these on Android software keyboards. Can't have too many bad things to talk about it.

 

[KREV]

I can't say I've ever typed on a WP (my family is just now considering upgrading to smartphones), but my little brother's iPod 4th-gen iPod touch is nearly impossible for me to type on. It's not a problem with all touchscreen typing either-- I have no problems using the touchscreen keyboard on my girlfriend's Android. I don't really see how WP typing could be worse than iCrap typing.

 

[unkleknuklefunk]

I've also thought of going back to android because of the horrible keyboard on WP its a major issue That im surprised MS haven't addressed I thought it was just me lol.

 

[Jalik]

I find that the German keyboard - or better: word prediction - leaves alot to be desired. I find it much easier to use the English one. The German word prediction would often give me completely idiotic suggestions and wouldn't recognize many words I (try) to use. What I want, really want, is something that works like swipe on android. THAT'S a brilliant keyboard.

 

[Tafkas373]

Keyboards must be a very subjective thing. I for one have no problems at all with WP's and consider the autocorrect to be one of the best around. I did change the settings a bit though. I didn't like the extra space added automatically. But that may be a German issue, because we build monster-words from smaller ones. Is the issue in general language specific, maybe? I only know and really like the German, English and French keyboards.

Btw, I typed this on the fly without once going back myself to correct a typo. WP caught 'em. I like poking fun at my GS3 friends for sending me texts that read like they were written with (dammit, here I hit one letter too many and WP would have gone for "worth") Windows XP handwriting recognition.

 

[maverick786us]

The onboard dictionary of WP Keyboard is very good. But still I find my Wife's Galaxy S2 keyboard easier to type compared to my Lumia 900 keyboard because of 2 reasons.

1) WP keyboard doesn't have swipe
2) While selecting a word or when carat is there in middle it is easy to select because of that thick bar which comes right underneath the carat which makes selecting very easy. With WP that bar is missing it very difficult to select. In fact till now I am unable to move letter by letter in my Lumia 900

 

[Coreldan]

In fact till now I am unable to move letter by letter in my Lumia 900

This has baffled me a lot! I just recently got a WP7,5 phone from my friend and apparently there is like.. no way to move into the middle of the word if you typoed just one letter in the middle? Perhaps u can poke it with ur finger and hope u end in the middle, but usually it just selects the whole word.

It's so weird.. why would you not have some buttoms to move between the letters?

 

[bobdonkey]

This has baffled me a lot! I just recently got a WP7,5 phone from my friend and apparently there is like.. no way to move into the middle of the word if you typoed just one letter in the middle? Perhaps u can poke it with ur finger and hope u end in the middle, but usually it just selects the whole word.

It's so weird.. why would you not have some buttoms to move between the letters?

You just click and hold and you get a cursor, which can then move to where you want to edit. Easy!

 

[Coreldan]

Holy ****! Thanks for the tip!

 

[tarekw]

Please give me Swype....

I am a WP user who switched from Android last year when the Lumia 800 came out. Although I love WP, I have to say apart from the notification centre, the keyboard is the only other thing I miss about Android. I'm not talking about the stock android keyboard though.

I think Swype is by far the best smartphone keyboards I've ever used. With some practice, you can have really good speed and accuracy with just one thumb when using Swype. And now android 4.2 has done something like swype but even better.

I don't have much complaints about the stock WP keyboard (apart from some niggles here and there), but I really wish they would allow 3rd party keyboards (like swype, swiftkey) to be installed.

Notification centre and swype on WP would make my life complete

 

[masterchief1984]

My cousin has a WP. The only thing I notice was that the keyboard reminded me of my Zune HD and that it didnt go into landscape mode on twitter. Other than that it was a pretty good keyboard.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

The update that fixed the disappearing keyboard bug also fixed the accuracy back to Nodo standards. My heart goes out to ATT users still having to deal with this issue...

It definitely fixed the drop, but not the accuracy for me. Typing this message on my Tango Lumia 900, the touchpoint prediction is horrible, and I have to type extremely slow because of it. Autocorrect help, but it occurs more frequently. It was like before, I could type and I would only see autocorrect work like once. Now when I type I see autocorrect having to correct words all the time, which wasn't the case before Mango...

 

[david376]

Odd, I have owned several android devices in the past and i find that typing on my lumia 710 (3.7 inch screen) is far easier and more accurate then any of my android phones. If i may ask, do you type one-handed?

 

[maverick786us]

You just click and hold and you get a cursor, which can then move to where you want to edit. Easy!

the only way to move the cursor is by touching it there is not up, down, right and left key in on screen keyboard.

 

[maverick786us]

Odd, I have owned several android devices in the past and i find that typing on my lumia 710 (3.7 inch screen) is far easier and more accurate then any of my android phones. If i may ask, do you type one-handed?

I always type both both the hands. Even with my previous N900 which had QWERTY keyboard I always happened to type with both the hands. I never do dialing and typing single handedly. Two hand typing makes it 4 times faster

 

[aubreyq]

The update that fixed the disappearing keyboard bug also fixed the accuracy back to Nodo standards. My heart goes out to ATT users still having to deal with this issue...

Is that so? Where is that documented? I think it was 8107 that fixed the disappearing keyboard. Maybe I'll put that on my Focus using the workaround.

 

[tpitts15]

Occasional Hitbox Glitch

In general, I love typing on my Windows Phone (Samsung Focus). However, one thing I have noticed is that certain words refuse to be formed without autocorrect. For example, typing the word 'good' on my phone was impossible at normal speed. I know there is a key resizing algorithm in the WP keyboard that is supposed to predictively resize the hitboxes of certain letters depending on the predicted word. I believe the mistype mentioned above is a result of a glitch in this algorithm. I type g-o-o-s and it then autocorrects it to 'good'. Frustrated, I delete the word and try again slower, deliberately hitting the center of the 'd' key. Nope, it registers an s. Only if I pause before hitting the 'd' and use my pointer finger rather than my thumb can I get it to correctly register the 'd'. Very frustrating. I've noticed this on several other letter combinations that I can't recall at the moment. But with a word as common as 'good' it get really old really fast.

Anybody else notice this glitch before?

 

[lordofthereef]

I am with all those that feel like typing on WP is fine. That said, I am ALWAYS all about options. Giving users the ability to install their own keyboards would be phenomenal. MS can continue to develop their own keyboard, but if there are technologies out there that people want (swype falls into that category for me), let them have it!

I hate to say it, but I think Apple's influence in these regards has been a bad one. They have shown others what they can get away with, and I feel like WP is just as bad as iOS in terms of openness (or lack thereof).

 

[adriel623]

Exactly, why is it Android and Iphone with smaller screen size is easier to type than WP with huge screen size? Isn't this the top priority when designing touch OS? How hard is it for a $200 Billion cap, No.1 software company in the world to get the KB design right for it's OS? And if MSFT really is incapable of designing a usable keyboard then they should open up for SWIPE or other 3rd party dev to get the job done correctly.



I have 2 friends who actually put away their WP just because they can not live with the keyboard. MSFT will have to give an answer for this issue!



Sorry for sounding frustrating but I am.

I am UTTERLY SURPRISED to hear anyone complain about WPs keyboard. Its the best I've ever used and other top reviewers have echoed this statement as well. Maybe you need to be more open minded in your approach to using it. I won't mind if they did open access to 3rd party keyboards though. I've had swype ever since Windows Mobile and I still prefer WPs keyboard.