If like me, you own a Huawei, the chances are that your phone came pre-installed with Microsoft's keyboard app SwiftKey. My initial reaction was revulsion, it was a mess and it made me grumpy.
So, after 24 hours of being saddled with what I thought was an inferior keyboard app, I downloaded Google's equivalent, Gboard. In its default form, Gboard feels way more intuitive and user-friendly than SwiftKey, which just seemed too busy and clunky.
I have stuck with Gboard ever since. Until this week.
Intrigued by why there was such a gulf between the two apps, I decided to give SwiftKey another go. The results completely surprised me.
To begin with, SwiftKey looks a mess
In its default setting, Swiftkey definitely loses out to Gboard. It's way too busy and just feels clunky to use. It also takes up more screen space.
Having the symbols lumped in on top of the letters is confusing and the keys are all bunched in way too tight.
Often, I would hit the wrong character and the predictive words were not at all what I intended. I lost patience with it very quickly.
But then I tried something new...
That screen-eating bar at the top of the SwiftKey keyboard actually gives you a shortcut to pick a new theme. It might sound superficial, but it makes a world of difference to the interface.
Let's get personal
The pre-builds are already way better to use than the default, but why not tailor it even further? I made a custom set-up using a picture of a whale as background, and got rid of the key-borders and symbols that had annoyed me in the default build.
So now, not only is my SwiftKey more intuitive, but it has a personal touch. You can do the same with Gboard, but SwiftKey just felt that little more stylish.
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