> I don't bother with Samsung phones after my first, after I found that their custom keyboards started crashing and freezing (Chinese mode), and then started to reappearing over the Google ones I set after each automatic app update. My only regret, is that I didn't pay the Apple tax earlier. (I'm sure there is a more permanent solution to that phone, but why should I sink more time when I'm one update away from fixing some other issue again.)
Huh? Replacement keyboards are notoriously[1] buggy[2] and[3] limited[4] on iOS. I'm at my wit's end trying to find even a temporary solution. If Apple doesn't sufficiently improve the keyboard experience by iOS 11 this summer I will have to switch to Android.
The counterpoint to the 'you have to download a google keyboard...' comment is that Google have started pushing more stuff into add-on apps rather than pushing into AOSP is that vendors control OS updates, so pushes to AOSP take a long time to get to consumers.
It's a lot easier to push an app update through the Play store vs. convincing vendors to push out timely OS updates. And Google have been slowly moving non core OS features into updatable apps.
It's arguably a loss to AOSP, but at least in the short term helpful to consumers. I say short-term because the features are no longer open-sourced, which is a shame and a loss in the longer-term.
For me, the main frustration has been that Google has its one keyboard (Gboard) for latin languages and then the Japanese IME as separate keyboards. I use English, French, and Japanese keyboards and switch between pretty often, but it's a bit of a pain.
There's noticable lag when switching keyboards that seem endemic in the model of "multiple app keyboards", whereas a more integrated experience would benefit some
Agreed that the "Play Store" model is better for consumers on phones that don't get updates (been there). I hope they try to pull stuff into the core project as well, though. Kinda sad to see Android becoming what people always thought it would end up (a Google-centric venture)
As much as I preferred the swipe type keyboards on android to the plain IOS one, that doesn't compensate for a keyboard crashing and freezing. It wouldn't have been an issue on my Samsung except they kept updating and reasserting their buggy one over Google's.
I think there's still no way to type Japanese in AOSP Android (you have to download a Google keyboard or some third party thing)