Replacing the stock Android keyboard

August 2, 2010 Chilling_Silence How-To's / Guides / Tech info

Yes! You can easily customize how your keyboard on your Android phone looks and feels. It’s incredibly easy and only takes a few minutes to do-so.

I personally like the way this keyboard behaves with its text input, and word replacement suggestions!

At the end of it all, you’ll have yourself some awesome looking keyboards like below:

Looks cool right! Read on to find how you can have your customized keyboard in just a few minutes.

To begin with you’ll need to go to:

http://www.gimpsta.com/themer/

You can visit it either from your desktop PC, or straight from your Android phone.

Getting started

Create yourself a Username & Password. It only takes a second and they so far haven’t spammed me.

Once you’re done, login (Seems obvious right?).

You can now either create a new keyboard from scratch, or use a pre-defined template. For the sake of it, we’re going to create one from scratch.

I chose my version as v27-froyo high res, as I’m running Froyo. Hit Continue to carry on.

Background

Now you can choose the background for your Keyboard.

In the two above screenshots you’ll see it’s chosen as black. Again, take your pick, you’re customizing it to your liking here.

Keep in mind that if you decide you don’t like it, you can always go back and re-create it.

For todays example I’m going to make it transparent.

Button style

Now you can choose what kind of button you want to have for your main keyboard letters / buttons.

You can have the standard sort of key, but just slightly modified colors. There’s also some like the blood function keys which look interesting, but I think I’m personally going to stick with something regular.

Then, you do the same thing all over again, but for your Function Keys.

Logo

If you want a logo for your Spacebar, then you can scroll through this list.

There’s a few different “filters” at the top that you can select: All, Android, Colors, Companies, Misc and Sports.

If you’re not in the mood to have a background on your spacebar, then you can go to Misc, and select “Blank”.

Symbol Set

Keep in mind that is is just for the symbols that you see on your screen, it doesn’t include your alphabet etc.

You’re obviously going to want something that will contrast well with your previously chosen Function Key button style. Again, remember that you can go back and make changes if you don’t like your selection. You can preview it prior to downloading and installing the keyboard.

Key text colors

You’re almost done, this is the final step to generating your keyboard so you can download it.

Select your colors for your main keys (The alphabet), and you can also customize the text color of the “alternate” key that appears above them.

Same goes for your symbol key alternatives.

Hit the button to preview your keyboard, and if you’re happy with the colors of your text then hit “Generate Keyboard”.

It’ll take a few seconds as the remote server goes and generates it, just hit the button once and sit tight and wait. It shouldn’t take longer than 20 seconds.

You’ll be given a file to download. If you’re on your Android device doing this, then great, it’s already on your phone.

If not, then you’re going to need to manually copy it across to your SD Card.

Installation

Select the .zip file. You may need something like Astro File Manager installed.

It’ll prompt you and ask you what you want to do with  the .apk file (Which is inside the .zip). Tell it to Open App Manager.

Follow through the next couple of prompts and you’ll be greeted with a success message.

Enabling the keyboard

Now that it’s installed, you need to first enable it in the settings before you can begin using it.

From your Home screen, press Menu –> Settings –> Language & Keyboard

Tick “HTC_IME mod”, and it will prompt you alerting you to the security implications of what you’re doing.

It’s OK, just click the button to continue.

I also adjust the settings and prevent it from automatically applying a Space after I press the . key, as it’s incredibly annoying entering websites in a text message / email to somebody.

Click on HTC_IME mod Settings –> Text input –> Untick “… after separators”.

Using the keyboard

Now that it’s customized, installed and enabled, you can start using it. It’s incredibly easy to change back and forth between the regular keyboard and your custom keyboard.

Simply open up somewhere that has a text input field, such as your browsers address bar or the search box. Then, tap and hold it, and select “Input Method”.

It’s easy to change back and forth between the standard Android keyboard and HTC_IME mod.

The change should be instant, and the finished result will look something like this:

Easy, right?

As always, if you run into troubles, or if you found this useful, then please just leave me a message to say Hi.

Android, Custom Keyboard, mod,