Is there a good English/Spanish Android phone keyboard and spellchecker?

June 29, 2020 8:29 PM

I'm typically an English speaker, but am spending more time talking in Spanish lately. My Android phone keyboard app is terrible. It tries to correct every second word to English and getting to the diacritics is endlessly frustrating. Does anyone have a bilingual keyboard that they like and isn't terribly annoying? The number of options are daunting and the first few I've tried are actually worse than the original. I'm happy to pay for a good one.

(I'm running OxygenOS 10 and not opposed to rooting my phone if there are exotic options worth considering.)

posted by eotvos to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

When I had an Android phone I used SwiftKey, which apparently is now called Microsoft Swiftkey Keyboard [Google Play link]. It allowed me to download any number of languages and to switch between them quickly and easily. Sometimes it switched between languages a little too easily, but it wasn't a big problem. Diacritical marks were accessed by long-pressing the letters and selecting the mark you wanted if that mark wasn't already displayed on the default keyboard for that language.

Gboard from Google [Google Play link] is also well-regarded and also allows for multiple languages to be downloaded and for relatively easy switching between them. Here's a page that describes how that's done.
posted by theory at 9:05 PM on June 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

You can download and use other languages with the system-default Gboard, too. 'Add Languages' is there in the Settings for Keyboard. Long press on the spacebar should get you the way to swap over on the fly so it doesn't autocorrupt your input.
posted by k3ninho at 11:43 PM on June 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

It sounds like you haven't added other languages to your keyboard, as k3niho suggests. I use Gboard for Spanish and English without issue.
posted by dobbs at 5:18 AM on June 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

I use 4 language keyboards with Gboard and I love it.
posted by Glier's Goetta at 6:49 AM on June 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: It somehow never occurred to me that Gboard had options for other languages. That's much nicer. Thanks! (I'll try out swiftkey too.)
posted by eotvos at 3:51 PM on June 30, 2020