ASUS has released a new version of its Android keyboard app, adding support for two Indian languages – Hindi and Tamil. The keyboard is available for free on Google Play Store and supports both Android phones and tablets, sadly though it seems to be compatible only with Asus devices.
The keyboard seems to feature all the standard features, such as swipe and thumb typing, a customizable dictionary, auto correct and predictions, adjustable sound on keypress etc. It also offers a split keyboard feature for tablets to make typing easier for users.
While we weren’t able to try out the app, the Hindi and Tamil keyboard will also likely offer these features. Asus says that it is also working on adding more regional languages and localisation options for its Indian users, although it didn’t disclose any specific information on this.
From the looks of it, Asus seems to be targeting its entry level Zenfone users with this keyboard, since it says that it will continue to localise features of Zenfones. Zenfone which competes with devices like Xiaomi’s RedMi phones and Motorola, had claimed to have crossed 1 lakh sales milestone by the end of August 2014.
Indic language keyboards:
– In October, popular keyboard app SwiftKey had released an updated version of its Android app, adding support for 11 new Indian languages along with Nepali and Sinhala in open beta. The Indian languages now supported are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu, other than Hindi and Hinglish which it had introduced back in December 2012.
– A new Indic Keyboard released by the software collective Swathanthra Malayalam Computing in April last year, allows users to type in 17 Indian languages on Android. This includes Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and lesser spoken languages like Sanskrit.
– KeyPoint Technologies’ text input keyboard app Adaptxt also supports 13 Indic languages, while Nuance Communications-owned Swype added support for Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, and Telugu to its Android app last year and currently supports eight Indian languages including Hindi and Hinglish.
Updates: Indic Keyboard now supports 17 languages, not 15. The article has been modified accordingly.
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