TouchPal Keyboard Review


Positive
Fast typing, customizations, cloud sync, lots of features, free
Negative
Integrated voice recognition is buggy, low accuracy with longer words
Verdict
TouchPal is the keyboard we all were looking for: it’s fast, it’s accurate, it’s full of features and works perfectly fine even on lower-end devices. With a bit of practice, required in particular for Wave® technology, it will really increase your typing speed. You get all of this for free, so there’s absolutely no reason not to have it.
Rating: 88/99

 

Many of you may be looking for a third-party keyboard that combines both writing
speed and customizations, if you’re one of this, look no further because TouchPal has
everything you need.
Let’s take a look at what this keyboard has to offer

Input Styles

Tap: Nothing new here, it’s the same old tap to write. The real difference is that you can change the layout of the keyboard from 26 keys to just 12. Using 12 makes typing faster and it needs less precision but this method is prone to mistakes. The autocorrector works very good so this is not a big deal. There is also support for next word prediction, which becomes smarter and smarter the more you type.

Curve® – Word Gesture: Technically speaking, “curve” is another word for “swipe”, as it works in the exact same way. It’s a, somewhat, new input method that lets you drag your finger across the screen so that you can type faster as you don’t have to lift your finger. It’s really swift and accurate, and I highly suggest you try it, you’ll definitely won’t go back to the old tapping method. The more you input the more TouchPal easily recognizes your words, especially the ones in your custom dictionary, so it will take a little while before it reaches its full potential. A little note of demerit: word recognition gets worse if you try to input a long word.

Wave® – Word Gesture: Wave is a technology exclusive to TouchPal that lets you input an entire word, predicted by the keyboard, simply by swyping from the inital letter of that word to the spacebar. This input method requires an extensive utilization of the keyboard, otherwise the prediction is kinda poor.

Features & Customizations

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Keypress: It is possibile to set a sound (or none), enable or disable vibration and, most important of all, the duration in milliseconds to hold a specific key in order to input its second function, which can be a number or a symbol.

Keyboard: You can resize the keyboard in height and width to match your phone’s display size or simply your tastes. Other than this, it’s also possible to use Touchpal’s font or the system one.

Themes: Touchpal supports lots of different themes to customize its appearance. Most of them are free and very well made. New themes are added everyday and older ones get updated from time to time.

Voice Input: Touchpal’s default voice input is not that good, but luckily you can still use Google’s, which is a much better choice.

Twitter Share: Set username and password and you can tweet wherever and whenever you want.

Touchpal Cloud: A very handy feature that lets you upload your personal dictionary in the cloud so that it can be shared between your devices.

Gestures: Some nice shortcuts that makes typing easier and faster. Swipe up or down from the first or top row to swiftly input the second charachter; swipe left from delete button to quickly remove the last word; swipe up from the spacebar to open the emoji menu; swipe left from the spacebar to remove word prediction.

Premium Features

Even though TouchPal is free on the Play Store, it supports some in-app purchases, totally facultatives, to enhance user’s experience. There’s no need to worry though, because you can activate a 7 day trial during which you can download, for free, whatever you like on the store. Here’s what you can find:

Premium Themes: self-explanatory.

Sub-Dictionaries: a collection of technical words not suited for the common chit-chat. Scientific, Medical, Legal and so on.

Add-Ons: Not many are available for now, the only one which can be useful is “Multi Clipboard”, which enables more options when using copy/paste.

General Informations

Version Reviewed: 5.6.6.3
Latest Version: 5.6.6.3
Size: 31.5 MB
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40 Comments

  1. ale.zak91
    November 18, 2014

    I started using this keyboard three months ago. the best keyboard at the time. Excellent function swipe.

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 18, 2014

      And it’s still the best nowadays!

  2. November 18, 2014

    Somehow I’ve been hooked to the Material Design keyboard that showed up some months back. Need to try this!

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 18, 2014

      There is a MaterialDesign-inspired theme on the store

      • ale.zak91
        November 18, 2014

        What’s his name?

        • Luciano Gerace
          November 18, 2014

          Look for “Android L Pack”

      • November 18, 2014

        Okay I’m sold.

  3. November 18, 2014

    I’ve used this keyboard in the past and it works pretty well back then. Haven’t used it in awhile though. I have been using the built-in android keyboard since purchasing my Cube Talk 9X. I’ve tried a few other keyboards I found in the play store and didn’t like them. Always had to remove them immediately. I think I’ll try it again.

    • Ga Ja
      November 18, 2014

      Hi there Michael! How is your Cube Talk 9X performing?

      • November 19, 2014

        It’s performing great Ga Ja. Its quit a performer I must say.

        • Ga Ja
          November 19, 2014

          Thank you Michael! I am also considering getting one hence wanted some feedback from an owner.

          • Damien Xenos
            November 20, 2014

            I have the 32gb and its awesome for the money. long battery life. good screen if you get one without problems. check freaktab.
            downside is that it does not support chrome out of the box

            • November 20, 2014

              Yes I know this. I have the 32GB version too. I’ve fixed the chrome problems from the ROM from 900supersport at freaktab. Now mine works greatly.

              Damien, which ROM did you install? Give it a try Ga Ja. You’ll love it.

            • Damien Xenos
              November 22, 2014

              Left as stock. I have an English ROM 1.8 4th Sept. Left as stock as Android splash screen is nice and wife won’t let me flash. Chrome and brightness fix would be nice

            • Ga Ja
              November 20, 2014

              Thank you Damien!

  4. ale.zak91
    November 18, 2014

    I started using this keyboard three months ago. the best keyboard at the time. Excellent function swipe.

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 18, 2014

      And it’s still the best nowadays!

  5. Yash Garg
    November 18, 2014

    Somehow I’ve been hooked to the Material Design keyboard that showed up some months back. Need to try this!

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 18, 2014

      There is a MaterialDesign-inspired theme on the store

    • ale.zak91
      November 18, 2014

      What’s his name?

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 18, 2014

      Look for “Android L Pack”

    • Yash Garg
      November 18, 2014

      Okay I’m sold.

  6. Michael Ogbonnaya
    November 18, 2014

    I’ve used this keyboard in the past and it works pretty well back then. Haven’t used it in awhile though. I have been using the built-in android keyboard since purchasing my Cube Talk 9X. I’ve tried a few other keyboards I found in the play store and didn’t like them. Always had to remove them immediately. I think I’ll try it again.

    • Ga Ja
      November 19, 2014

      Hi there Michael! How is your Cube Talk 9X performing?

    • Michael Ogbonnaya
      November 19, 2014

      It’s performing great Ga Ja. Its quit a performer I must say.

    • Ga Ja
      November 20, 2014

      Thank you Michael! I am also considering getting one hence wanted some feedback from an owner.

    • Damien Xenos
      November 20, 2014

      I have the 32gb and its awesome for the money. long battery life. good screen if you get one without problems. check freaktab.
      downside is that it does not support chrome out of the box

    • Michael Ogbonnaya
      November 20, 2014

      Yes I know this. I have the 32GB version too. I’ve fixed the chrome problems from the ROM from 900supersport at freaktab. Now mine works greatly.

      Damien, which ROM did you install? Give it a try Ga Ja. You’ll love it.

    • Ga Ja
      November 20, 2014

      Thank you Damien!

    • Damien Xenos
      November 22, 2014

      Left as stock. I have an English ROM 1.8 4th Sept. Left as stock as Android splash screen is nice and wife won’t let me flash. Chrome and brightness fix would be nice

  7. Ga Ja
    November 18, 2014

    How is this compared to swiftkey?

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 19, 2014

      If we consider word prediction, I’d say it’s a tie
      If we consider word recognition (especially via swiping), then TouchPal is way better

      • Ga Ja
        November 19, 2014

        I guess I will give it a try…thank you Jerry

  8. Ga Ja
    November 19, 2014

    How is this compared to swiftkey?

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 19, 2014

      If we consider word prediction, I’d say it’s a tie
      If we consider word recognition (especially via swiping), then TouchPal is way better

    • Ga Ja
      November 20, 2014

      I guess I will give it a try…thank you Jerry

  9. Juls
    November 19, 2014

    Support ‘multiple languages’ at the same time???
    I always use Swiftkey because it has 3… Anyway, lately it’s not working well with recognition and I want to try another one if it support this feature.

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 20, 2014

      Nope, it doesn’t

  10. Guest
    November 19, 2014

    Support ‘multiple languages’ at the same time???
    I always use Swiftkey because it has 3… Anyway, lately it’s not working well with recognition and I want to try another one if it support this feature.

    • Luciano Gerace
      November 20, 2014

      Nope, it doesn’t