hoshinoumi Posted March 12, 2015 at 09:05 PM Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 at 09:05 PM Hi, quick question I am a 4.1.1 android tablet user about to change tablet and get 4.4 android (possible 5.0 update). I've tried some friends' phones with 4.4 and noticed I can't write in Chinese anymore without and external app (google pinyin input or similar). How do you guys write in Chinese in Android now? The other question is a bit more tricky: I have an external bluetooth keyboard. When I use it with iPhone I can very quickly change language input with a key combination (Comand+space I think). But I haven't been able to do so in the Android devices I have tried. Any ideas? It's quite important to me since I constantly change between Spanish and Chinese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted March 12, 2015 at 09:21 PM Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 at 09:21 PM I have always used Gokeyboard, I used it with my earliest version of android and now use it successfully on my tablet running 4.0.3 and my phone on 4.3. It also supports handwriting input with the add on. You can change language with one key, scrolls through pinyin, handwriting, and English/or any other language. It supports lots of languages so you can have Chinese, English and Spanish to choose from. It is available on Play store but is also available a direct download from the website if you haven't got play store access. It is free, stable and works with all the things I have tried it with. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoshinoumi Posted March 12, 2015 at 10:05 PM Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 at 10:05 PM Good to know, I'll check it out asap Have you tried it with an external keyboard? Just in case you could confirm the key or combination of keys to change language. Good help indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted March 12, 2015 at 10:38 PM Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 at 10:38 PM I only have an old tablet with an external key board but it is not bluetooth. It plugs in on small USB. Gokeyboard works with this keyboard, but I have never really learnt all the things it will do as I never used it much. So it might have some keyboard shortcuts but I don't know what they are. It is probably worth trying it, as it is free and it might do want you want/need Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m000gle Posted March 12, 2015 at 11:10 PM Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 at 11:10 PM I wouldn't consider Google Pinyin Input an "external app", per se, as it is effectively the default Chinese Pinyin IME on the Android OS. The reason it appears in the Google Play Store is two-fold: 1. As many OEM's have been historically quite slow at updating core Android apps, if at all, having it in the store allows Google to bypass that otherwise broken update chain; and 2. Not every OEM will include it by default, and this provides users of such OEM's a means of installation. This is the same reason why you see Google Maps and GMail listed in the Play Store, as well. All nit picking aside, though: Google Pinyin Input is what I've stuck with all along, as for both pinyin and hand writing it "just works". There is next to no overhead and, in my mind anyway, there's comfort in not having to utilize a third party app for something as sensitive as my every key stroke. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoshinoumi Posted March 13, 2015 at 07:24 PM Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2015 at 07:24 PM I will try the Gokeyboard app. As for the google pinyin input I didn't only mean that it is on google play, but also that android 4.4 doesnt seem to have unles you specifically download it. Anyway, will try as many options as I can and I will let you know in case it helps somebody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted March 13, 2015 at 08:42 PM Report Share Posted March 13, 2015 at 08:42 PM When you download the gokeyboard you then choose chinese from the list of languages and then you have to download the handwriting app. Once you have done that it all works and you don't need to worry about starting the handwriting bit. Hope it goes well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoshinoumi Posted March 14, 2015 at 03:49 PM Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 at 03:49 PM Ok guys, some feedback on these issue Both Google Pinyin Input and Gokeyboard allow me to quickly change language input by pressing shit+space bar (bluetooth keyboard, android 4.4) Gokeyboard does work with the 2 languages I tell the app (ZH-ES in my case) but doesn't let me add "accents" on the vowels (á,é... it inputs that as ´a and ´e) I can´t also put numbers nor the symbols in the number keys. Any ideas? Also, is there any chance to use the Google Pinyin Input with Chinese and other language different from English? Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted March 14, 2015 at 04:55 PM Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 at 04:55 PM Usually you have to have number lock on to use the number pad. I have not used a keyboard with either of these programs so I can't answer your questions. If you are using a keyboard for Spanish and there are vowels that usually have accents then I would expect there to be a separate key for that vowel with that accent and it would not be something separate. In my list of languages there is a choice of 2 different Spanish ones. One with (+n) with a ~ over the n after the word Espanol and one with out. I don't know if this has anything to do with it. Also If you hold the letter down using the on screen keyboard you get a choice of different accents available for that letter pop up after a few seconds. I don't know if that would work with an actual keyboard. Hope this helps, if not try emailing the gokeyboard team they may be able to help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoshinoumi Posted March 15, 2015 at 12:36 PM Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 at 12:36 PM Usually you have to have number lock on to use the number pad. If you are using a keyboard for Spanish and there are vowels that usually have accents then I would expect there to be a separate key for that vowel with that accent and it would not be something separate. --------- I have checked that the numbers worked with the google app, that's why I wondered why they don't in the Gokeyboard app. I am a native Spanish speaker and using a physical Spanish keyboard, meaning it has the ñ key separate so yeah, I will try contacting Gokeyboard see what I might me doing wrong Oh If you are interested, we don't have separate keys for a and á for example We press the ´ key plus the vowel (not meaning to sound patronizing, I just thought you might want to know) Thanks again for your help. Once I get my tablet back I'll contact the gokeyboard support team, I really liked the way it works apart from the numbers and accents haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted March 15, 2015 at 01:14 PM Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 at 01:14 PM Thanks for the info, its always good to learn new stuff. Have you tried using the Gokeyboard on screen keyboard for Spanish? Maybe these things work with that keyboard. I am no expert with Gokeyboard, I recommended it because it worked really well with the 2 languages I use. Maybe it is just a question of finding some else who use Spanish to help you. Hope you get it sorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
French Posted March 15, 2015 at 08:49 PM Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 at 08:49 PM There are a few alternatives when it comes to virtual keyboard. I use TouchPal, it's about the same about Gokeyboard, both can't reach the level of prediction of Swiftkey but both support Chinese pinyin and handwriting. I use 3 languages with TouchPal (azerty keyboard for English and French and qwerty keyboard for Chinese because there is no azerty option). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted March 15, 2015 at 10:58 PM Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 at 10:58 PM There are a few alternatives when it comes to virtual keyboard. The OP wants to use a physical keyboard configured for Spanish. I have not had any experience with this or Spanish keyboards, real or virtual. I have to pass on being able to offer any more help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balthazar Posted March 24, 2015 at 08:41 PM Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 at 08:41 PM Hijacking this topic for a related question... I've had my Samsung GT-I9000 since forever, but recently made the switch to the Motorola G 2nd generation (yes, I am rich). One of the first things I installed was Pleco, and Google Pinyin Input. However, Google Pinyin Input no longer has the "Eng"-tab it used to (which lets you switch to the English keyboard with a single touch), at least not the newest version. I first thought it must be something funky with my phone (as I can't switch with a "long touch" of the space bar of the keyboard either, have to go to the "Change keyboard" section and change English from there), but I see a lot of people are complaining about this on the app's Play Store page. It may sound like a trifle, but I am finding this to significantly slow down my dictionary browsing. So much so that for now I'm still using my old phone. Hopefully Google will fix this (no idea why they removed it in the first place), but does anyone know if it is possible to download an earlier version of the app somewhere? (If not, this might be a good time to check out the Gokeyboard) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted March 24, 2015 at 09:16 PM Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 at 09:16 PM Check out Gokeyboard anyway, its free and if you don't like it you can always uninstall it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balthazar Posted April 26, 2015 at 10:29 AM Report Share Posted April 26, 2015 at 10:29 AM As I didn't find an older version of the Google Pinyin Input I ended up trying the Gokeyboard. It's pretty good. I mostly use Chinese and English, which is why the Google Input was pretty much perfect for my use. But I occasionally use Norwegian (and sometimes, although rarely, Swedish too), so the ease of changing keyboards with Gokeyboard is very welcome. My only complaint is that I find it's prediction to be a few notches behind Google's. Today I wanted to look up “扭秧歌”. (I know these characters, but I wanted to check the different definitions of "扭".) I much prefer using the T9-keyboard. Using the Google Pinyin Input, typing "niu yang ge" (using T9), I get these characters immediately. The same is true for Linux's ibus-pinyin (which I'm using right now). With Gokeyboard the first suggestion is "牛王哥", then comes single characters "你", "哦", "米"，"噢", "牛" etc. To help the app finding what I'm looking for I can press "niu" pinyin-selection on the left side. Now all the characters I can choose are "niu"-characters (i.e. "你" etc has gone away), but the correct "niu" comes pretty late, so it doesn't appear to look for the most likely "niu" in combination with the "yangge". With Google Pinyin Input I would now normally be able to specify the pinyin of the second character, that is "yang"/"wang"/"zang" etc, and then I could have chose the last. I have not found a way to do this with Gokeyboard, you can choose the pinyin for the first character you're looking for, but then you have to select a character before you can move on and choose the second one. As the predictions are often (again, from my experience) not very good, this is time consuming. Using the "26"-keyboard (all characters listed), I can of course type "niu yangge" and there will be no need for predicting the pinyin. But still I find the prediction of Chinese characters lacking. When I type "niu yangge" using the 26-keyboard, Pleco understands what I'm looking for and gives my the right word, but it the Gokeyboard itself it is not given as an option. Instead I get "牛羊个" as first choice, and then, again, only single characters to choose from. And strangely enough, this time I get "不" and "步" as the first options, then comes "牛" "妞" and finally "扭". So this is my only gripe having used Gokeyboard for a month. But it's a pretty big one for me. Sometimes it takes me less time to hand-draw words than to find them through a pinyin-search. It doesn't happen that often, though, but often enough for me to notice. It very rarely happened with the Google Pinyin Input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted April 26, 2015 at 10:39 AM Report Share Posted April 26, 2015 at 10:39 AM However, Google Pinyin Input no longer has the "Eng"-tab it used to (which lets you switch to the English keyboard with a single touch), at least not the newest version. I don't understand this issue. I have used Google Hanyu Pinyin and Cantonese ime for a long time. I use Samsung Note4 with Android 4.4 and my pinyin input ime is the latest version I believe. When I use it, there are the Chinese and English tabs, and I can also switch between the languages by touching the globe key next to the space bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balthazar Posted April 26, 2015 at 11:01 AM Report Share Posted April 26, 2015 at 11:01 AM Maybe it's a phone-related issue? If you check the latest reviews of the app over at the Play Store you will see a bunch of people complaining about the same issue. Strange if it's only a problem for some.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markcarter Posted May 14, 2015 at 07:52 AM Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 at 07:52 AM (I posted this last month in the "Resources for studying chinese" forum, but it seems more relevant here) Google just released Google Handwriting Input: https://play.google....handwriting.ime Supports simplified and traditional Chinese as well as learner-friendly options like disabling recognition-after-timeout and undo stroke-by-stroke. Works offline too. This is a standard system-level IME (soft keyboard) so will work with any app with a text input box! Anyone tried it? Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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