Why does the Android Chinese keyboard not include brackets and a forward slash?

[Milkybar_Kid]

Hello,

 

When I was typing in Chinese on my HTC smartphone today I noticed that the Chinese pinyin keyboard does not include brackets () or a forward slash /. Does anyone the reason for this? Do Chinese people not use these?

 

Thanks

[Shelley]

I can get a full range of punctuation on my Huawei smart phone pinyin input keyboard including several sorts of brackets and forward slash.【】《》﹙﹚﹛﹜﹝﹞（）｛｝〔〕  / \

 

and on my tablet.

 

Yes they are used.

[Demonic_Duck]

If you're not satisfied with the default IME, Google pinyin for Android is pretty good. You can get all the common punctuation marks from the main qwerty keyboard view by long-pressing (no capital letters required, so it makes sense).

[Video Vocabulary]

 

 

When I was typing in Chinese on my HTC smartphone today

 

Do you use standard keyboard? As an alternative, you can install GO Keyboard, it's functionality much better compare to standard keyboard.

[Shelley]

I use the Go keyboard on my tablet with handwriting input add on, works very well.

[abcdefg]

When I was typing in Chinese on my HTC smartphone today I noticed that the Chinese pinyin keyboard does not include brackets () or a forward slash /.

 

All are present and frequently used in China.

 

On my (Android) Sony, one can scroll through 5 different "number and special character" keyboards. They are there as standard equipment and by default. Are you sure you are not just overlooking that option in the keyboard layout on your phone?

 

On my phone, they become visible when typing numbers, not when typing Hanzi characters. Need to go to the number layout to check for them. (Doubtless not exactly the same arrangement on all phones.)

[vellocet]

Yeah, there's gotta be a button for "show more characters" on the keyboard somewhere.  Not being on the front screen doesn't mean they're not there, just that they're less important in Chinese.

 

The problem with Android keyboards is that they are either good at Chinese and suck at English, or are good at English and suck at Chinese.  I tried them all, Sogou, QQ, Baidu, Google, etc.  None of them were good at both.  The one I found, which I recommend, is TouchPal keyboard.  Try it, it works great in both languages.  Dazzle your Chinese friends as you use Swype input to write Chinese characters.  It also predicts which words you are likely to use next in a sentence, which can be an enlightening learning experience when you're typing Chinese.

[歐博思]

I will second Touchpal.

 

Now if only Fleksy would get their Chinese language mode ready!