Looking for some good KAB examples in the Play Store

Keyboard App Builder
1

Hi there. Can someone please send me some good examples of Keyboard App Builder apps in the Play Store? I am getting ready to make my own and I would love to see some quality examples before I start.

Thanks!

2

Hey Alex,

I recently made a KAB app to distribute on Google Play one of the Mixtec keyboards that we had previously just shared informally at workshops, schools, etc. You can find it here:

The app is pretty standard to the defaults of a KAB setup, but we did customize a few details:

  • We tweaked the Spanish text used in the instruction pages of the app a little bit.
  • We included a lexical model for predictive text.
  • The keyboard’s audience uses a lot of Spanish loan words, so they wanted all the letters from a typical Spanish keyboard available on the keyboard.
  • We wanted this to be useful across a range of Mixtec varieties, so we tried to accommodate letters used in a few different orthographies.
  • Because of the two previous objectives, we ended up with a lot of keys! So one compromise we made was to use a bit smaller key size for letters that are only used for Spanish loan-words. Most people have been ok with that so far, but the feedback is mixed.
  • The vowel represented by the barred-i (ɨ, Ɨ) is used in some Mixtec varieties but not in others. We originally considered making it available through a long‑press of the “i” key, but may Mixtec orthographies also require tones on vowels, so we had to have a separate key for “i” and “ɨ”. We’re experimenting with a design here that removes the space between those 2 keys so it basically looks like one key that uses the left side for “i” and the right side for “ɨ”, each with their tone markings available through long‑press.
  • Another feature is that many Mixtec orthographies join enclitic pronouns to their roots with a hyphen. This version of the keyboard provides the most-common pronouns in one particular variety through a long-press of the hyphen. The lexical model for predictive text is based on that particular variety, too.

In a future version of the KAB app, we’re thinking of offering options for using keyboards with or without the lexical model, as well as a choice for keyboards with or without the letters used in Spanish loanwords.

3

Thanks Bruce! This is really helpful to look at.