UTB Unicode for Android (using barred vowels on phones)

Keyman
1

Investigating how to help people write their language on phones / social media. The UTB Unicode Keyboard is available to download online for desktop, but I don’t see it on the Keyman app on my Android phone. Please can you advise me? Thanks.

2

Thank you for reaching out.

You cannot find it on Android because the keyboard was developed only for computer running macOS or Windows, and not for mobile devices running iOS or Android.

3

Adding to @makara’s reply. Keyman Desktop uses keyboards compiled to a .kmx file while Keyman for Android uses touch layout keyboards compiled to .js files.

While a touch layout for UTB Unicode keyboard is currently unavailable, we do have a tech support member who has been creating a touch layout for the SIL IPA keyboard. Perhaps you can try installing that keyboard and see if it handles the characters you want. His test page also provides a link if there’s characters that need to be added.

Installation:
From your Android phone that already has Keyman installed

  1. Browse to Scott’s Test Page for Keyman.
  2. Click on the blue “ipauni15 Keyboard” button. This should trigger Keyman for Android to prompt about installing the keyboard.
4

Great, thanks, the ipauni15 keyboard had the characters I needed :slight_smile:
I sent trial messages to a couple of colleagues - the one with a smart phone was able to receive it correctly, the one with a normal phone just got boxes instead of letters. Is that always the case with these keyboards, when sending messages to ‘normal’ phones?
Thanks,

5

Good to hear ipauni15 had the characters you needed.

Were you sending the trial messages as text messages? It sounds like the normal (feature) phone displays boxes instead of letters because it can’t use a system font that can render the Unicode characters in your text. For some of the older texting protocols, only 128 standard characters can be sent.

6

Yes, by text message (as ‘normal’ phones don’t have WhatsApp etc).
We have also discovered that in GooglePlay there is an App called ‘African Keyboard’. This also had the letters we needed (barred u and i).
Thanks for your help.