Duplicate apps in One UI are a problem on Samsung Galaxy phones. Often, you’ll get both the Google and Samsung versions of an app pre-installed on your device. As soon as I set up a new Galaxy phone, I immediately start trimming the fat. I keep the Samsung apps I use, remove the unnecessary junk, and disable the ones Galaxy phones won’t let you uninstall easily. However, as much as I despise the duplicate app situation, there’s one Google app I wish came pre-installed on Galaxy phones: Gboard.
Samsung phones feature incredible hardware, but software can be a mixed bag. At its best, One UI is a multitasking beast, supporting up to eight apps simultaneously on foldables. There’s no better example of Samsung software at its worst than Samsung Keyboard. I’ve reviewed Galaxy phones for many years now. Every year, I hope Samsung Keyboard improves. And every year, I end up replacing it with Gboard.
Why I can’t use Samsung Keyboard
It’s clunky, cramped, and terrible at autocorrect
Samsung Keyboard is a mess, and it starts with the layout. Before I get into what exactly makes Samsung Keyboard awful to type on, it’s important to point out that I’m not alone. Galaxy users have posted complaints on Reddit and Samsung’s community forums for years, and the consensus is clear: Samsung Keyboard, and specifically the keyboard’s autocorrect algorithm, is terrible.
Autocorrect is only part of the problem, though. The issues begin with the cramped layout, which houses a crowded toolbar and a dedicated number row at the top. While I’m sure some users appreciate the number row, I find it to be a nuisance. All the keys are smaller because of its inclusion. Gboard offers larger keys than Samsung Keyboard, and it takes up less space on your screen because it skips the dedicated number row.
If you’re fat-fingered like me, the tiny keys and congested layout combine to cause accuracy issues on their own. It seems as if every other word I type becomes a typo, making sentences incoherent. You might think my typing accuracy is the problem, and that could be believable if my text was riddled with mistakes on every virtual keyboard. However, I switch between iPhones and Android phones multiple times monthly — Samsung Keyboard consistently trips me up.
It registers my taps incorrectly all too often, assigning the key press to a neighboring letter tile rather than the one I was intending to tap. Again, this can’t be explained away by user error. Microsoft improved virtual keyboard accuracy over a decade ago with dynamic hit targets. There’s no excuse for Samsung Keyboard to still have pervasive problems registering touches. Making matters worse, Samsung Keyboard’s autocorrect is the opposite of helpful.
When a word is misspelled, Samsung Keyboard’s autocorrect algorithm rarely lends a helping hand. In case that wasn’t frustrating enough, Samsung Keyboard actively ruins correctly spelled words. To combat this, you can tweak Samsung Keyboard’s settings. Navigate to Settings → General Management → Keyboard → Samsung Keyboard. Here, you’ll find Predictive text, Auto replace, and Auto spell check. You can disable these features to avoid the inaccurate autocorrect suggestions. Clearing the app’s cache can also help address irregularities.
These recourses, however, leave Galaxy users without any form of autocorrect or suggestions on a keyboard that’s infamous for accuracy issues — they’re not a realistic solution for me. Luckily, this is Android, and Samsung Keyboard isn’t your only virtual keyboard option.
Gboard is cleaner, faster, and more accurate
I get the same typing experience on all my Android phones
Gboard is a superb Android keyboard, and I find it to be more accurate than Samsung Keyboard. The keys are larger, and the virtual keyboard doesn’t take up as much valuable screen space. Unlike Samsung Keyboard’s autocorrect and predictive text features, Gboard gets the obvious fixes right. It’s unrealistic to expect a keyboard to guess every word or correct every mistake, but Gboard consistently tidies up my text and spots the errors that are impossible to miss.
For those that use voice typing or glide typing, Gboard shines again. Google’s voice-to-text algorithms are more accurate than Samsung’s, turning your speech into coherent text. Samsung phones can’t access Rambler, the incredible dictation tool in Gboard on Pixel phones, but Gboard’s voice typing is still useful without it. Glide typing, the feature that allows you to swipe over your virtual keyboard to type words, is similarly great on Gboard — on Samsung Keyboard, it’s a mixed bag.
Most importantly, Gboard doesn’t sacrifice the key features that make Samsung Keyboard appealing. Both virtual keyboards support one-handed and floating modes, adjustable height and number rows, clipboard history, and a space bar that doubles as a trackpad for cursor control. Gboard adds integrations with Google Search and Google Translate, which may be valuable perks to those that aren’t satisfied by Samsung’s own translation service.
To me, the best virtual keyboards are forgettable. I want the keyboard on my Android phone to be clean, fast, and accurate above all else. Gboard does that, whereas Samsung Keyboard constantly reminds me I’m using a Galaxy phone when it botches a word or misses an opportunity to autocorrect a typo.
What about all the other Android keyboards?
They’re fine, but whatever you do, ditch Samsung Keyboard
I wish Galaxy phones didn’t come with such a frustrating default keyboard, but the beauty of Android is its robust support for customization. I recommend replacing Samsung Keyboard with an alternative virtual keyboard, especially if your experience has been similar to mine. But the solution doesn’t have to be Gboard. There are many third-party Android keyboards available on the Google Play Store, ready to become your Galaxy phone’s next default keyboard.
An option worth considering is Microsoft’s SwiftKey, which has a similar layout to Samsung Keyboard, but is generally regarded as having superior accuracy and autocorrect algorithms. As a typist that values a clean keyboard layout and accurate voice-to-text transcription, Gboard edged out SwiftKey. That being said, SwiftKey is one of Android’s most popular keyboards for a reason, and it’s worth a look if you need a Samsung Keyboard alternative.
One UI has come a long way over the years, and I consistently choose to keep a Galaxy phone as my Android daily driver over the competition. However, Samsung Keyboard is still a weak point, and I wish Samsung did more to address the long-running complaints from Galaxy users about its default keyboard.
