The interface designer Luis Mena, who bought the Nexus 5 smartphone after the IOS 7 release, and then returned to the iPhone 6, compared the work with keyboards in iOS 8 and Android 5.0.

Mena usually uses English, Spanish and Japanese layouts. The keyboard in Android, the designer noted, looks cleaner and gives access to a larger number of functions for fewer steps. For example, it has direct access to a comma and point, a change of tongue, short access to numbers, as well as color accents. The keyboard on iOS, in his opinion, looks difficult, requires an additional step for entering a comma, points and numbers. However, IOS has direct access to voice input, which is very useful for Japanese and Spanish.

The layout of the layouts, Mena noted, is good in both operating systems. For example, in Android all languages are indicated in English, but there is additional information about keyboards and the ability to add a new one. In iOS, each language has an original name and switch for a dictionary.

He also appreciated the prediction of words in both OS. A button with three points in Android, which opens a list of possible words, according to the exchange, turned out to be a useful function for those who often use several languages. And iOS either correctly predicts the introduced word, or ignores it. Such mechanics complements Mena, suitable for those who use only one keyboard.

At the end, Mena appreciated the convenience of printing on the Japanese syllable alphabet of Hiragana. He explained that there are “parental” vowels and “subsidiaries” of syllables from them (for example, “a” - “ka”, “sa”, “one”). He called the hiragana input method pure and understandable. On the keys with the “parental” vowels, “subsidiaries” syllables are indicated, which can be selected using a pile. In addition, the arrows for moving to the right and left in the text seemed very convenient for the Japanese language.

Hiragana on iOS, Mena believes, is not designed for beginners. It, for example, has no "subsidiaries" syllables on it. They will appear only after a long press on the button. This suggests that the owner of the smartphone already knows the language well. In addition, if you press one symbol, the iPhone will show only three of the five possible combinations.

Mena summed up that his return to iOS was held with some problems. It turned out that they were not associated with specific applications Evernote, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram for iOS, but with the keyboard itself. Mena admitted that, using iOS after Android, he often notices to himself some moments between the smartphone and the user that need to be finalized. However, he added that iOS is designed to intuitive input of the text.

IOS and Android keyboards were compared for chiragana and English