Multi-Touch keyboard on Android 2.1

There have been arguments back and forth, left and right, and all over the place about multi-touch keyboards and their implementation or lack there of on Android handsets. As we all know now Google decided to put some native multi-touch support on their new Nexus One just a few weeks ago. There is now a pinch and zoom gesture in the Maps, Gallery, and Browser applications. We expect this to ring true on the Droid very soon. Where the question lies is in the keyboard. Joshua Topolsky of Engadget asked the project leader of the Android team numerous times why multi-touch isn’t being implemented and he actually argued that the keyboard does have multi-touch. So I put it through some tests to see what I can find.

Prior to Android 2.1 there is no multi-touch on Android keyboards no matter how you look at it. If you want to type without errors than after each letter you press you have to lift your finger completely off the screen before putting your other finger down on the screen to press the next letter. The Android 2.1 keyboard mechanics are a bit different. If you put a second finger on the keyboard before lifting the first, the letter that was being pressed by the first finger will pop up in the text field and the letter your now pushing with your second finger is being highlighted. This is actually a subtle but huge difference when typing quickly on the touchscreen keyboard. You can type much faster without worrying about the keyboard not picking up the letter you were just tapping because you put your second finger down to fast. Just describing this doesn’t help so much in text so I have put together a short video for you. I hope you enjoy!

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