Android: If you are using an Android device with limited memory and processor power, you’d know that keyboard apps like Swype and SwiftKey don’t always run smoothly. Multiling offers similar customisability and features while protecting your privacy and being light on resources.
Like SwiftKey and Swype — two of our favourite Android keyboards — you can swipe-to-type and the predictive text gets better the more you use it. It’s also highly customisable, lets you change the layout, use different types of keyboards (like Dvorak and Azerty), and supports several languages.
But the two points where it’s very impressive is the low memory usage and app permissions. Where Swype and SwiftKey were using 41MB and 32MB respectively on my phone, Multiling was using just 7MB. I tested it on a low-powered Android device (dual-core A7 processor, 512MB RAM) and Multiling was much faster than any of the other keyboards, including the stock Android one.
Apart from that, Multiling requires much fewer app permissions than any of the other keyboards, asking only to read and write to the user dictionary and access control vibration for haptic feedback. Meanwhile, Swype and SwiftKey will want to read everything from your text messages to your contact book. The downside is that you have to input contact names the first time in Multiling and it doesn’t learn them smartly, but that’s a small price to pay for privacy.
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