[wrehrig]

Anybody know if Blackberry Keyboard is going to be available for Google Pixel? It currently shows as incompatible.

[RK_BB]

BB Keyboard is only available for BB phones and most like will remain as such for legal reasons. There are several threads in the subject throughout the forum.

[Johnny Dollar]

Anybody know if Blackberry Keyboard is going to be available for Google Pixel? It currently shows as incompatible.

Get BlackBerry Manager from (Cobalt?) Then you should be able to get all the BlackBerry apps including the keyboard. I have a BLU phone that they work perfect on.

[anon(10268214)]

I would like to see this happen also. Petition BlackBerry and make your views known! If enough people show interest, perhaps they will make it available.

[xandros9]

Get BlackBerry Manager from (Cobalt?) Then you should be able to get all the BlackBerry apps including the keyboard. I have a BLU phone that they work perfect on.

Yep, BlackBerry Keyboard works like a charm on my Moto. (and Nexus when I had one.)

[RCM78]

I don't know why BlackBerry doesn't make their keyboard a paid app for both iPhone and Android. In my opinion it is far and away the best VKB out there. When I show people (particularly iPhone users) how intuitive and "smart" it is it blows their minds. Ever watch someone struggle to enter a complex password on an iPhone? It's brutal!

[conite]

I don't know why BlackBerry doesn't make their keyboard a paid app for both iPhone and Android. In my opinion it is far and away the best VKB out there. When I show people (particularly iPhone users) how intuitive and "smart" it is it blows their minds. Ever watch someone struggle to enter a complex password on an iPhone? It's brutal!

Because their licencing agreement with Swiftkey does not allow it.

[RCM78]

Because their licencing agreement with Swiftkey does not allow it.

Do BlackBerry patents keep all other vendors from creating good keyboards? Seriously, I'm just wondering how Apple doesn't have the best keyboard on earth with all of their resources.

[conite]

Do BlackBerry patents keep all other vendors from creating good keyboards? Seriously, I'm just wondering how Apple doesn't have the best keyboard on earth with all of their resources.

Swiftkey has many of the patents on Android. That's why BlackBerry licences most of the core tech from them.

BlackBerry's patents exist in the pkb space.

Apple likes its keyboard, so they would have a different view on it.

[Troy Tiscareno]

The BB VKB on BB10 and BB Android is mostly SwiftKey, with some additional features added by BB, such as "swipe up". But BBs license does not allow BB to offer it on non-BB-branded devices as SwiftKey doesn't want its licensees to be using their technology to compete against them. Such license restrictions are very common in the industry.

[southlander]

Wrehrig... BlackBerry the "software company" apparently can't write its own keyboard app from scratch. Lol. Or they just don't want to.

[BionicKris]

Get BlackBerry Manager from (Cobalt?) Then you should be able to get all the BlackBerry apps including the keyboard. I have a BLU phone that they work perfect on.

Here is the link to BlackBerry Manager:
https://cobalt232.github.io/blackberrymanager

[craig428]

I wish they'd implement the light theme for the vkb like they did on BB10.

[BlackBerryJock]

I have an S8, coming of a DTek60. The app is incomparable for me as well. But I use the original Swiftkey keyboard. So far, the only major thing it doesn't have for me that I loved is the "flick" typing. That stuff is legit!

[anon(10268214)]

The BB VKB on BB10 and BB Android is mostly SwiftKey, with some additional features added by BB, such as "swipe up". But BBs license does not allow BB to offer it on non-BB-branded devices as SwiftKey doesn't want its licensees to be using their technology to compete against them. Such license restrictions are very common in the industry.

Aside from conjecture, I am curious as to how one might know the details of this arrangement or any potential restrictions? I don't believe BlackBerry has ever officially acknowledged any such arrangement with Swiftkey, or vice versa.

[Cobalt232]

The technology is from SwiftKey, thats for sure. Its everywhere in the app code. But only BlackBerry knows details about the license agreement.

[anon(10268214)]

The technology is from SwiftKey, thats for sure. Its everywhere in the app code. But only BlackBerry knows details about the license agreement.

Good to know, thanks Cobalt

[Troy Tiscareno]

The technology is from SwiftKey, thats for sure. Its everywhere in the app code. But only BlackBerry knows details about the license agreement.

I've also seen, in the past, references to "licensed from SwiftKey" on BB's website talking about BB10 and the VKB. That much has been public from the beginning of BB10.

[graley242]

Is there a flick typing option that I'm missing?

[anon(2313227)]

The technology is from SwiftKey, thats for sure. Its everywhere in the app code. But only BlackBerry knows details about the license agreement.

Cobalt, is there a reason for the restriciton on the resolution of the device?

I want to use the BB kb on a Nexus 9 tablet and I can't...

I remember being able to long time ago on a previous model android tablet.

[Cobalt232]

It's not actually a restriction. It's just not technically supported.

[Troy Tiscareno]

Cobalt, is there a reason for the restriciton on the resolution of the device?

I want to use the BB kb on a Nexus 9 tablet and I can't...

BB never developed the VKB to work on tablets, so it doesn't scale on them. Nothing prevented BB from doing so, except that they don't make a tablet and only intended (and can only legally offer) their keyboard to be used on their own BB-branded phones.

[Cobalt232]

Actually, they just need to add a few lines of code to get the current DPI and then set the flick text size accordingly. Done in 5 min.

[anon(2313227)]

if everything is based on dpi, they should already do this to properly align as very few android share the same dpi. Just the limitation part of the dpi needs to be removed.

[inurear]

It's not actually a restriction. It's just not technically supported.

On a Google Pixel you might find that you cannot change the default keyboard to the BlackBerry one. To change the cobalt blackberry manager keyboard enable it in system-language settings, then disable all the other keyboards.

Typically most androids let you change the default.