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GIFs and emojis are everywhere. You can't even start a conversation nowadays without some form of graphic popping up in the first 5 exchanged messages. But finding and inserting them isn't always the most seamless of experiences. Whether it's scrolling through endless lists of emojis with the complexity of dealing with different sets and their weird emoji orders and designs, or trying to figure out how each app you're using deals with GIFs, it can take anywhere between a few seconds and a couple of minutes to find the perfect visual to convey your message.
The latest Minuum update is a good one for people who speak multiple languages. This third-party keyboard's developers have added in experimental simultaneous multilingual support. Now you can type away at the single row of characters at the bottom of the screen and receive recommendations from two or more languages at once.
Perhaps you've tried the Minuum keyboard on your phone or tablet. It's designed to take up as little space as possible on the screen with just a single line of keys, which is great for smaller screens. How small, though? The developers think smart watch size sounds good, so they are working on Minuum for Android Wear. There's a beta you can try to get into as well.
The new placement makes a lot more sense, because keyboard selection isn't a notification, is it? It's also closer to the keyboard and your fingers' position while typing. On the downside, it disturbs the navigation bar's balance by adding a fourth element to those clean geometrical buttons, and you may accidentally tap it when aiming for the Submit/Search/Enter button or Recents.
Do you even wrist-type, bro? You totally could with Minuum... I mean, not that you'd necessarily want to, but you'll have the option. The maker of the compact Android keyboard has announced it's working on a version of Minuum for round Android Wear devices like the Moto 360. There's even a GIF demo.
Minuum shrinks all the letters of a keyboard down into a single row of text. This is potentially convenient for smartphones, but the learning curve alone is enough to push some users back to alternative options. Yet for smaller devices where a full-size keyboard is downright unwieldy, Minuum is uniquely situated to step in and scratch that itch. The app has now come to Google Glass, but unfortunately, this looks like one of those itches you don't want to scratch in public.
Remember the funky little squishy keyboard called Minuum? Well, it's out of beta. After spending many months in a beta period for Indiegogo backers to test, the app has finally reached its first stable release, and is now available for purchase in Google Play.
Most current smartwatches, such as the Pebble and the Galaxy Gear, serve as notification hubs for whatever smartphone is paired to them, but this limitation is something several Kickstarter projects have sought to change by effectively turning smartwatches into phones themselves. This approach doesn't address how ludicrous it is to peck out words on such a tiny screen, but Minuum, the Android keyboard that fits the entire alphabet into a single row, could just be the ideal solution. The team has released a video showing the magic in action.
Here's the problem with mobile keyboards - they take up too much space, but they're too functional to do away with. They're the worst way to input text, with the exception of all of the alternatives. Now that more phones either come with Swype or a default keyboard that replicates its innovation, there's even less of a reason to try out the many other options that are out there. Some third-party keyboards simply feel half-baked, but there are a few that pique our interest. Minuum is one of the latter options.
Minuum Keyboard launched an IndieGoGo campaign back in March, and by the time it was over in April, the developers had raised almost $90,000. That's 873% of the goal. It was a big vote of confidence from Android users, but Minuum promised something unique – a keyboard that takes up only a tiny strip of screen real estate, yet still provides all the functionality you need. It sounds crazy on the face of it, but what if it's not just smoke and mirrors?
Minuum Keyboard Finishes Its Indiegogo Campaign With A Staggering 873% Of Its Initial Goal, Android Beta Coming In June
When we first laid eyes on Minuum back in mid-March, it was love at first sight (for me, anyway). A touchscreen keyboard that only takes up one row sounds
When we first laid eyes on Minuum back in mid-March, it was love at first sight (for me, anyway). A touchscreen keyboard that only takes up one row sounds like an absolute godsend. Personally, I instantly threw money at the screen so I could get early access to this little gem – that was the first day of the company's Indiegogo campaign. During that day, it blasted past its original $10,000 goal, proving that my desire for this fantastic-looking piece of software to come to fruition was shared by many.
We generally have a rule at Android Police HQ: we don't post about Kickstarter/Indiegogo projects at least until they've been funded. Too often things turn into vaporware and people's money ends up wrapped up in things like Diaspora that never take off. Today, we're making a rare exception to talk about Minuum, because this video starts off as "Oh, that's kinda cool," and quickly shifts to "Holy crap, that's amazeballs!"