Believe it or not, your Android device gives you freedom to choose from among many keyboards it comes pre-installed with. And if you do not like them, then you can always install a new one from the Google Play Store where you can find thousands of keyboards designed by various third party companies – the most famous ones being Go Keyboard and SwiftKey Keyboard. But after you have installed some of the new keyboards that come with new features like emojis, you must set one of them as the default keyboard in Android so that it can be used when you type in various apps. Without setting a keyboard as default, you will have to manually choose it every time you start to type in an app like Kingsoft Office or Firefox browser.
If you want to set a keyboard as the default keyboard in your Android device, then you can follow these instructions:
- First of all you should install a new keyboard. Although Android comes with two or three extra keyboards depending on the manufacturer, they usually do not have many features. You can find many exciting keyboards at Google Play Store. For example, the Go Keyboard offers many features, plugins and emojis.
- Now head over to the Settings section in Android, scroll down a little and tap on Language & Input.
- Here you would be able to see all the installed keyboards on your Android device. The first thing you have to do is enable the target keyboard by placing a checkmark against it, if it is not already enabled. Android does not automatically enable third party keyboards by default, so you have to do it manually. Then tap on Default which is shown above the list of all the keyboards.
- This will open a small options screen where you can choose a default input method from the list of all the enabled keyboards. You can select one of the keyboards as the default and then tap on the back button.
- That’s it. You have successfully set a new keyboard as the default keyboard in your Android smartphone. Now you can open any app where you have to type, for example, the web browser – this time you will see a new keyboard. The following is a screenshot of Go Keyboard with emojis enabled in Firefox browser.
Please be careful not to install the keyboards from any unknown sources or untrustworthy parties as malicious keyboards can log your keystrokes and steal your personal or financial data like credit card numbers or online banking information. It is always better to get the keyboards from the Google Play Store only and even then keep an antivirus installed in Android to be on the safe side.