Cantonese keyboard

Miles Leung

About this app

Cantonese keyboard (廣東話拼音鍵盤) is an implementation of soft keyboard for the Google Android mobile operation system. It provides an interface for the entering of traditional and simplified Chinese characters on Android devices, by means of the Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation convention (香港政府粵語拼音) and English-Chinese dictionary look up.

* HK chars
* 16 keyboard layouts
* Selection history
* Learning related words
* Associated phrases
* Eng suggestion with correction
* Hard keys support
* Integrated Eng-Chi dictionary lookup
* Phrase lookup
* No insecure permission required


Phrase lookup (32MB of heap memory is required):
Input Chinese phrase directly by the following patterns;
* First code of the 1st char. + First code of the 2nd char. + … + First code of the last char., or
* First code of the 1st char. + First code of the 2nd char. + … + Full code of the last char.

E.g.
For '你好嗎'; key in ‘nhm’ or ‘nhma’.


Open by:
For Android 1.5 ~ 2.x;
1.Check the keyboard at Settings > Locale & text
2.Long press a text box > select input method

For Android 3.x ~ 4.x;
1.Check the keyboard at Settings > Language & input
2.Click a text box > drop down the notification bar and click 'Choose input method' > select input method

For Android 5.x;
1.Check the keyboard at Settings > Language & input > Current Keyboard > Choose Keyboards
2.Click a text box > Click the keyboard icon on the bottom navigation bar > select input method


Visit Web for details


Tips:
1. If you experience extreme lag after updating, try uninstalling and re-installing the keyboard again.
2. After changing theme, try to restart the keyboard or rotate the device with the keyboard active, to make the new theme effective.
3. If you experience touch difficulty, try to set the Touch sensitivity settings as High and Neutral.
4. If you experience missing candidates, try enabling the 'Rarely used characters' option of 'Chinese candidates' setting.
5. Simplified Chinese candidates are disabled by default. Enable it at the 'Character type' option of 'Chinese candidates' setting if required.


Known issues:
1. Keyboard closes itself on Contact's phone number text box of Samsung devices with Android 4.x. Will fix once we get a Samsung device on hand to check.
2. Keyboard plays sound on press on LG devices, even sound is disabled in settings. Will fix once we get a LG device on hand to check.

Ratings and reviews

This has been my go-to cantonese keyboard app for probably well over 10 years. I loved its simplicity and ease of use. However, I recently got a new Samsung phone (the S23+) and have realised that it doesn't work anymore :( it still worked on my previous S9 as intended. While I can still type with it on my new phone, the cantonese typing function no longer works at all. I hope the devs will update the app, but considering the last update was in 2015, this may not happen.

It was great, my standard Cantonese keyboard for my last phone. But after I changed phone with Android 13, I can no longer use it. Recently I found a replacement app called "mixed chinese keyboard plus" to replace this non functioning keyboard, and it works the same as far as I remember.

Hi, i am using Samsung S21. After done a system software update on my phone, the cantonese keyboard does not work and there is a samsung message that the keyboard is old version and might not be compatible. I like this cantonese keyboard very much and have been using it for years. Hope you can help fix this issue at your earliest convenience. Thank you.

What's new

Ver 0.13.2:
1. Improve the touch sensitivity of candidates selection bar.

Ver 0.13.1:
1. New option for auto removing space between English and Chinese word.
2. New option for auto inserting space between Chinese and English word.
3. Fix the jumping candidate selection bar for tablets.
4. Minor bug fixes.

Ver 0.13.0:
1. Phrase lookup.
2. Better Associated phrases suggestion.
3. English auto completion with correction.
4. Various bug fixes.