With the release of the first Google Android phones in Japan from NTT Docomo, there are finally phones with Google’s native Japanese keyboard input. The keyboard has been in the SDK, but it has not appeared on any handsets in the U.S. yet. I have not been able to find any information about when non-Japanese Android phones will be able to use the Japanese keyboard input.
Until there is a native Japanese keyboard input, the only usable option is the Simeji Japanese keyboard input. Simeji is a Japanese input app that lets you switch input modes on the fly between English and Japanese. It includes multiple Japanese input modes, including the standard keitai-style mode. Under the phone settings you can configure the keyboard to your preferences. I prefer the vibrate on touch option to keep the Japanese input mode feel similar to the default English keyboard on the HTC Hero.
The biggest drawback to Simeji is that it is an app. Since it is not a native part of the OS, it takes time to load every time you toggle the keyboard. There is also some lag when typing at times. It is always running in the background ready to be toggled to, but it never feels like it is a natural part of the phone’s OS.
Another drawback to using Japanese input on Android is that it does not work with text messages. You can input Japanese and sent text messages; you just can’t read any messages you receive. I don’t know if this is a problem with Sprint’s network or American text messages in general, but it is a problem. I can understand an older phone having problems receiving Japanese text messages. But from Android to Android I expect better. Between Android phones you can always use Google Talk, but there is no guarantee that the person you are messaging has notifications turned on for Talk, whereas with text messages that is almost guaranteed.
Simeji works—for the most part—and has lots of configuration options. It is great that someone has created this app because there is a need for it. But the native Android Japanese input keyboard should be made available to all Android phones. The iPhone gets this right; Google should too.
I use Simeji, but that’s because it’s pretty much the only qwerty anthy app I got to work in cyanogenMod. i wish the phones came with native input metapackages or something to choose from.
On the other hand, I use HTC IME for normal typing -_- having both makes me have funny keyboard loading time a lot.
My wife is trying to find a NON-iPhone that has the ability to read Japanese text on websites and received-emails. Also wishes to have a non-iPhone for writing emails to romanji (to convert to hiragana and such…).
Is the clunky app on the Android app store the only one? Can you advise a phone that would help her situation?
Thanks for your thoughts. Enjoy the day.
Theren
I’ve used the built-in Japanese support on the Japanese version of Android–it’s terrible. It’s a standard keyboard IME–you enter a word in hiragana via either a QWERTY romaji virtual keyboard or a mobile-phone style keybad, tap a button, and Android puts its best guess at what kanji you mean into the text–tap it again and it shows a list of possible candidates to choose from. That’s not bad–the system has been around forever and can work well. Unfortunately, Android’s doesn’t. The dictionary it uses is too small, so much of the time when you enter your hiragana and tap the “convert to kanji” button, it can’t–it can’t even put the word in the list of suggestions. This happens even with common words. So a lot of the time you have to enter words one kanji at a time–which is a pain. If you compare it to the keyboard IMEs in Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac, iPhone, and other phones in Japan, it’s primitive and tremendously frustrating to use. I haven’t tried Simeji to compare, but I can’t imagine it would be any worse.
I’d love to see google port their Japanese IME for Windows (works almost exactly like and almost as well as the Japanese support in Windows XP) to Android. Asking for something that worked as well as the Japanese support in the Japanese Windows Mobile (which can be hacked into non-Japanese versions of WM) might be asking too much, but the great thing about a platform where development isn’t restricted from above is that if google doesn’t step up to the plate, someone else might–I imagine the situation will be different in 6 months or a year.
Theren,
I believe the Blackberry’s can use Japanese input on a system level. It’s no droid, but it isn’t an iPhone either. I understand that you have to install the language for keyboard input, but that it does work it you’re successful.
Brian
Thanks for posting! I really enjoyed the report. I’ve already bookmark this article.
Wouldn’t not being able to read Japanese characters in text messaging just be due to limitations in that as a national service?
I’m pretty sure over here in the UK you can only use western characters.
Even the Japanese tend to use email for mobile-mobile texting anyway.
As for Android IME, FlickWnn is my favourite recently. Much faster than bashing each button several times, and less buggy than simeji, which would occassionally freeze on my HTC tattoo
You are right on, and i do believe that Google will soon relies the potential in going “globally natively”.
I would like to ask a question though. I recently got my wife an Android X. I have all the IME stuff working. Except her relatives in Japan (DOCOMO) cannot read her email messages from the phone using the Japanese IME’s. Can i possibly be the only one experiencing this? Does anyone actually send to Japanese networks or are most using these IME’s on US networks?
My wife uses Simeji on her HTC Hero Android phone to write emails to her family in Japan on their cell phones. They are able to read the email messages. She usually sends from Gmail to their cell phone emails. Every once in a while some text gets garbled, but normally it works. Her family is mostly using AU phones I think.
Hi,
for blackberry, just go to the blackberry site and choose pccw as the provider and download their east asia device software. it always has japanese display and romaji input. it is well done and the kanji guesses are pretty decent. I work for a Japanese company in the US and all our Expat users use it or iphone.
regards,
-Mike