Full-width layout

[SamuXzX]

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I start by say "Thank you!": finally someone got back the idea of not using a QWERTY layout on mobile.

** Describe the feature request below **
Right now the keyboard only takes a portion of the horizontal width of the screen:

I'm thinking about how you could better manage the space to make typing easier keeping this style of tap+slide writing. I think we could add an option to the "Position" section to fill all the horizontal space with the keyboard.

I have two proposals:

1. Moving the right column to the side and extending the other keys to fill all the space: this will make typing easier (therefore faster) because of the bigger buttons, and it means it would be easier to type without looking at the keyboard.
   

In this way it could be needed to relocate the right-to-left swipes of the leftmost keys, but I see lots of other places where they could be placed in any language layout. But the buttons are bigger! So the action could be performed anyway starting from the top or the center of such keys.

2. Moving the right column to the side, placing the spacebar in a left column and enlarge they actual keys to be a bigger square. Again, this would make typing easier and faster. We may need to relocate the top-to-bottom swipes of the bottom keys, but I think it would be a great trade. Again: the buttons are bigger, so the swipe could be performed anyway inside the keys themselves.
   

I prefer this second proposal and I think we could mix this with another change: removing the "Settings" button from the keyboard, because ideally it should never be needed from the moment the user chooses a final layout:

Or we could simply use that position for another function.

The last one is the layout I would prefer, but it could clash with the sliding pointer function of the spacebar (#59), unless we think it could work anyway while being used vertically.

[dessalines]

You can already do a full width layout currently, by simply increasing the key size in the settings. If your key grid size overflows your screen size, the columns on the right should be minimized.

Your proposals above all require non-square, and relative key sizing. Outside of the complication of having to hard-code these specific relative sizes, I doubt doing so would actually increase tapping speed in any way. Having keyboards fill screen widths doesn't seem like a parameter that would be beneficial in any way to tapping speed.

[SamuXzX]

I understand. My point was more about not wasting space than actually fill the horizontal width, but now that you showed to me that I can make all the keys bigger it is a little better.
This I think would be beneficial to typing speed: having not so little keys that I miss them and at the same time not so big that the keyboard occupies half of the height of the screen (or more, as generally smartphones have less than a 18:9 ratio), so that I don't have to reach for the keys.

Now that I made the keys bigger it's more comfortable. Maybe I can still propose one of the layouts to have the letters centered (which would make it even more comfortable because they are the most used keys) and to hide the "Settings" button or take its place for something more useful:

This should not require relative sizing, as we can think of this image as having been reached by just increasing the key size in the settings.

But moving the spacebar to the side could be a problem as then only the left thumb could be used for it.

[Limfjorden]

I think this should be an option since the current keyboard does take up a lot of the screen. For example, sometimes I can't see the input field on Duolingo because the green Check button has been pushed up and now covers it.

[SamuXzX]

I think that if we could have it had a more rectangular shape it would be more comfortable. I also think that we can find a layout which has the spacebar at the center.
I was thinking about having a central button like Typewise has: it permits taps and gestures and can be placed anywhere without occupying three whole blocks.

[dessalines]

You can create these layouts, the only requirement is that its a grid, and that the key sizes are square.

[SamuXzX]

Thank you. Then I will give it a try. Can we keep this thread open for when I'll come back with a draft?

[dessalines]

Sure.

[UnchartedSystems]

I was going to comment the same thing! Messagease is only comfortable for me at full width, as the width of the kb matches my muscle memory for the width of the screen. Currently the height of keys at a full width size takes up more the half my screen.

ThumbKeys

MessagEase

[dessalines]

If you'd like to create "wider" layouts (currently we are a 4x4 grid, but 5x3 is entirely possible), feel free. But I don't want to add the complication of having non-square key sizes.