The HTC One M9 is an impressive phone with a lot to offer, but now that it’s in the hands of buyers, we’re getting a lot of questions about how to do things like Android 5.0 Lollipop, Sense 7 UI and changing the keyboard. Fortunately Android users have many options and below we will explain how to change the keyboard of HTC One M9.
On March 1, the HTC One M9 smartphone was finally announced, and it has emerged after months of leaks, rumors and speculation. It didn’t come as a surprise thanks to various leaks, but unfortunately it didn’t have many design changes compared to last year. It still has a lot to offer and is the latest and greatest phone to hit the market other than the Galaxy S6.
When you get a brand new smartphone, it’s clear that there are some things you need to do. Open it and do all the installations. Sign in and sync your Google account, Facebook and all the usual stuff, but if you want to change the keyboard, a few of the settings have changed in Android 5.0 Lollipop. It’s still very easy and we’ll explain how to change it below.
In previous versions of Android, a notification icon would appear at the top of the screen when you weren’t using the stock keyboard, and it was a constant notification. Google has now moved this to the bottom in Android 5.0 and the settings options are also a bit different. There are a few new steps, but it’s pretty easy to change that on the One M9.
HTC has its own keyboard on the One M9. HTC Trace has a lot to offer like swipe and more, but many owners will want to try something different. I personally use Google Keyboard, but Swype or SwiftKey are also two extremely popular options. Let’s change our M9 keyboard to something a little better.
Instructions
To get started, you’ll go to settings by tapping the gear-shaped icon in the notification bar, then scroll down and select “Language & keyboard”. Then tap where it says. This menu will have all the options you need. From changing keyboards to choosing a different theme for the current keyboard.
If you recently downloaded several different keyboards from the Google Play Store, you need to enable them first. So once you tap on the current keyboard, the popup will not show them, but will let you “Select Keyboards”. The next page lets you open or enable the keyboards you want to use. Personally this method seems like a waste of options and an extra step, but this is the change Google and HTC have made.
After enabling and opening the keyboard options you downloaded, hit the backspace, then select Current Keyboard again and you can now choose from the newly updated list of keyboard options. Here we chose Google’s keyboard and that’s it. You’re done. It’s not the easiest or simplest method, but it works.
Now in this same menu, you can go to the keyboard options to change everything to your liking. For example, click Google Keyboard, skin, themes and choose a different style or color. They have four available. Others like Google’s own keyboard or SwiftKey offer tons of customization, all manageable from the same menu.
Overall, the new change to keyboard selection in Android 5.0 Lollipop is a bit complicated and confusing, but once you figure it out and turn them all on, it’s pretty easy to switch over in a matter of seconds. You can also long press the space bar on Google Keyboard to instantly go to settings and choose the keyboard you want or go back to the stock HTC option. Enjoy your new phone and try a few different keyboards for even more options.
