Samsung is giving all of Android a bad rep with its terrible keyboard

There are two apps on any smartphone that you interact with and use at all times: the launcher and the keyboard. We always tend to forget how crucial a keyboard is; it’s not the sexiest app, and many people may not even consider it an “app” since it’s just… there. It’s a tool to get a job done.

But think about it. You use your keyboard to send messages or emails, to post on social media, to add calendar events, to browse, to talk to AI agents, and to search for anything in any app. Until voice typing is as reliable and as widely used, keyboards are the most fundamental way we interact with our phones. They can elevate your experience, just like they can ruin it. Case in point: Samsung’s poor excuse for a keyboard.

Samsung’s keyboard is the worst part of any Galaxy phone

In 2016, the first app I installed on my Galaxy S7 Edge was Gboard because I couldn’t fathom how terrible Samsung’s keyboard experience was. In 2024, when I got a Galaxy S24 Ultra, I decided to give Samsung the benefit of the doubt… and I lasted all of 10 minutes before I rushed to the Play Store and downloaded Gboard.

I’m far from alone. My colleague Joe hated his Galaxy S25 Ultra until he replaced the keyboard. He was frustrated at how often Samsung’s keyboard inserts letters and spaces out of the blue and doesn’t correct obvious typos. My other colleague Zac, a staunch Samsung fan, said that “Samsung’s keyboard is trash” and Gboard is one of the first apps he installs on any Galaxy phone. Every single one of my Android Authority team members who has used a Galaxy phone in the last decade said the keyboard is the first thing they change. And it’s not just us geeks.

I still remember what happened when I bought two Galaxy Tab A9 Plus tablets for my parents and my aunt. I set them up but forgot to switch the keyboard. The first thing they told me the next day, when I asked if they liked the tablets, is, “I don’t like typing on it. It’s weird.” They had no idea what Gboard is, or that there are different keyboards on Android, but they instantly felt something was off. I instantly switched them to Gboard, the keyboard they’re used to on their Pixel phones, and they stopped complaining.

Beyond anecdotal evidence from my family, we asked you last year what you thought of Samsung’s keyboard. Over more than 1700 Android Authority readers replied, and only 18% said they use it and love it, while 22% said it’s fine, and a whopping 60% said, “No way, I use another keyboard.” If that isn’t a damning number, I don’t know what is. Our readers are tech-savvy; they know how to switch keyboards on their Android phones, and six out of 10 of them are ditching Samsung’s keyboard willingly to find something better. Here’s a small sample of the comments we received:

It’s unbelievable that something as critical as this to your entire smartphone experience can be so bad on a Galaxy phone. Even more unbelievable that Samsung hasn’t done anything to fix it for over a decade now. It sucked in 2016; it still does in 2026. Joe is currently testing the new Galaxy S26 Ultra, and his first comment was about how poor the keyboard is. Does no one at Samsung use this thing? Do they never type? Do they not notice how it’s the most absurdly bad part of One UI?

Personally, I’ve long ago given up on Samsung’s keyboard. I hate that it’s so sensitive that it confuses some of my touch-typing with swipes, so it starts inserting random spaces in the middle of words. The first prediction being offset to the left, instead of in the center, irks me to no end since I’m used to picking it up with my right thumb. I don’t even understand how half the predictions work. And when I swipe, I feel like it often picks up the most random option among all possible options.

I used to think that I should give Samsung’s keyboard more time; maybe I’ll get used to it and learn its idiosyncrasies, or maybe it’ll learn my typing habits. But why should I waste my time and try to adapt when there are vastly superior keyboard experiences on Android out there? Why should it take time for the keyboard to get better when Gboard and other keyboards are fine on day one? Why should I make the effort or sacrifice when it should’ve been Samsung’s job to fix this many years ago? Instead, we get unnecessary AI-powered composing and editing tricks to bandage all the terrible bits, when Samsung should’ve made the underlying typing better as a start.

You and I, reading and writing for Android Authority, know that switching keyboards is easy. 60% of you have already done so. But what irks me here is that there are millions of users around the world who don’t know this. They get a Samsung phone, start using it, see how bad typing on it is, and it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. For Samsung, and for Android in general.

This is the brand that has sold and still sells the most Android phones across the world. It’s supposed to be the halo of Android, especially around the US and Europe, with very little competition from others. And yet, one of the most fundamental parts of using a Galaxy phone is a souring experience, day in and day out. Samsung could’ve made the keyboard a landmark of its battle against Apple and the silly American iPhone superiority mindset. Apple’s keyboard is terrible — much worse than Samsung’s in my opinion — and Samsung could’ve shown iPhone users a vastly superior experience on Android, but it didn’t. Instead of capturing today’s texting-addicted generations by saying, “Hey, look how fantastic typing is on a Galaxy,” it’s perpetuating a bad stereotype of Android phones being slow, bad, buggy, and unpredictable.

I was curious how many people found Samsung’s keyboard terrible compared to Apple’s, so I looked at Google Search’s trends over the last five years. The results were telling. After every new phone launch from the two companies, as well as around Black Friday/Christmas, when lots of people get new phones, there’s a spike in searches around “change keyboard” or “best keyboard.” Even more telling, though, is that on average, there are as many people looking to switch their Samsung/Galaxy keyboard as there are for the iPhone. And as many people are looking for the best keyboard for Samsung/Galaxy as there are for the iPhone.

If you look for these Google Search trends for any other Android brand, the results don’t come anywhere near Samsung’s. Xiaomi, which sells more than half the number of phones that Samsung sells (11% Xiaomi worldwide market share vs 18% for Samsung in the last quarter), has disproportionately fewer people looking to change their keyboard (a scale of 2 to 24). The same is true for vivo, HONOR, and many others.

Samsung’s keyboard shouldn’t be this mediocre. It shouldn’t be as bad as Apple’s in people’s minds. Gboard, SwiftKey, and other keyboards are proof that typing on Android doesn’t have to be this terrible. Yet, here we are, with the biggest Android brand in the world giving all of Android a bad rep by messing up the most fundamental part of using a smartphone — typing. Do better, Samsung.