8VIM review

8VIM is an alternative keyboard created by Ravi Agarwal. Its premise is to replace the traditional target-based typing on touchscreens with more ergonomic, fast, and memorable gestures. It promises better accuracy, speed, and helpful shortcuts for editing text while typing. After one month of learning and then six months of exclusive usage on mobile, I’m ready to give my review. I’m comparing it to OpenBoard, my previous keyboard app, in both cases using the Hungarian layout, as I need to write using the language’s special (umlaut) characters.

Getting used to

Just like regular vim, usage is initially limited by a lack of practice. As mentioned above, it took me a month to stop learning, meaning that I ceased to see any improvement in my speed or accuracy. The reason I’m hesitant to say I’ve mastered it is that neither aspect was to my liking—it was neither faster nor more accurate than OpenBoard.

The good

The clipboard is very well done. Having a paste gesture is convenient and the clipboard history is a first-class implementation. The one thing I didn’t understand is, why pasting is disabled when typing passwords. As autofill is still broken within my password manager, this made it really troublesome to log in. Since most of my passwords are unique, and I rely on a manager to keep track of them, this was a real hindrance.

Navigation gestures are also the best I’ve experienced. They are a strong selling point of the application, there’s a good reason why Termux also includes arrow keys in its auxiliary keybar. Speaking of Termux, the control modifier can also be useful, but most of the time apps don’t expect it, so it’s not as useful as I wished it was.

But the primary reason I wanted to use 8VIM was the ability to touch type. With vibration feedback, I could look away from the screen and still be sure what I was typing was correct - although it was slower than looking at my input. I’ve never tried any keyboard for the visually impaired, but 8VIM might hold its ground against them - assuming you can learn it blindly - at least for letters, that is.

The bad

It may have been due to my aged (4-year-old) phone, but 8VIM sometimes just froze and took no further input. It never lasted longer than a few seconds, but it was still annoying, even for that short time.

Since changing capitalization requires a full turn (which is longer than typing any character), an auto-capitalization would have been welcome. This problem is exacerbated by the annoyance of correcting mistakes: first finish the word, then swipe back, then correct the letter, and if you’re not careful, you insert an extra space you have to clean up. It’s not impossible, just tedious.

But the worst experience is with symbols and numbers. To type them you have to use a numpad, reverting to the old targeting method, instead of the gestures. It’s really annoying, especially when mixed with letters (for example ham callsigns). I wish they were more ergonomic, meaning I could input them blindly, and preferably without lifting my finger (literally).

The ugly

In May, I started to grow suspicious of my speed and accuracy when typing, so I reverted to OpenBoard, just for comparison. As much as I wished it were not the case, I was neither slower nor did I make more mistakes. But the easy access to the numbers and the vast array of available symbols (something that was limited to four or five times less in 8VIM) were refreshingly convenient.

OpenBoard’s clipboard history is just as good as 8VIM’s and is not hidden when I need it the most. Navigation is not as smooth as in 8VIM, but I can still swipe the spacebar to go left or right, which is almost as good.

Another big improvement (that shouldn’t be one) is that OpenBoard can function in landscape mode - something that 8VIM developers just didn’t bother to fix. And while the enter “key” in 8VIM is inconsistent - sometimes inserting newline (eg. in Facebook Messenger), sometimes sending the message (eg. in Discord) - OpenBoard’s enter always puts newline.

Verdict

8VIM remains a party trick - a way to make your phone unusable for others - but no more. The touch typing promise is limited by the inability to input numbers and symbols blindly, and the promise of one-handedness is limited by the one hand’s grip without the thumb (as it’s used for typing). So unless you’re blind, have only one hand and only type telegraphs, it’s not for you.