I tried using Samsung Keyboard again, and it's still hot garbage

Oh, Samsung Keyboard. My dear, sweet, constantly infuriating, Samsung Keyboard.

A little over a year ago, I found myself using Samsung Keyboard for the first time in a while when reviewing the Galaxy S25, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, it went very poorly. Almost all of my texts were riddled with indecipherable typos; Samsung’s autocorrect made constant mistakes, and swipe/voice typing was unbelievably frustrating.

So, when I got the Galaxy S26 last month, I decided to give Samsung Keyboard another shot. Would things have improved in the year since I had last tried it? Would it finally be worth using? Spoiler alert: not at all — not even close.

Yes, Samsung Keyboard is still very bad

After setting up the Galaxy S26 and installing all of my apps, it was time to see if my Samsung Keyboard issues from 2025 had been eradicated in 2026. I opened Telegram, Samsung Keyboard appeared, and these were the first two messages I sent:

“Hello gnemtmen”

“Is amusing keyboard still bad”

Off to a great start.

A few minutes later, I responded to a message about The Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer, which read, “I haven’t watched the new trailer yet so I don’t get this one.” That was immediately followed by “Oh hey! No typos!,” and then “Again!”

Wait a minute … did Samsung actually fix Samsung Keyboard? Were my first two messages just random mistakes? Oh, how I wish that were true. What little hope I had for a moment that my Samsung Keyboard woes were over was squashed just a few minutes later when I sent the following message: “It does seem like he has a ROGUH fiery international trip.” And then, “Tnay is supposed to be roigj.”

These messages are funny the first couple of times, and they admittedly got a couple of chuckles out of me due to their absurdity. But the 10th or 20th time you send a message that looks like gibberish, the charm wears off. At the end of the day, I just want to use my phone’s keyboard to type quickly and reliably — neither of which is possible with Samsung Keyboard.

The problem with Samsung Keyboard doesn’t really boil down to one single thing, but rather a litany of issues. Input sensitivity is all over the place. Samsung’s autocorrect misses obviously misspelled words, yet changes correctly typed ones to something else entirely. Voice typing is embarrassingly inaccurate compared to Gboard. Using Samsung Keyboard is a constant fight against it to send a correctly-spelled message rather than utter nonsense.

I think I said it best in this text: “It’s like Samsung goes out of its way to make Samsung g keyboard a shifty product.”

Will this ever get better?

Complaints about Samsung Keyboard are nothing new. It’s well known throughout the Android world that it’s one of the worst typing experiences the platform has to offer, and despite this, Samsung has shown little to no interest in doing a damn thing. Instead, the company would rather add half-baked AI features to it.

I’d love for Samsung Keyboard to be worth using one day, but at this point, it’s increasingly obvious that fixing the keyboard isn’t a priority for Samsung. And you know what? Fine. But if Samsung doesn’t want to put in the work to make Samsung Keyboard an enjoyable experience, I’d rather the company just pull the plug, as it’s doing this year with Samsung Messages.

It’s easy enough to install Gboard (or any third-party keyboard) to replace Samsung Keyboard, but subjecting people to it right out of the box on every Samsung phone is a terrible user experience. As my colleague Rita recently argued, it gives all of Android a bad rap when the largest Android brand delivers such an awful typing experience.

But until something is done about Samsung Keyboard, I’ll keep complaining about it. Because as they say, “Tnay is supposed to be roigj.”