Why trust GreenbotIn Android 4.2, Google updated the AOSP keyboard to include gesture typing. Gesture typing is similar to Swype or Swiftkey’s Flow that allows you to glide your fingers over characters to create words, instead of typing each character manually. While SwiftKey and Swype support more languages and offer other features, they are still slightly slower than the stock AOSP keyboard.
Apart from the Nexus devices, the AOSP keyboard does not come pre-installed on any other Android device because OEMs always prefer to ship their own keyboard implementation. However, if you are looking to get the stock AOSP keyboard with Gesture typing on your Android device running Ice Cream Sandwich or higher with an OEM skin on top of it, a simple APK installation is all that you need to do.
1. Head over to this XDA thread and download the APK of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean keyboard.
2. Transfer the APK to your phone and install it as you would install any other normal APK.
3. Once your have installed the keyboard, make sure to enable it from under Settings -> Language and Input by clicking on the ‘Android Keyboard’, and making it the default keyboard.
If you own a Nexus device or are running an AOSP based custom ROM on your Android device, you will need to flash this zip file via a custom recovery.
