BlackBerry PRIV’s Keyboard Can Now Be Downloaded

In our review of the BlackBerry PRIV, we found that we loved both the physical and virtual keyboard of the phone. Given BlackBerry’s experience in making physical keyboards, this was to be expected, and it was actually a nice bonus to see its virtual keyboard being just as good, if not better.

In our review, “It’s not surprising for a company that has a history of text-communication expertise. The BB virtual keyboard is more responsive (low lag) than any other that I have tried.” The good news is that if you don’t want the BlackBerry PRIV but you’re on the lookout for a new keyboard app for your Android phone, you’re in luck.

Thanks to the folks at XDA, they have begun dissecting the phone and pulling out features into individual apps, and the phone’s keyboard is one of them. What’s even better news is that the keyboard APK will work fine right out of the box, so Android users can go ahead and download and install it without any issues.

However if you were thinking of getting some of the other features, there might be some restrictions that might be a bit tricky to get working, but not entirely impossible either. We’re not sure if BlackBerry will ever release the keyboard of the PRIV as a free/paid app for non-BlackBerry PRIV owners, but based on the response it sounds like maybe that’s worth considering.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, Apps, BlackBerry, blackberry priv