How To Install the Gingerbread (Android 2.3) Keyboard on Your Android Device

I. Before You Begin

1. You MUST be rooted and have a custom recovery image (you can find your rooting procedure for your phone here) and you must have Android 2.2 on your device (load a custom Android 2.2 ROM on your phone after rooting if you have to).

2. Please keep in mind that the new multitouch feature (holding down shift or alt and touching another letter) will not work until you have the Android 2.3 ROM on your phone because of missing framework.

II. Flash the Keyboard

1. Download the keyboard .zip file and save it to your computer.

Gingerbread Keyboard .zip

2. Plug your phone in via USB cable and mount the sd card so you can transfer files to it.

3. Copy the keyboard .zip file (do NOT extract it) to the root of your sd card (NOT in any folders, just on the sd card itself).

4. Unplug your phone.

5. Boot into recovery mode (same way you flash a custom ROM).

6. Click on Nandroid and make a backup (just in case).

7. Click on Flash .zip from SD card and choose the keyboard .zip file and wait for it to finish.

8. Once it is done, hit reboot system now.

III. Select the Keyboard in Android

1. Find an input box (open messaging for instance).

2. Hold down on an input box (like where you compose the message) and select Android Keyboard. Done!

70 thoughts on “How To Install the Gingerbread (Android 2.3) Keyboard on Your Android Device”

  1. Greetings,

    I got an error while installing:

    “E:Error in /sdcard/GingerBreadLatinIME.zip (Status 0)
    Installation aborted.”

    Any thoughts?

    Regards,

    -HTC Magic (32a)
    -ClockworkMod Recovery v2.5.0.1
    -Android 2.2.1 (CyanogenMod-6.1.0-DS)

    1. Try to redownload the file (and download it to a computer first then transfer it to the sdcard instead of downloading it directly on the phone).
      It probably was corrupted.

  2. Straight up just didn’t work for me….I am using a MT4G. Seemed to work, just wasn’t there when I tried to set it as my keyoard.

    Question: Are you being general with your wording? Because usually wording is really specific when doing these things, and your wording such as “Click on Flash .zip from SD card ” is not what I saw, dunno if there are different versions or something but I had something along the lines of “Install” from zip….which i did, and like I said it seemed to work, however..it did not..

  3. I say in the video that their are different recovery images that have different options but that you need to flash it the same you would a ROM (which you should be familiar with since you must be rooted and have a custom recovery image).
    Did you hold down on an input box click Input Method and click Android Keyboard?

  4. Didn’t work on my myTouch 4G. As mentioned earlier, everything looked like it installed properly but when I go to select it as the keyboard to use it’s not there.

  5. confirm that zip isn’t signed properly… I just extracted its contents and made my own flashable zip and signed it and works perfect

      1. I googled update gingerbread keyboard.zip and and it found this link update-gingerbread-keyboard.zip and it worked for me. I am using cyanogen6 on the tmobile g1

      1. Nevermind, I got it to work with the second link if the first one didnt work, it just ended up showing up along with the basic and swype keyboards but force closed everytime I tried to type a letter 🙁

  6. I have tried multiple downloads from numerous websites, hoping to find a version that worked. i have a droid 2 and the keyboard is shrunk to about half of its normal size. i have been told that playing with the screen density helps, but I tried that and it didn’t work.

    Droid 2 running Apex 1.0.2.5

  7. Thanks for the addition!
    You can factory reset, restore your nandroid backup that you should have done before hand, or flash the original back over it (Google for it and you’ll find it).

  8. I downloaded it to my htc hero with cyanogen 6.1 ROM and it didnt show up in the input methods. While a window keeps popping up that says The application Android keyboard (process com.android.inputmethod.latin) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. WHAT DO I DOOO?

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