Keybee keyboard
Ranked 10 of 12 keyboard apps by recommenders
A phone keyboard layout built for faster typing, with open-source code. Critics doubt it beats QWERTY and say it lacks swipe typing and autocorrect.
A phone keyboard layout built for faster typing, with open-source code. Critics doubt it beats QWERTY and say it lacks swipe typing and autocorrect.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 42%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Speed gains once learned
“That's the main innovation. What you can build on top (like a text algorithm) is adding speed and efficiency.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones” “Started learning it last night and already up to a workable speed.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Doubts it beats QWERTY speed
“the example is pretty bad. This layout also seems to be hard so squash vertically without increasing the error rate a lot”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones” “This is gonna be like Dvorak where eventually we all figure out that it's not significantly faster”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones” “I really, really doubt this Keybee thing can be an improvement over that in any way.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones” No swipe typing or autocorrect
“It's interesting but I wish I could still Swype on it”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones” “No swyping and no autocorrect make it DOA”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones” Possible data collection concerns
“susceptible to share my approximative location with other enterprises or organization”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones” “may be able to collect all the data you type, including ... passwords”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones”
Other keyboard apps people recommend
The four most recommended other keyboard apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gboard | 59 | 43 | 58% | 10 | — | — |
| FUTO Keyboard | 51 | 22 | 70% | 12 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| FUTO Swipe | 40 | 18 | 69% | 1 | — | — |
| iOS keyboard | 28 | 182 | 13% | 8 | 10 yrs9 owners | — |
| Keybee keyboardThis page | 8 | 11 | 42% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
23 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“If the KeyBee keyboard had a control key it would be very good.”
“I have had good experiences with switching to an even more radical layout”
“Started learning it last night and already up to a workable speed.”
“That's the main innovation. What you can build on top (like a text algorithm) is adding speed and efficiency.”
“Steve would be proud of Keybee Keyboard!”
“Keybee keyboard is not collecting anything and the code is all available on github.”
“for some forms (like password) you are forced to use the apple keyboard”
“I just wanted to make typing more natural and comfortable, I really struggle with qwerty on touches.”
“The video is also misleading, there are no gaps between keys in regular keyboards”
“I'm done with touchscreen input methods that require me to think about tapping letters.”
“this one checks all my boxes”
“I really, really doubt this Keybee thing can be an improvement over that in any way.”
“may be able to collect all the data you type, including ... passwords”
“swiping triggers every letter you cross”
“the example is pretty bad. This layout also seems to be hard so squash vertically without increasing the error rate a lot”
“It may be efficient, but it's using more screen space; I'm not sure that's a win.”
“susceptible to share my approximative location with other enterprises or organization”
“This is gonna be like Dvorak where eventually we all figure out that it's not significantly faster”
“it doesn't seem like the coverage is that well optimized”
“No swyping and no autocorrect make it DOA”
“Bad UI choice of showing bars before text has been entered”
“It's interesting but I wish I could still Swype on it”
“none of the keys are anywhere near where 40 years of muscle memory expect”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.