Latest SwiftKey Beta lets you theme your keyboard with your own photos

SwiftKey has added a new way for you to personalize its keyboard in the latest beta version of its app. You can now use your own images as the basis for the keyboard themes, following the update last week.

How it works is that you upload an image from your gallery or Google Photos, select its brightness, then assign it as the background for the keyboard layout. You’ll also be able to turn the key outlines off, if you wish, and display the “long-press” symbols above them. 

Themes are a big part of Swiftkey’s overall appeal and it has hundreds of them to choose from. Letting users make their own is a smart idea, but it isn’t a novel one: Gboard by Google has also had this feature for a while. It seems basically like SwiftKey is just catching up.

In addition, the latest beta comes with support for a new keyboard language — Ossetian — though it’s probably not an inclusion that most of our readers are likely to benefit from. 

Is SwiftKey still an interesting Android keyboard app or is it past its best? Give us your thoughts in the comments.