How to Change Your Keyboard on the Kindle Fire

Arguably, the most important tool on your Kindle Fire is the keyboard, as you will use it for virtually any action you take, from writing to searching and entering commands. Since it has such a crucial role in the use of your Kindle device, it’s also important to have a keyboard that feels comfortable to use and that you can customize. Kindle Fire’s default keyboard is very bare-bones and has limited customization options; it’s also slow and unresponsive at times. We will guide you through how to customize your default keyboard and give you some alternative keyboard options to make using your Kindle more pleasurable.

Download ES File Explorer

Without this app, you will not be able to install any of the custom keyboards. The app is available free on Amazon Appstore. ES File Explorer will allow you to go through the files on your Kindle Fire. Without this, you wouldn’t be able to find the appropriate files needed to install a custom keyboard.

Allow Unknown Sources

Before you can install any custom keyboard to your device, you will need to grand permission for it to download third-party apps.

1. Swipe the drop-menu from the top of the screen.
2. Press Settings.
3. Scroll to find the Personal field.
4. Press Security.
5. Look under Advanced for Apps from Unknown Sources – tap it.
6. A warning will come up, but just press OK.
7. Restart your Kindle Fire.

Choose the Keyboard App

There are many keyboard apps out there. To save you some time looking for one, here are three of the best keyboard apps currently available:

1. Gboard

Developed by Google, this custom keyboard is the most popular, and for good reason. The app has amazing text prediction capabilities thanks to the inclusion of machine learning. You have thousands of gifs and stickers available at the tap of a button. The downside is that there aren’t many built-in themes, so if you are looking for more aesthetic improvements to your keyboard, you should choose from one of the other two apps.

2. Swiftkey

Swiftkey is the runner-up, and it was once the most popular custom keyboard a few years back, only to be surpassed by Google’s superior technology and databases. The app is still great and very customizable, so if you’ve had enough of Google or don’t like Gboard, you can give this one a try.

3. Chrooma

You want this one if you are more interested in the appearance of the keyboard. The keyboard adapts its color scheme to the app you’re currently using. It also has a night mode that will darken the colors if you are using your Kindle at night. The keyboard is also amazing at deleting big chunks of text, as you can keep swiping the text back.

Downloading the APK

To download a keyboard app, you will have to go to a third-party website. There are many different sites you can download them from, but the best way to do it is:

1. Open your search engine and type in the name of the keyboard app.
2. Download the latest version of the app.
3. Open ES File Explorer to locate the downloaded app.
4. Click on the three lines icon on the top left.
5. Select Download.
6. Install the app.

Enabling the Custom Keyboard

When you install the APK, you just need to follow the instructions given to enable the keyboard. After you finish with that part, go into the Keyboard Language settings and select the name of the custom keyboard from the Active Keyboard Languages tab.

Going Back to the Default Keyboard

If you don’t like the way the newly installed keyboard looks and feels, you can bring back the original keyboard pretty easily.

1. Go to Settings.
2. Open Language & Keyboard.
3. Press Keyboard Language.
4. Just uncheck the newly added keyboard and it will revert back to the default one.

Now That’s a Stylish Keyboard

Usually, the keyboard on your Kindle device is taken for granted, but if you spend a lot of time typing, it’s nice to have something that is not only responsive and functional but also really nice to look at.

Don’t like our recommended keyboards? Maybe you know of a few that are better. If you do, don’t hesitate to share with the community down in the comments!