Photo Keyboard Backgrounds is an Android app that wants to give users the chance to customize the look and feel of their keyboard in one of the most personal ways possible; by choosing their own photos for the background. The app also features 15 different themes that users can choose from, and it’s nice and easy to select any of their photos to use as a background. Users can choose from Google Photos or their own internal storage to create their own perfect keyboard. Designed for those that just want an easy way to make their own keyboard, Photo Keyboard Backgrounds focuses on your photos, and it helps to make any app you’re using with a keyboard feel a little more special.
Users that want to start creating their ideal keyboard will need to download Photo Keyboard Backgrounds from the Play Store, and then launch the app to get started.
It’s important that users give the app permission to their storage, otherwise the app won’t work. With that done with, users will be greeted with a sort of main menu with a few options.
As we can see right away, there are a great many ads plastered throughout the app, and while this is a little offputting, we suppose that as Photo Keyboard Backgrounds is a free app the developer has to make money somehow. Those familiar with using third-party keyboards from the Play Store will know how easy it is to set one up, but there are also detailed instructions included within the app as well.
Even with these instructions, Photo Keyboard Backgrounds makes it nice and easy to get the app up and running, and users only really need to follow the onscreen prompts. Once the keyboard is set up, users can then choose from a couple of options to start customizing the keyboard.
There are 15 different themes on offer here as well, which gives users some variety to choose from, even if they don’t want to use a specific image from their library.
Of course the big deal here with Photo Keyboard Backgrounds is indeed the ability to choose whichever image you want to set as a background, and users can choose from their local files as well as Google Photos and such. Cropping your chosen image doesn’t take a look, and helps users to pick out the focal point in a picture whether that’s a selfie or just a nice photo of your cat as I’ll be using.
Here’s an example of what my fancy new keyboard looks like, with my cat Tigger taking center stage:
For this, Photo Keyboard Backgrounds gets the job done really well, and if this is all you want and need in such an app; the ability to use photos as a background, then this will work well for you. Otherwise however, there isn’t much going on here, there’s no sense of any autocorrect or anything like that here, and there’s a constant amount of fullscreen, annoying ads just to get the keyboard set up every time.
After spending some time with Photo Keyboard Backgrounds, it’s pretty obvious that it was only really designed with that one task in mind; to get your photos on to your keyboard. When we consider that, it performs well, and delivers on the main promise it gives to users, but everything that comes along with it seems to get in the way of things. For one thing, the keyboard itself is very basic, and for me didn’t even support any sort of autocorrect and such, which made things very difficult for me. Then there’s the huge amount of ads on offer, which are a constant annoyance, with a fullscreen ad appearing between each page when setting up the keyboard as well as changing menu screens and then a banner ad that’s constantly on display no matter which part of the app you’re in, which is a little disappointing to see, to be honest.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – This is a quick app to get set up and Photo Keyboard Backgrounds is quicker at getting photos on your keyboard than a lot of other apps out there.
- Theme (4/5) – What’s nice about Photo Keyboard Backgrounds is that users set the overall look and feel of the app, and it gives them the power to create whatever they want with a transparent keyboard that makes typing easy and not too distracting.
- Features (3/5) – While it does do what it promises to, Photo Keyboard Backgrounds manages to throw a load of ads in the way, and it’s not the cleanest experience out there. There’s also no autocorrect or anything like that, either.
- Overall (3.5/5) – With a simple and easy way of getting a photo of your choice onto your keyboard, Photo Keyboard Backgrounds does what it sets out to, but with a lack of features and some annoying ads, there’s clearly a lot of work to be done here.
Pros
- Takes users through the setup process of adding a new keyboard and then changing to it nice and quickly.
- Allows users to choose whichever photo they want from whichever source they want, including online photos from Google Photos.
- Completely free to download and use, despite some ads, which is more than we can say for other apps in the Play Store.
- With 15 other themes available out of the box, Photo Keyboard Backgrounds gives users a lot to choose from.
Cons
- Lots of ads, including one fullscreen video ad whenever changing page and a constant banner at all times.
- No autocorrect feature or any other extras, making this a fairly basic keyboard app overall.
At the end of the day, Photo Keyboard Backgrounds is the sort of app that, while delivering on its core promise to allow users a way of getting their photo on to their keyboards, it doesn’t have much else to offer users. There’s no autocorrect or anything included here, and it doesn’t feel quite as nice as other keyboards to type with, either.