Android 5.0 Lollipop keyboard available for download

While Android 5.0 Lollipop is beginning its rollout to Nexus and Google Play Edition devices later this month, we were surprised to see one of its new features, the Android 5.0 Lollipop keyboard, made available for download. Android 5.0 Lollipop brings ton of new features to the mobile OS, and a complete revamp of the UI with Material Design. You might have noticed Material Design elements in your Google Play Apps as well as in the Chrome browser, but the Android 5.0 Lollipop keyboard is one of the great examples of how the flat, sleek Material Design look fits in with your device.

iOS 8 has revamped its predictive keyboard and introduced the possibility of third-party keyboards in the OS, so Google thought that making the Android 5.0 Lollipop keyboard available for download before the OS was out was a good idea. You can now download the Android 5.0 Lollipop keyboard APK from the XDA Developers website, and you can actually install it without having to root your phone. Previously, if you wanted to test out the new features on Android 5.0 Lollipop on your device, you would have to root it in order to get the specific app installed.

If you like what you’ve seen in Android 5.0 Lollipop and would like to test the keyboard out, you can now do so easily. You have to remember to enable “unknown sources” in your device’s settings prior to installing the APK. If you install the keyboard and don’t notice any change, that’s because Android will set the keyboard theme to Holo, the default for Android KitKat or Jelly Bean. You can change this by heading to the keyboard’s settings and select either Material Light or Material Dark. Android 5.0 Lollipop should be arriving to Nexus devices and Google Play Edition devices on November 3, while other devices like the HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3 are set to receive the OTA in the following few weeks.