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Chinese pinyin

Flikzi types Simplified Chinese (简体中文) and Traditional Chinese as written in Taiwan (繁體中文) with pinyin. The engine and dictionary run on your phone.

Switch languages​

Flick up on the left half of the space bar to go to the next of your languages, or flick up and hold for a picker of every language that's on. Using more than one language needs Flikzi Pro. Your languages

Type​

The keys are the QWERTY letters, as in English. Type the pinyin letter by letter, without tones: nihao. Each tap is exactly its letter. The strip above the keys shows candidates: whole-sentence candidates first, then words. Tap one to put it in: 你好.

Space puts in the best candidate. Enter puts in the letters you typed as they are.

To mark where a syllable ends, flick c down for an apostrophe: xi'an.

Shorthand​

A syllable can be only its first letter. Type z, then g, and 这个 is among the candidates. z, c and s also stand for zh, ch and sh. The last syllable can be left half-typed too: Flikzi completes it.

Flikzi remembers the readings you pick, so they come first the next time you type the same letters. Forget learned words clears them.

Choose in parts​

For long pinyin you can pick part of it. Tap 你, and the strip moves on to candidates for what is left.

Predictions​

After you put a candidate in, Flikzi suggests characters likely to come next. Tap one to keep going.

Punctuation​

Punctuation is full-width in Chinese: ，。！？

English words among the candidates​

With English words in Chinese and Japanese on (the default), English words for the same letters appear among the Chinese candidates: common ones only, unless the letters can't be pinyin, when the English word comes first and space puts it in. Space around English words (off by default) adds a space on each side of an English word in Chinese text. Both settings are in Flikzi's settings while Chinese or Japanese is on.

On a foldable or tablet​

When the keyboard splits, the hexagons between the halves show how your letters are read as syllables, and the characters stay in the strip above. Type z and g and the gap shows z'g.

  • Tap a reading to use it. Delete straight after to take it back.
  • Swipe sideways across the gap for more readings, when there are more than fit. A faint ‹ or › beside the gap shows that.
  • Readings you pick come first the next time you type the same letters.

The split keyboard is part of Flikzi Pro. Foldables and tablets

What Chinese doesn't have​

Capital letters and the case flicks, autocorrect of the letters, and text shortcuts. Zhuyin (bopomofo), Cangjie, handwriting and double pinyin aren't available.