Thanks to "Google Input Hindi" app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.inputmethod.hindi) released on Google Play store, we can now transliterate (meaning you type in english and it becomes hindi phonetically) in Hindi. E.g. When I type in Namaste in english and press spacebar, It will become नमस्ते !
The description on the Google Play app is not straightforward. It took a while to figure this out, so I thought of making a blogpost for the benefit of others.
While the name of the app says Google Hindi Input, it is good for typing in Samskritam and Marathi as well.
After installing it, go to the Language and Input Settings and do two things.
1) enable the Google Hindi Input - Hindi Transliterate keyboard by selecting it
2) make it the default keyboard
Now when you open a compose email or SMS screen, you can see the below keyboard coming up.
Keep in mind that you have to touch the a=>अ button to the left of the spacebar to activate transliteration. If you don't do this, it will act like a normal English android keyboard, which is a really nice feature.
It even shows predictive words... e.g. when I typed "asti" अस्ति did not come by default, but I had to choose it from the suggestions below.
So have fun with the Hindi transliterate keyboard! I used it for composing SMS messages and emails in sanskritam language as it also uses devnaagri script. This will help all the Kansas City Samskritam enthusiasts to compose simple sentences in Samskritam and make social media updates in Samskritam, Hindi or Marathi language.
Thank you, Google, for making this tool for the Samskritam, Hindi and Marathi speakers.
