Commenters on hi-tech forums are calling Laban Key the best Vietnamese keyboard for Android-based devices.

The app is favored for its high customization, which can serve users’ specific requirements, its fast operation, and low consumption of system resources.

The app creator, Pham Kim Long, was also the person behind the Vietnamese data input methodUniKey, which runs on the Microsoft Windows operating system. That was created 20 years ago.

At that time, Long said that Vietnamese users needed a keyboard when working on their computers, so he created a simple, reliable and free product.

Long said that making the Laban Key app was a big challenge.

When he made UniKey for the Windows platform, Long did not have any formidable rivals. However, things are quite different with Android.

Many products have been created by Vietnamese, but also by mobile phone manufacturers, who have tried to localize products to boost sales.

Laban Key at first was not welcomed by users. Long and his associates did not understand what the users really wanted.

While computer users need simple, easy-to-use products, mobile device users need much more. Besides these features, they also want apps that can help them spend their time in the most effective way, and are customized to satisfy their specific habits.

Vietnamese see mobile devices as something that reflects their characteristics and tastes, so they will only choose apps which please them.

Long said that he had been warned about the challenges in creating the app, but had no idea it would be so difficult.

He said that smartphones, with touch technology, need new data input methods.

And,although the keyboards all run on the Android operating system, they need to be designed to fit different kinds of mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets.

Long said the users of Laban Key were not easy to please, but this actually helped him refine his work.

“The users had different requirements and they asked for interesting features that we did not think of,” Long said.

Long said Laban Key operates well on domestic mobile devices. However, Laban Key, like other products of the Laban family, was created not to win an app race but to just provide a helpful app to the community, he said.