On Tuesday we told you about Baidu Japan’s pickup of Simeji, a Japanese input method editor (IME) for Android. Well, it seems Android users now have another Japanese IME option available as the big G just rolled out its own.
While I can’t pretend to be an experienced user of Japanese mobile IME’s, many of the features that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has included make a lot of sense. Among those convenient features, here are a few that stand out:
- Type “きょう” (today) to get today’s date, or “いま” (now) to get the current time
- Date and time suggestions when you type numbers like 1203 (2月3日 or 12:03)
- Rich vocabulary for common places/locations
- The ability to type foreign words using Japanese
- Lots of fun emoji
The new IME is still in beta, and Google will continue to make improvements moving forward. It’s available in the Android market for versions 2.1 or higher, but unfortunately, tablets and physical keypads are not supported. Check out the screenshots below, as well as Google Japan’s promo video at the bottom.
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