How to Get Android N DP3 Keyboard on Marshmallow, Lollipop and KitKat

by Ben Madison · May 26, 2016

Developer Preview 3 (NPD35K) is the first beta version of Android N and I can tell you from the start that it’s considered as being stable enough to use as a daily driver. Don’t say that you are not tempted by the idea because I already know what it is in your mind! The additions brought along this version are more than tempting and they include virtual reality and sustained performance modes, various new features for developers and users, so how can you say no?

To be more precise, the Night Mode has been removed from the System UI Tuner (despite of that, users who previously placed a shortcut in Quick Settings can still access and trigger the mode), manual exposure controls is back in DP3 (there is a toggle for this option under Advanced in Camera settings), you can enjoy an exciting and colorful system update animation that replaces the old Android figurine, the old Daydream feature has been renamed to Screen saver in order to avoid any potential confusion with the new mobile VR spec from Google, but to be honest, the most visible changes in Android N Developer Preview 3 is another one.

I am talking about the option to change Google Keyboard color. Those of you who have already enrolled in the Android Beta Program will get an OTA update soon, but if you’re not one of them, don’t you imagine that things are completely lost for you. I have a solution for you too!

Do you want to get Android N DP3 keyboard on Marshmallow, Lollipop, as well as KitKat? What you have to do is to download the Google keyboard v5.1 APK with the help of this direct link and then, don’t hesitate to sideload it.

Google keyboard in Android N DP3 lets you change its color and theme it with your own images. If you do not like the previous light and dark background color, you can now choose any color as long as there are no less than 13 different colors waiting for your keyboard or theme it with your own images (Language Input > Virtual Keyboard > Google keyboard > Theme).

And as you know, the Google Keyboard makes typing fast and easy with gesture and voice as long as there is a long list of special features that you can enjoy such as: Voice Typing – touch the microphone to simply dictate your text, Gesture cursor control – slide your finger across the space bar to move the cursor, the popular Gesture Typing, Emoji (all you have to do is to press and hold Enter to choose from hundreds of emoji in any app), Fast capitalization – gesture from the SHIFT key to a character to capitalize it, One handed mode – on large screen phones, pin keyboard to the left or the right of the screen by long pressing on Enter and selecting the thumb icon, Fast symbols – gesture from the “?!☺” key to temporarily switch to the symbols keyboard, insert a symbol and more.

And I also want to remind you the fact that this is the ARMv8 version of Keyboard, so make sure you are running it on a compatible Android device.

If you have any doubt or question, just leave it in the comment section below.