Android users can now type in Hindi, courtesy the Google Hindi Input app 

Google recently released a Hindi Input app, which lets Android users type in Hindi. It works like a keyboard extension and once you install the app, you can choose to type in Hindi for just about everything. You can compose text messages, type email, or even create word documents in Hindi. Your phone should be able to read Hindi characters for the app to work, so check for that before you download it.

To get going, download the app from Google Play, go to your phone's ‘Settings’ menu and enable ‘Google Hindi Input’ in the ‘Language & input’ section. Once enabled, you can choose to type in Hindi. To compose a message in Hindi, click on the “a->” icon on the English keyboard—this will turn on/off the transliteration mode. Basically, you type Hindi words using English characters and the app transliterates the text into Hindi. Switch it off and you can resume typing in English.

But if you want to type using the Hindi keyboard, click on the ‘Globe’ symbol. The consonants are alphabetically ordered into two pages. Press the paging button “1/2” and “2/2” to navigate between pages. You can select from the various forms of words by long pressing on the character key.

Google's transliteration service is available online and it supports several Indian and international languages. The Google app is certainly a bonus for smartphone users. We found it to be extremely easy to use and the transliteration works quite well. Typing using the Hindi keyboard is quite easy, but having to switch between two pages to find the characters will take some getting used to. The word prediction is pretty useful, accurate and is something that will definitely help you save time when typing.

Apart from Google, there are several other tools that allow you to type in Indian languages. Some of the popular tools include Quillpad, Panini Keypad, Indic Typing Tool and the Devanagari Keyboard Tiger, amongst others.