Android Wear is supposedly going to eschew traditional keyboard input for voice commands, due to the small screens on smartwatches. But we’ll still need to poke and peck in order to input passwords, and Miniuum wants to be the keyboard you use on your wrist. The company posted on its blog on Tuesday that it is developing a keyboard for the Moto 360, which is expected to be one of three Android Wear devices announced at Google I/O on Wednesday .
Unlike LG’s G Watch and the still-unnamed Samsung smartwatch, the Moto 360 will have a round face, which may pose problems for keyboard designers who are used to rectangular screens. While the post doesn’t detail exactly how the keyboard will work, the illustrated GIF shows Minuum’s trademark ribbon keyboard curving along the bottom edge of the watch face.
Minuum is no stranger to putting its keyboard on unusual devices: The keyboard is available for Samsung’s Tizen-based Galaxy Gear smartwatches and Google Glass, and the company will release a keyboard for the iPhone when iOS 8 is released this fall. Plus, Minuum has clearly thought a good deal about how to implement a touch keyboard on a small screen. The company warns that due to limitations built into Android Wear, its keyboard might not work at launch, but full input choice should eventually be built in.
