8Vim Keyboard

8Vim Keyboard is an input method for Android that replaces the conventional grid of letter keys with a gesture-based layout. Its design draws on two earlier ideas: the modal, movement-oriented editing of the VIM text editor, and the circular sector arrangement used by 8Pen, where characters are selected by tracing a path through zones rather than tapping discrete targets.

The result is a keyboard aimed at small display areas, since a gesture region occupies less space than a full QWERTY arrangement and does not require precise finger placement on narrow keys. This approach carries a learning cost: the letter positions must be memorised before typing speed becomes comparable to a layout the user already knows.

The keyboard is published for Android by Ravi Agarwal under the Apache-2.0 licence, which permits reuse and modification of the source, including in derivative works.