Nathan McAlone
Slash's main feature is a blue forward slash key that sits at the bottom of the keyboard. This slash works wonders by allowing you to call up things from your favorite apps without leaving messages (or whatever app you are typing in, let's say Twitter).
Here's an example of how Slash works.
If you have iMessage open with Slash installed and you type "/youtube Drake," you're immediately presented with the top YouTube selections for Drake. Simply tap the one you want and you can send the link to a friend without ever leaving messenger.
But it's the sheer number of partners that makes Slash so powerful, with apps like Spotify, Soundcloud, Giphy, Foursquare, Google Maps, and more integrated.
Slash CEO Cem Kozinoglu tells Business Insider that the iPhone version is seeing over 5 million searches per month using the slash.
Another feature Slash recently rolled out, which works on Android as well, is the ability to make custom slashes. The idea is that if you have repeating text you always use, you can create a shortcut, Kozinoglu says. This can come in handy for things like your address, phone number, or email.
Here's a GIF of how the feature works:
The major pain point for Slash is that its autocorrect doesn't function as well as the standard iOS one, and presumably it will face similar challenges on Android. But that's an issue that faces most third-party keyboards - your default keyboard is going to know more about your typing preferences than a new one - and if that's not a deal breaker for you, Slash is the most useful custom keyboard we have found so far.
The Android app will support multiple languages out of the box like English, German, Spanish, Turkish, and French.
You can download Slash for Android over at the Google Play store.