Xperia keyboard and album no more?

[Twaller781]

So I just received my Sony Xperia 1 ii. 

Before I send it back can anyone tell me if there is any plan to re introduce Xperia keyboard and album. There were 2 of the most important and frequently used apps for me.

I only use the old style t9 portrait keyboard and was bitterly disappointed to see that this very simple but important feature has been

Disabled/discontinued and seems Xperia keyboard has been removed from these phones and no longer supported. This is one of the main reasons I have stayed with Sony for so long. 

Album. . . It also appears that this has also been discontinued . Why Sony?  Such a simple app. I don't want to have Google or any other 3rd pasty sniffing around or having access to my photos. 

Feature request. Bring these back. I am sure there are others out there who would turn to other manufacturers for the removal of such simple and easy to maintain apps.

[Dan_Altemyr]

The Xperia keyboard was discontinued several years ago, which was sad since the pre-installed and impossible to uninstall replacement that Sony offered instead (Swiftkey) was not good at all. I started to use Google's Gboard then and have continued with that since. It may not be the absolute best there is, but it's certainly good enough. It supports swipes, it has a separate visible row of keys for digits (optional, but I want it, I hate Apple's keyboards that don't) and it has alternative characters available at long press. Another advantage is that it can be installed on many different brands of Android devices and looks exactly the same and hence becomes familiar.

The album app is a pity that it disappeared, since it was so simple to understand and use without any extra unwanted features beside showing images. However Google Photos can do exactly the same work. You don't have to use the Google Cloud based storage for photos, it can manage local images as well.

[Twaller781]

I have since found installers for both xperia keyboard and album online. These appear to be working as expected but far from ideal as they are both unsupported apps which could stop working at any time. 

@Sony is there any plan to bring these back? 

If future phones don't have a t9 portrait keyboard I will look elsewhere.

[Dan_Altemyr]

Well, the Google keyboard does not support T9 input. However, a quick search at Google Play found a great number of keyboard apps that do support T9 input, so a phone deliverd without such a keyboard is hardly a showstopper. 

[Twaller781]

I tried a number of t9 keyboard alternatives and they are not as good or just not usable. I also should not have to install a 3rd party app for a keyboard this is the most basic feature of a phone. I have installed an older version of the xperia keyboard for now.

[EMS_MO72]

I think we have to deal with third party apps for now until they consider launching these apps again , i mean at least for the Album app, it's a basic thing that comes with every phone.

[Dan_Altemyr]

I believe that the return of those apps is very unlikely. Sony seems to have tried to come closer and closer to vanilla Android and this is just one more step. The mail app is gone too, for example, and is replaced by Gmail. The advantage for us consumers may be shorter turnaround time from release of new Android versions to the new Xperia SW version

[EMS_MO72]

Yes, I agree. There will be more benefits for them when they use Google apps as main apps on the device.