How to Type Bangla on Android
Most people in Bangladesh now write Bangla on a phone, not a PC. Android supports full Bangla Unicode typing out of the box — no root, no paid apps. You just need to pick a keyboard and turn it on once.
This guide shows the three easiest ways, step by step, and what to do when you need Bijoy output for print or office work. Each method takes only a couple of minutes to set up, and you can switch between them at any time.
What You Need Before You Start
You only need a few basics to get started, and everything in this guide is free:
- An Android phone — Android 8 or later works best
- An internet connection for the first keyboard download
- About 2 minutes of your time
Note: all of these keyboards type in Unicode, which is what Facebook, WhatsApp, and websites expect. If your phone is a few years old, the same steps still work — a couple of menu names may look slightly different.
Method 1: Type Bangla with Gboard
- Install or update Gboard from the Play Store, then enable it under Settings → System → Languages & input → On-screen keyboard.
- Open any app, tap the globe key (or hold the space bar) and choose Bengali (বাংলা).
- Pick your style: the phonetic layout types Bangla as you spell it in English letters (ami → আমি); the handwriting and full Bengali layouts are also there.
- Tip: turn on “Multilingual typing” if you switch between English and Bangla often.
Gboard is best if you want one keyboard for everything. It is made by Google, updates automatically through the Play Store, and its phonetic layout is forgiving while you are still learning.
Method 2: Ridmik Keyboard — the Avro-Style Favorite
Ridmik is built in Bangladesh and loved because its Classic layout works like Avro Phonetic on PC — type English letters, get Bangla.
- Install Ridmik Keyboard from the Play Store.
- Enable Ridmik under Settings → System → Languages & input → On-screen keyboard.
- Set Ridmik as your default keyboard.
- In Ridmik’s settings, choose the Classic (Avro) layout.
Ridmik also has a National (Jatiya) layout for those who learned that layout, plus emoji and themes. It is a light app that runs well even on budget phones, and most people in Bangladesh who type Bangla every day have used it at some point.
Best for: people who already type Avro on a computer. If Avro feels natural to you on a PC, Ridmik will feel like home within a day.
Method 3: Bangla Voice Typing on Android
Too slow at typing? Speak instead. In Gboard, tap the microphone icon and speak Bangla — it converts speech to Unicode Bangla text in real time. It works well for messages and notes in a quiet room. For long messages, it is often much faster than typing on a small screen.
For the best accuracy, speak in full sentences at a natural pace and keep the phone about 20-30 cm from your mouth. Clear, steady speech gives Gboard much better results than single words spoken one at a time.
Note: voice typing also produces Unicode, so anything you dictate is ready to paste into Facebook, WhatsApp, or a document.
Can You Type Bijoy on Android?
There is no official Bijoy (SutonnyMJ) keyboard app for Android, and there is a good reason for that: Bijoy is an ANSI encoding made for desktop print work, while phones are Unicode devices. Everything on Android — apps, browsers, and social media — expects Unicode text. That is why no Play Store keyboard can offer true Bijoy typing — the encoding itself belongs to the desktop era.
The practical workflow used by offices and print shops is simple: type in Unicode on your phone, then convert the finished text to Bijoy when you need a print-ready file. The same converter also turns old Bijoy files back into Unicode for reading on your phone — see our Bijoy to Unicode converter for that direction.
If desktop Bijoy typing is what you actually need, our Bijoy keyboard layout guide shows the full layout and how to learn it.
Common Android Bangla Typing Problems (and Fixes)
Most Android Bangla typing problems come down to fonts, settings, or mixing up Unicode and Bijoy text. Here are the ones people hit most often, and how to fix each one. Work through them in order — the first fix solves the problem in most cases:
- Bangla shows as boxes or broken pieces. This is usually an old phone or font issue — update Android and your keyboard app to the latest version. If the text broke while copying between apps, our guide to fix broken Bangla text shows how to recover it.
- Conjunct letters (যুক্তাক্ষর) not joining. Type the hasanta (virama) key between the letters — for example, ক + ্ + ষ gives ক্ষ. The hasanta sits on the main Bengali layout in both Gboard and Ridmik, so you do not need to switch layouts to join letters.
- Keyboard keeps switching back to English. Set your Bangla keyboard as the default input method under Settings → System → Languages & input. Also check that a battery-saver or device-care app is not resetting your input method when the phone restarts.
- Wrong font after pasting into Word. The receiving app needs a Unicode Bangla font installed — our Bangla fonts guide explains which fonts to use for Unicode and Bijoy documents.
