Manglish Keyboard: Type Malayalam in English Letters and Get Malayalam Script

If you learned to type on an English keyboard, you probably already send messages like "ente peru enthaanu" in English letters. Hunting for each Malayalam letter on a script keyboard is slow, so you skip it. The person on the other end gets Latin text, not Malayalam.

CleverType for Android 8.29.0, released on November 5, 2026, closes that gap. You keep typing the way you already do, and the keyboard writes it in Malayalam script.

What's new

A Manglish layout for Malayalam

Manglish isn't a separate language in CleverType. It's a layout inside Malayalam, sitting next to the Malayalam-script layouts. You type on the same QWERTY keys you always use, and the suggestion strip shows each word in Malayalam as you go.

Here's the difference with one word:

• Before: you type ente and ente is what gets sent.
• After: you type ente, the strip shows എന്റെ | എന്റെയും | ente, and space writes എന്റെ.

In the app you'll find the layout as ABC → മലയാളം, with a grey line under it that reads "Type in English letters". On the keyboard itself, look at the space bar. It reads മലയാളം · ABC, which is how you tell it apart from the Malayalam-script keyboard at a glance.

Space writes Malayalam (and you can turn that off)

Out of the box, a switch called "Write in മലയാളം on space" is on. Press space and your English-letter word is swapped for the top Malayalam reading.

• Switch on: ente + space → എന്റെ
• Switch off: ente + space → ente. You tap the Malayalam reading you want in the strip instead.

Space isn't the only key that does this. . , ! ?, Enter, : and ; all write the reading too, so the last word before a full stop or a question mark comes out in Malayalam like the rest.

Your English words stay available

Sometimes you really do mean the English word. The word you typed in English letters always stays in the strip as a chip, so you just tap it and it goes in exactly as typed. Once you've picked that chip, CleverType can save it as a learned word, unless the English pack already knows it.

Other changes in the same release

• Autocorrect per language: you can now turn autocorrect on or off for each language separately.
• Javanese: added with a Latin QWERTY layout and an Aksara Jawa layout (plus Handwriting) on one card.
• Coming in the next update, rolling out now (8.29.2): similar layouts for Tanglish (Tamil) and Kanglish (Kannada). It may not have reached every phone yet.

How it works

All of it happens on your phone. When you add the Manglish layout, CleverType downloads the Malayalam language pack. That one pack serves both the Malayalam-script layouts and Manglish, and inside it is a transliteration model: English letters go in, Malayalam script comes out.

The model works on whole words. It suggests possible Malayalam spellings for what you typed, and then the pack's Malayalam word model re-ranks those readings using the words around them. That's why the most likely one usually sits first in the strip, ready for space.

We trained it on about 4.05 million public Latin-to-Malayalam word pairs from AI4Bharat's Aksharantar dataset. Clean word pairs aren't how anyone types in a chat, though, so it also learned the loose spellings people use on phones: "a" where "aa" belongs, "i" for "ee", a dropped final "u", "f" for "ph", and single letters where doubles belong.

Thumbs slip, and the model allows for that. In a word of four or more letters, one letter may be read as its neighbour on the QWERTY keyboard. It only does this when the plain reading looks poor, and never for a half-typed word. So if you hit r instead of t, enre still becomes എന്റെ.

Word endings got their own attention. Readings are tuned to finish words correctly, including chillu letters and the final chandrakkala (virama).

And once a Malayalam word goes in, the next-word suggestions come from the Malayalam pack too.

There's no online transliteration fallback, so what you type in Manglish isn't sent anywhere to be converted. You need the internet once, for the pack download (the Malayalam pack is 14.7 MB, of which the transliteration model is 3.35 MB). After that, Manglish works offline. CleverType's AI features, such as Fix Grammar or Translate, are a different matter: those send text to our servers over an encrypted connection and need internet.

Accuracy

To check accuracy, we used a test set the model never trained on: the Malayalam test lexicon from Google Research's Dakshina dataset, which pairs Malayalam words with real romanizations people wrote. Across 2,500 words and 9,009 real spellings, weighted by how often each spelling occurs:

• The right word was the first reading 68.4% of the time.
• It was in the first three readings 76.1% of the time.
• It was in the first five readings 76.8% of the time.

In practice, space gets about two words in three right on its own. Glance along the first five readings in the strip and that rises to about three in four. The rest need a different spelling or a pick further along.

Short words (1 to 7 letters) are harder, at 53.0% first reading and 65.5% in the top three. Most misses are names and loanwords, so when you're typing a friend's name, it's worth a look at the strip before you hit space.

How to set it up

You do all of this from the CleverType app. The only wait is the pack download at the end.

1. Install or update CleverType for Android to version 8.29.0 or later, and make sure it is your active keyboard. On a Samsung phone, that is Settings › General management › Keyboard list and default › Default keyboard (Samsung's guide).
2. Open CleverType and go to Settings › Languages.
3. Add or open Malayalam. The Add Language sheet shows both Malayalam layouts, each with a keyboard preview. On the Languages screen, Malayalam is a single card listing its layouts.
4. In the Layouts for Malayalam sheet, tick ABC → മലയാളം.
5. Check that "Write in മലയാളം on space" is how you want it. Leave it on if you want space to convert. Turn it off if you'd rather choose each word yourself.
6. Tap Done.
7. Wait for the language row to say "Suggestions ready". While it downloads, the row shows "Downloading suggestions… N%" and the keyboard strip shows "Getting Malayalam suggestions… N%".
8. On the keyboard, tap 🌐 to switch to the Manglish layout. You're on it when the space bar reads മലയാളം · ABC.

Examples

Here's what a few inputs turn into, including two slipped keys and a couple of things that are meant to stay in English letters.

The last row comes down to dots. Text right after a dot that follows an English letter or a digit stays in Latin, which keeps version numbers and web addresses intact. If the dot follows a Malayalam word, the next word you type still converts.

Tips

When the first reading is wrong, scroll the strip before you retype. On this layout it always shows every reading in one row you scroll sideways. That holds whatever "Suggestions layout style" you chose under Settings › Typing; the app notes that the setting only affects your other languages.

Don't slow down for it. On space, the keyboard waits up to 600 ms for the Malayalam reading (200 ms on other layouts), so fast typing still converts.

Mixing English into a Malayalam message is easy enough: tap the English chip for those words. If a message has more English than Malayalam, we think it's simpler to turn off "Write in മലയാളം on space" and pick the Malayalam readings yourself.

You may notice the strip stays put even if you turned Suggestions off globally. That's deliberate. On the Manglish layout the strip is part of typing, so it stays visible.

Two small keyboard details. The currency key is the rupee (₹), and long-press gives Malayalam's own set rather than accented letters like é or ñ, because the model can't read accented letters.

Autocorrect is handled separately too. If you have two or more languages, Settings › Typing › Auto-correction › "By language" lists "Malayalam, typed in English letters" as its own row, marked "Not affected by the main switch".

Troubleshooting

When nothing converts, check the space switch and the pack first. The rest of this list covers the less common cases.

• Words stay in English letters when I press space. First check that "Write in മലയാളം on space" is on (Settings › Languages › Malayalam, in the layout sheet). Then check that the Malayalam row says "Suggestions ready". Without the pack there is nothing to convert with, and there is no online fallback.
• The row says "Suggestions download when online". Connect to the internet once so the pack can download. After that, Manglish works offline.
• The row says "Suggestions download will retry later". The download failed, and the app will try again on its own.
• Nothing converts in a password, email, web address, name or address field. That is on purpose. Those fields never get a Malayalam reading.
• It converts in an app that normally hides suggestions (for example the body of a Google Keep note). Also on purpose. On this layout the reading is the text itself, so those app settings are ignored.
• Swiping does nothing. Glide typing is off on this layout. A swipe is recognised and ignored, so no stray letter goes in. Tap to type.
• The wrong word went in. Scroll the strip sideways and tap the right reading. Names and loanwords miss most often.
• I turned auto-correction off and it still converts. The main auto-correction switch doesn't control Manglish. Use "Write in മലയാളം on space" instead.
• I can't tell which Malayalam keyboard I'm on. Look at the space bar. The Manglish layout shows മലയാളം · ABC.

How it compares

We're not the first to offer Manglish typing, and several free tools already do it.

If you use Gboard on Android, Google's Gboard language list includes "Malayalam, Transliteration" alongside "Malayalam, Malayalam" and "Malayalam, Latin", so you can already type Malayalam in English letters there.

On iPhone, Apple's iOS feature availability page lists Malayalam (Transliteration), along with Malayalam (Alphabetic) and Malayalam (InScript), under QuickType keyboard language support. Google's Input Tools language list also includes Malayalam transliteration, plus Malayalam Inscript and Phonetic virtual keyboards.

Where CleverType differs is mostly in how Manglish fits with the rest of the keyboard. The model and pack run entirely on the phone, the layout sits next to your other CleverType languages, and you get the "Write in മലയാളം on space" switch and a separate autocorrect row for this layout. We think it's most useful if you already type other languages in CleverType and want Malayalam on the same keyboard.

CleverType's Manglish layout isn't on iPhone, though. If that's your phone, stay with Apple's Malayalam (Transliteration) keyboard for now.

Why we built it

Most people learn to type on an English layout, and in chats many Malayalam speakers already write in Manglish. Malayalam speakers asked us for this in support mail and app reviews. The same request, type in English letters and get native script, also kept coming from Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Nepali, Bangla and Tamil users.

A script keyboard means learning a new layout. We'd rather you keep the habit you have and still send Malayalam script, without copying text in and out of a converter.

Limitations you might hit

Here's what the Manglish layout doesn't do, so it doesn't catch you off guard.

• Android only. CleverType for iPhone, the Mac/Windows desktop app and the Chrome extension do not have transliteration.
• No swipe typing on the Manglish layout.
• No conversion in password, email, web address, name or address fields.
• Needs the pack first. Until the Malayalam pack downloads, Manglish can't produce Malayalam.
• Not every word is right first time. Roughly one word in four is not the top reading on the benchmark, and names and loanwords are the weakest spots. Very casual spellings beyond the ones the model already handles will need you to pick from the strip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Try it

CleverType's Manglish layout is available on Android.

Download CleverType