Google Input Tools for Windows (discontinued)

Google Input Tools for Windows was Google's free input method editor that let you type in dozens of languages on a PC using transliteration, for example writing Hindi, Arabic or Russian words with a Latin keyboard. Google removed the Windows version in May 2018, so the file listed here, version 101, is an archive build with no updates rather than a supported download.

What Google Input Tools was

The project started in July 2012 and grew out of Google's transliteration service. The idea was simple: you type a word the way it sounds using ordinary English letters, and the tool offers the same word in the target script. Type namaste and you get the Devanagari spelling; type a Russian word in Latin letters and it appears in Cyrillic. For languages with large character sets, such as Chinese or Japanese, it worked as a full input method editor with a candidate list. On Windows, Google Input Tools installed as a system input method, so it worked in any program, from Word to a chat window, and you switched languages from the taskbar just like with the built-in keyboards. Besides transliteration it offered on-screen virtual keyboards and, for some languages, handwriting input with the mouse. The tool was especially popular with people who could speak and read a language but had never learned its keyboard layout, and with offices that needed to type names in several scripts.

Key facts

What changed after 2018

Google stopped offering the Windows installer and no longer updates it. An existing installation may keep working on some systems, but it gets no fixes, and new versions of Windows can break it without warning. The online part of the service is still alive: the Google Input Tools site describes the remaining options, and you can try the input tools in the browser and copy the typed text into any program.

Why the archive build is still here

The file stays available for people who maintain an older PC where the tool was part of the workflow, and for anyone studying how it worked. Be realistic: there are no updates, the installer may refuse to run or depend on online components that no longer respond, and nothing guarantees it will behave on current Windows. Scan the file with your antivirus before running it and avoid repackaged copies from unknown sites.

Current ways to type in other languages on Windows

1. Open Windows Settings, then Time and language, and add the language you need; many languages come with phonetic or transliteration keyboards.
2. Switch layouts with the language button on the taskbar or with the keyboard shortcut.
3. Use the on-screen touch keyboard or handwriting panel if you do not know the layout.
4. For occasional words, type in the browser version of Input Tools and paste the result.

Privacy and security

An input method sees every key you press. Running an abandoned one is a bigger risk than an ordinary old program, so do not use it for passwords or banking, and remove it once you have a supported replacement.

Price

Google Input Tools was always free, and the browser version still is.

Pros and cons

• Pro: very convenient transliteration by sound.
• Pro: worked in any Windows program.
• Pro: small installer.
• Con: Windows version discontinued, no updates.
• Con: may not install or run on current systems.
• Con: sees everything you type.

Alternatives

For translating text rather than typing it, Google Translate is on our site. For typing, the language keyboards built into Windows are the supported option.