Imtiaz Salim finds out how Shamim Hasnath, the developer of Ridmik Keyboard, has been working to facilitate the use of Bangla in the virtual world
SOURAV LASKAR
Over 210 million people worldwide embrace Bangla as their first language. Bangla is enriched with a vast treasury of letters, words and grammar. The majority of Bangladeshis prefer to use Bangla whenever possible. Youths nowadays have embraced the opportunity to use Bangla on both social and electronic media. And in the era of smartphones, it is a privilege for Bangladeshis to use Bangla in smartphones as well. Shamim Hasnath, a 24-year-old is responsible for creating the most popular Bangla keyboard app for smartphone devices named ‘Ridmik’.
The app Ridmik keyboard is an onscreen keyboard for android and iOS devices having both Bangla phonetic keyboard and Probhat keyboard layout support. Shamim developed Ridmik keyboard in 2012 when he was a second year student of Computer Science and Engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
‘Ahsanul Karim, an elder brother from my department organised a seminar on android app development. I attended the seminar and realised that android app developing is not a very difficult thing. Then I began working on app development,’ Shamim shares with New Age Youth.
According to him, he made the keyboard just for his personal use. ‘At that time the most popular Bangla keyboard for android devices was Mayabi. But, that app was full with ads and the layout was congested which made it difficult for me to type Bangla frequently. That is why I planned for making my own onscreen keyboard so that at least I can write Bangla with no hassle,’ Shamim says.
Initially, Shamim had no intention to release the app since Google Play Store and Apple App Store charge a certain amount of money to release any app. ‘At that time I had no way to meet the payment system. Then I discussed the issue with my brother and he took care of the payments,’ he says. The keyboard was officially released on September 21, 2012.
After releasing the app Shamim started getting amazing feedbacks and suggestions from users and many other software experts. ‘Omi Azad of Ekushey.org has given me many suggestions to add more features and make the keyboard more advanced and useful’, Shamim adds.
Shamim claims that he formed a strategic partnership with Avro without any monetary benefit. ‘Many Avro users were demanding an android version of the app. Then Mehedi Hasan Khan, the developer of Avro, consulted with me to come to an understanding where Ridmik keyboard will show the Avro logo. So basically, users of Avro use the Ridmik keyboard for smartphones,’ Shamim conveys.
Shamim didn’t release Ridmik keyboard commercially. The app is open for all. Anyone can download the app and install it free of cost. ‘Many organisations have approached me to sell the copyright to them. But I didn’t do that. The keyboard would be full of ads if I sold the copyright, which beats the reason why I wanted to build the app in the first place,’ he says.
Shamim had faced copyright issues in 2015. Ridmik keyboard was removed from the Google Play Store. ‘Mustafa Jabbar (developer of Bijoy) alleged that Ridmik was using Unijoy layout which is copied from Bijoy layout. Unijoy is a patent of Ekushey.org and Omi Azad permitted me to use this layout for my keyboard. Since the issue was getting bigger and I didn’t want any hassle, I removed the Unijoy layout and added Probhat layout and re-launched the app in March 2015,’ Shamim says to New Age Youth. According to Shamim, before it was removed, Ridmik keyboard had been downloaded approximately 16 million times. Since the app was re-launched, the app has been downloaded by more than 30 million users.
Shamim is currently working with eAKASH, an organisation which has recently launched the first ever Bangla ebook reader. He has been working on developing the app since October of 2013.
Shamim was born in Mymensingh and grew up there. Finishing his HSC examinations, he came to Dhaka and got admitted to BUET. Upon graduation, Shamim is currently working at a software firm as Senior Software Engineer. ‘I had a dream to study in computer science in BUET when I was class 11 student at Agricultural University College, Mymensingh. My brother was already studying civil engineering at BUET at that time and this has influenced me a lot to get admitted here,’ Shamim says. He is also working on the project of Digitalising Madrassah Textbooks, a collaboration of Madrassah Education Board and BUET. He is involved there to develop an android app for the purpose.
Shamim suggests that youths who are working on software and app development should work more on facilitating Bangla so that people can have the privilege of using their mother tongue in the technological world. ‘Once I went to Shahjalal University of Science & Technology and attended a seminar on using Bangla language in software development. There were two speakers who came from Kolkata. When I heard of their concern about making software with Bangla language input I was really amazed. The youths should focus on inputting Bangla as one of the default languages in the softwares they make,’ Shamim concludes.