Keys Per Minute

Keys Per Minute is a feather-light plugin designed for the Pidgin instant messaging tool, which monitors key presses and automatically calculates the amount of keys pressed per minute by taking into account the current information. It also displays an average number of keystrokes when you're idle.

There is no installation pack available. Instead, you can copy the DLL file to the installed directory of Pidgin, more precisely in the "plugins" subfolder. Because this is a free and open-source tool, its source code is available in the downloaded package and can be analyzed by programmers or those only interested in coding. Keys Per Minute was developed in the C language.

If the instant messenger was already launched before this step, it's not mandatory to restart it, since the modifications are automatically applied.

The extension is disabled by default. To activate it, it's necessary to access the plugins panel from the "Tools" menu, scroll to its entry, as well as check its box. The "Configure Plugin" button is unavailable because, unfortunately, there are no customization properties implemented for this app.

Once the add-on is enabled, you can test it by opening any chat window. It's even possible to test it in ongoing conversations, without having to close them to gain access to the new plugin. When typing, you can view the keystrokes just above the chat box. The number of pressed keys is swiftly synchronized to your current typing speed and gains an average value when taking a break.

Too bad that there aren't any configuration options available for this plugin, as the starting time used for calculating the average keystrokes is unclear. It would've also been practical to tinker with the sync frequency, or to view a list with multiple logged average keystrokes to follow your progress and find out if you got faster in time.

Nevertheless, Keys Per Minute is a handy plugin for Pidgin users who want to constantly monitor their typing speed. Although it hasn't received updates for a significant amount o time, we haven't experienced compatibility issues with the newest version of Windows in our tests.