I'm a Malaysian who can read, write and speak Chinese. After adding Chinese language input to the android keyboard, I had difficulty typing and getting the Pinyin right. I'm not sure why it was so difficult to type in Chinese words until I changed the Pinyin scheme from Double Pinyin (εζΌ) to Full Pinyin.
Apparently Double Pinyin (εζΌ) makes typing much faster. Instead of typing “δΈεδΊΊζ°ε ±εε½ as (zhΕnghuΓ‘rΓ©nmΓngΓ²nghΓ©guΓ³), you can type in "vshwrfmngshego" (v=zh, s=ong, h=h, w=ua, r=r, f=en, m=m, n=in, g=g, s=ong, h=h, e=e, g=g, o=uo) instead. As for me, it is better to change to full Pinyin as it's more easier to type in even if it's slower.
In China, a lot of people also find it hard to type mandarin characters fast so voice messages are more popular than instant messaging.