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The clever SwiftKey Android keyboard, which analyses your writing history to suggest the next word you might be about to type, has been updated. A new beta release adds line-drawing input to the mix, helping it challenge the popular Swype for the position as number one Android text input tool. And the beta’s free to try. It has changed many lives. [SwiftKey]
SwiftKey 4 Hits Android, Line-Drawing Flow Enhancements in Tow
SwiftKey 4, Vector, and More
SwiftKey 3 Has Just Killed the Spacebar
I’m trying it, and I’m not 100% convinced yet – If you’re used to Swype itself, then other than the the possibility of ‘Flow Through Space’, I can’t see much improvement.
I have but two gripes with Swype:
1. Since Nuance bought them out, it insists on using their voice-to-text engine (I know SK uses Google’s)
2. The button for the afore-mentioned functionality is too easy to hit and can’t be removed.
I’ve used both and I think Swiftkey has slightly better predictions, but the latest Swype beta is much better with predictions. I much prefer the swype input so swiftkey getting flow is a huge improvement in its functionality.
They are pushing each other and their latest beta versions seem to show better functionality in both which can only be a good thing.
Am I nuts in thinking that good’ol tap typing is actually superior to swiping? I use both thumbs when typing with Swiftkey and can often hit 50WPM. I just find Swype… slower.
I prefer tapping too. What would be really good is if someone managed to hit the spot and design a similar thing for PCs and Macs.
Depends on the person. I’m a quick typer, but a quicker swyper, it just suits me more. According to Swiftkey, I’m 34% more accurate using it than my samsung keyboard, and 52% quicker when using flow.
I know other people will be different, but that is the beauty of Android, we’re not stuck with a single keyboard, and the beauty of Swype and Swiftkey, is that you can type or swype depending on your preferences.
Oh sure, not disputing that. The best input method for any given person is always what’s best for them. However, I’d argue that as swipe input limits you to using a single digit, it places an inherent limit on how fast you can practically type. As such, perhaps the best tap typer will be faster than the best swipe typer?
That said, I realise that the current record is held by a Swype typist, but the record books disallow correction/prediction engines like Swiftkey, so that’s not a good real-world example.
I’ve just spent an hour using it fairly heavily and it’s been uninstalled. It’s just too geared towards tap-typing for my liking.
The whole point about Swype/Flow is that you don’t need to continually correct the punctuation and layout of your text, which I find myself constantly doing with SwiftKey. Transitioning between drawing on the keyboard where the software automatically inserts spaces, to then having to look up at whatever the next (in)correct suggestion is and then hit space anyway to select it, is just too convoluted.
The algorithms also can’t handle the fact that if I’ve already inserted a space I don’t want it to enter another one. Plus if I’ve manually typed in a word that it doesn’t have stored and then resume drawing, it’s not a continuation of the same word!
Swype, you have my continued patronage, but please take a leaf from SwiftKey’s book as to the layout of the bottom row of keys – the Swype key can be multi-functional; the voice dictation needs an option to select which engine it uses; and the button itself needs to be as a long-press option of another, not occupying screen real-estate that should be reserved for the space bar!
It’s currently a beta, and your input sounds like it might be useful. Last time around, SwiftKey took much of the input on board before releasing the final product, and it was better for it.
http://vip.swiftkey.net/
I don’t doubt they’ll improve the performance of Flow, but it’s not going to be easy without alienating their tapping faithful.
If they have to be combined into one keyboard, then from a personal perspective, the best of both worlds would be SwiftKey’s word prediction algorithms built into Swype. Each has mastered its own domain, but the the methods are mutually exclusive. If you’re Swyping, you’re less concerned with the next-word prediction because switching from ‘drawing’ an automatically spaced sentence that is already composed in your head to check each of the next word suggestions, then potentially hitting Space to enter the next word, is more time consuming than just drawing it out in many cases.
By contrast, if you’re tapping already then it’s not too much of a change to tap the space bar to enter the next word.
Perfectly happy with Swype, personally, and SwiftKey doesn’t look superior in any real way. Weirdly, Samsung’s native Swype-a-like implementation that came with the GS3 was absolutely terrible, and the real Swype beta is hugely better.
SlideIT for life.
I just can’t get on with swyping as it seems much slower than tapping out using T9 on the Ultra Keyboard.