By Trace-typing, ala Swype, has become all the rage for many people. While some say Swype is hard to get used to or just plain prefer a tap-type keyboard, it’s no secret that keyboard makers want to appeal to the widest group of people possible. One of the most advanced touchscreen keyboards ever, SwiftKey, looks to be taking the next step in its long journey to stardom.
The folks at SwiftKey have announced SwiftKey Flow, and while the firm probably wouldn’t prefer it to be called “SwiftKey, but with Swype,” that’s exactly what comes to mind. Users trace through the letter of the words they want to type and SwiftKey will accurately insert whatever word you were looking for. It can be faster than tap-typing for some people as these methods of typing have consistently been used to break texting records across the world.
SwiftKey Flow does add something a bit unique to the trace-typing table, though — real-time word prediction. As you’re tracing a word out the keyboard will attempt to predict the word you are looking for and you can stop mid-trace to select the word if it ended up guessing the correct word.
And the tracing line looks very nice, to boot. I mean, there are only so many ways you can make the line look unique but there are also ways to mess it up, so kudos. The app is currently in beta and those interested in trying it out can head to SwiftKey.net to sign up for it. Take a look at the demo video above.
I wish they had made more important repairs instead of wasting time trying to be swype competitor
swiftkey.net
I just hope it comes as an update to SwiftKey instead of a whole new purchase.
That would be ideal for sure. I like to think some of these companies still go about making decisions with the USERS in mind ;)
I’m very happy about this. This will allow me to use Swiftkey solely, without having to change back and forth to Swype. I use Swype as English, and Swiftkey as international keyboard. Swype was the main reason why I was ready to go no-physical-keyboard after G1.
+1
I signed up. I wonder when the invites go out
this is interesting timing considering Swype has had issues with their last two releases. First the accessibility bug, then wiping the user dictionary. I would pay for Swype if I could, but if I did I would expect better than they’ve been doing recently. Since I already bought SwiftKey, this will has great potential of it’s any good. of course, I said the same thing about SlideIt, but I can’t stand that keyboard any more.
I’m pretty excited to try this. I loved FlexT9 as a swipe keyboard, which is far better than everything else I’ve tried, but switched back to SwiftKey not that long ago for prediction, voice-to-text superiority, and the better keyboard layout. If SwiftKey Flow is even on par with FlexT9 for swipe to type I’ll never look for another keyboard.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
I typed two of those yeses with Swype and two with Swiftkey. O.O
Holy cow!!! :O
GAME. OVER.
This is just what I’ve been waiting for!
I bought SwiftKey and I do like the program and all but I’m really hoping when this is released that every time I swipe I don’t have to listen to robot sex every time (dubstep).
Awesome! If Swiftkey “Flow” is as good as Swype’s… “swyping”, I’ll probably be switching, if for no other reason that it being a SIMPLE-INSTALL market app VS jumping through Swype beta hoops all the time.
I will surely try that as well. But for me Swype is not only about Swyping. Swype also has really amazing Editing features, and a lots of useful shortcuts for different things.
I will run both keyboards for a while and if SwiftKey Flow does good in that department as well, I won’t look back to Swype. They’ve had such an incredible head start and could have made a fortune in the Play Store, but they did not manage to get the product to the market.
I honestly don’t use many of Swype’s features besides… swyping. Let’s see… I use swipe-from-apostophe-to-s to add a possessive pluralization to a word… and I swipe from a letter to the spacebar to CAPITALIZE it, and from spacebar to backspace to not add a space for the next word, but, that’s about it. I also disable Swype’s autocorrect feature because it’s annoying.
Try:
Swype to Shift -> (word cases Upper case, lower case, all caps)
Swype to c -> (copy)
Swype to x -> (cut)
Swype to v -> (paste)
Swype to 5 -> (Number screen)
Swype to [Symbols] -> (Editing Screen)
Swype to [Backspace] -> (Keyboard off)
[Space] to [Backspace] -> (no auto space: for compound words)
There are even more shortcuts, but I don’t remember them now.
I am sure Swype MADE the fortune with having it preinstalled on OEM devices. Mine came installed with MOTO RAZR, so I quickly forgot about that Beta crap. Did you really think that something that grand could be in free beta forever, without any visible indication of profitability?
I know, they sold the Keyboard to some Manufacturers, but they could do both OEM and direct Market sale in my honest opinion.
Also for the OEM Keyboards there are no updates. They stick around with an outdated version.
Excited for this, I used to love Swype. Hated the install process and bought SwiftKey because all the hype. I will definitely be using flow if it works as good as this shows.
I hope that music plays every time I type something
This will be interesting. I used Swype in the beginning as I loved the whole concept. Then moved to SwiftKey because of it’s prediction system. I’m giving TouchPal as it’s kind of like a middle ground between the two, but the predictions aren’t as great as Swiftkey from my experience. But this could see me switching back to SwiftKey permanently..
Nice, if it is just as good as Swype I’ll use it instead because swift key allows the use of multiple languages simultaneously without having to switch between like with Swype.
For multilingual people it is very annoying having to pause and switch on Swype.
Been using FlexT9 on my phone for years, love it. But if this works even better, especially with the voice-to-text thing, I’ll switch over. I have SwiftKey already, just never use it, so hopefully this is just going to be part of an update and not a seperate purchase.
Perfect! Can’t wait for this to happen. I’ve been using the trace typing in native ICS since Swype is borked for my device (HTCRezound)… native trace is not bad but SwiftKey combined with trace option is a win!
I’ve tried swype before and never quite been able to work with it, though I did give up pretty quickly.
Seeing what Swiftkeys implementation will be interesting and if it come as an update, I might give it a decent go.
Certainly a good ad though.
This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for! I’ve been switching between Swype and SwiftKey for about a year and I was waiting for either Swype to get better correction/prediction or SwiftKey to get a swipable keyboard, and it looks like the latter came true. :D
http://tinyurl.com/8b5k9l3