Swype

Two of my coworkers just got the Droid X, and I have to tell you- the Swype feature makes me completely jealous. From everything I can tell, it's a huge upgrade over the typical virtual keypad experience.

So here's my question- what are the odds this ever gets implemented on the iPhone? And by implemented, I mean directly into the key pad (not something where you have to copy and paste text).

Swype says they are working on a version for the iPhone, but my guess is it isn't going to happen due to the integration needs. Do you think Apple will come out with something similar, or will that be admitting that their much touted keypad experience is lacking? To be sure, I've enjoyed the interface on the iPhone, but Swype looks to be even better.

I'm pretty sure it can be approved for iOS4. There's new support for custom keyboards in the new SDKs. Just this past week another keyboard went into approval. Not sure it it was approved yet or not as I didn't pay close enough attention to the story about it.

Swype is truly awesome.

I don't see why it couldn't work on the iPhone. The only question is whether it will get approved. That part seems to be up to the whim of whatever person at Apple gets the app in front of them on a given day.

But they seem to be getting better at letting apps in the store. They still have gaffes now and then, but it seems like they're easing up a bit. I never thought Opera would get in, for example. Perhaps they feel more pressure to let big-profile apps like Opera and Swype into the store?

I've been using Swype for about a month, and while I like it quite a bit, I'm still getting used to it. It's funny, but what I've found myself doing is typing on the Swype keyboard one letter at a time for shorter words, and then using Swype for longer words. I think the main problem is that I'm just not very accurate, so when I'm typing short words there are more possibilities for what that word might be. But longer words have more distinct patterns, and Swype seems to get those about 99% of the time.

I also want to try out another new keyboard that was released recently called Swiftkey.

I use Swype on my HD2 (Windows Mobile 6.5) and it is pretty good. However I do find I have to think ahead a bit more to get the spelling right so I can start my run around the keyboard. If you pause part way through it tends to take that as a double letter. Like Matt, two or three letter words often get done as taps.

It's also a bit more tricky to operate whilst moving (walking etc) although in those cases I probably shouldn't be trying to type something on my phone.

Try not caring so much about accuracy. I'm always happy when I know I screwed up a word (usually by hitting the inner portion twice. That is, for the word "encourage" I'd probably end up doing the "our" twice.

The problem with not worrying about accuracy is that, like I said, it works for long words but short words often share "shapes" with other short words. I find that you can't be inaccurate about most short words. I can't think of any examples at the moment, but this has definitely been my experience.

Hmm...I'm starting to think that BlindType might be the next great thing...

I've been forced to use swiftkey as for some reason my (legally obtained) beta for swype thinks it's pirated.. (probably from me switching roms so often)

I don't like it.. I want my swype back.. it still beats the stock keyboards though. (this is on the evo 4g btw)
-mark

Try SlideIT. It's on the market.

There was also a keyboard called Shapewriter that I think was the same idea as Swype. I can't remember if it was on the market or not...

Dude that is amazing. I want to try it.

slideit and shapewriter don't work nearly as well as swype..

Blindtype has potential.. but we'll see..

-mark

I figured I'd try Swype out again, but it seems it's no longer available. Anyone have their APK lying around?

I deleted it before because I seemed to be a spaz and was unable to spell things properly when "typing" that way, but I'll give it another shot.

You have to apply for the beta. The leaked version expired some time ago.

The beta program has expired; they're not accepting any more requests, apparently.

I also just realized that it's over 10MB installed. At least the old (expired) version I found was. Which made it, by far, the largest app on my phone. Which may explain why I deleted it.

4.71MB for Swype
116KB for Swype Installer.

I had to do a factory reset on my phone a couple days ago, and I was left with no more Swype (I don't think I can get it back because I don't have the apk for the trial). I hate to admit it, but I'm not sure I miss it all that much.

I'm sure that for some people it's much faster, but I just couldn't get it down. Short words were too inaccurate, and long words, frankly, took too long! I'd forgotten how much I like the suggestions you get on the stock Android keyboard, where I can type the first four letters of a nine letter word, and select the word from several suggestions just above the keyboard. This means that it's taking me five taps to get a nine letter word, where on Swype I would still have to swipe through all nine letters. I think the outcome is slightly slower for me. Plus, I was surprised that in several instances, I ended up with the wrong word even though it was a long one, and that really made me far slower.

I think I'm still waiting for Blindtype at this point. That looks really exciting.

Google has just acquired Blindtype. Smart move.