{"id":15055,"date":"2012-12-06T16:10:20","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T22:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=15055"},"modified":"2013-02-07T14:20:54","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T20:20:54","slug":"swiftkey-flow-beta-wipes-the-floor-with-swype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/hardware\/tablet\/swiftkey-flow-beta-wipes-the-floor-with-swype\/","title":{"rendered":"SwiftKey Flow Beta Wipes The Floor With Swype"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m kind of nuts about android keyboards<\/a>. I’ve tried them all, even the weird ones, but I always seem to come back to Swype<\/a>. It is simply the smoothest interface for one-handed touchscreen input, as far as I’m concerned. At least, it was.<\/p>\n

The other major keyboard contender has always been SwiftKey<\/a>. Predictive typing that saves you time by guessing not just what word you’re typing now, but what you’re going to type next. To me, this was always an intriguing option, but could never keep up with the ease of Swyping. Today, SwiftKey levels that playing field with SwiftKey Flow beta. If you’ve used SwiftKey, you’ll likely feel comfortable with the predictive abilities of Flow. Nothing about the way Flow works is different from SwiftKey 3, except the addition of gesture typing. That one change, however, is enough to radically alter the experience, if you choose to use it.<\/p>\n

With Swype, you need to complete the gesture for the entire word you wanted or it simply doesn’t know what you want. With SwiftKey Flow, you get the advantage of SwiftKey’s predictions before you begin a word, plus a single attempt at guessing while you gesture. If SwiftKey guesses your word before you’re done, you can pick up your finger and move on to the next word. It’s not quite as slick as the prediction hovering over your finger in the stock Android 4.2 keyboard, but it seems more effective at actually guessing where I’m headed.<\/p>\n

Flow has also brought a unique feature to its gesture typing. Instead of lifting your finger between words, you have the option of sliding your gesture through the spacebar. As a longtime Swype user, this takes a while to get used to, but I can see it speeding up typing quite a bit in the long run. This is a great feature to see, coming from the designer of a keyboard that has always leaned heavily on the spacebar.<\/p>\n