Ever since the dawn of the cell phone (or at least its availability for most average consumers), people have been trying to improve upon the way we enter text data into our phones, whether it be for the purpose of taking down a note, making a list, or text messaging friends or family.
At first we had to deal with the 1 – 9 buttons and using the numbers located on those, which I’m sure we can all agree was a nightmare (but hey, I remember being so good at it I could tap out a message almost as fast as I can now..), and then came phones that you could turn to landscape mode for a full QWERTY keyboard, which everyone loved. Finally, no more having to tap that damn 7 button four times to get to the “S”!
Then came the Iphone and with it the smart phone revolution, ushering in the age of the touch screen keyboard. If you’re like me, I had the first Motorola Droid model which was Motorola’s attempt, I think, to make the switch a little easier for those who weren’t quite ready to abandon their physical keyboards. Instead of having a physical keyboard or touch screen keyboard on its own, it featured both by using a sliding mechanism. You could opt to use the touch screen keyboard, or if you weren’t comfortable with that form of entry yet, there was a slide out keyboard available.
I myself, unlike some friends of mine, took to using the touch screen keyboard almost instantly and have never looked back. Not having to physically “push 
down” the keys saves you more time than you might think, and the ability to swipe through pages of different symbols and whatnot makes having to remember “CTRL +” like commands in order to enter symbols like those phones with a physical keyboard unnecessary.
I didn’t think it would really go much further than this other than updates and improvements on responsiveness, sensitivity, accuracy, etc. How wrong I was proven when a few years ago “Swype” was announced and introduced.
What is Swype for Android?
Swype” is essentially a keyboard replacement/text input application. This application allows the user to drag their finger over the keyboard from letter to letter of the word you wish to type.
The Swype android keyboard uses patented technology which is able to pick up the word you’re trying to type accurately almost every time as long as you’re close to going directly over the correct letters in the order that the word is spelled. You’re able to enter text into Email, SMS, etc. much faster than the “tap, pick up finger, tap” method that a standard on screen keyboard requires, which is proven by users who are able to achieve over 40 words per minute on a portable device with the help of the Swype keyboard.
It can be a little difficult for some to get the hang of it at first, but now that I’ve gotten used to it, I wouldn’t ever want to go back to tapping the individual letters out again.
Prior to being able to download Swype due to the beta being closed, I found other android keyboard applications that functioned basically the same way and almost as well, but I only used them as a stand in for the fact that I couldn’t download Swype itself yet. Since originally hearing the idea I had to give it a try, even if it wasn’t through the Swype app itself. After having used it, I’m definitely convinced that it’s by far the best android application for text input available at the moment.
How Does Swype Work?
Swype was developed with the intention of being able to be run on virtually any mobile device that would support the software, and for as much as it packs in terms of features, the software itself is less than a megabyte large altogether. It’s essentially made up of an application requiring around 500 – 900K of memory or so, and a multi language database totaling over 250,000 words.
The application itself is made up of a word database made alongside a word matching search engine which sync with the database and determines which is the appropriate word that the user was most likely to have been aiming for. Along with that is a customizable user interface which allows changing settings and the keyboard skin itself which will change your stock or current keyboard interface to the android swype keyboard.
Additional Typing Benefits of Using Swype For Android
Besides the revolutionary features that using Swype already affords you, it also takes care of the little things that tend to slow you down in the middle of typing as well, such as:
Automatically Accented Characters – I have to admit that I’m sort of anal when it comes to typing, and that includes texting. I’m the kind of person that will delete half of a sentence because I noticed I hadn’t placed the apostrophe in “don’t”. Thankfully for people like me, words that contain accented characters (known as diacritics) don’t require that you go back and add them or switch over to an alternate keyboard in the middle of typing to enter one. Swype automatically will insert these characters into the words it selects, so you can keep swiping along without having to worry about it. The amount of time this saves is crazy.
Tap on Word to Change Selected Word – One of my favorite features. Although my previous “Swype-like” keyboard application came with this as well, the android swype keyboard allows you to entirely change a previously typed word with no more than two taps. The Swype algorithm for deciding which word you’re aiming for is almost perfect and I rarely have to ever go back and correct it, but occasionally if I’m trying to “type” (although swipe seems like a more applicable verb..) really fast I’ll get sloppy and get the wrong word, or one that’s very close. Again saving you a ton of time, all you have to do is tap on the word and in the space below the text input box and above the swype keyboard UI will be populated with related or closely spelled words which will likely contain the one that you had intended on. Tap the correct word and your current selection will be changed.
Even if the word you were aiming for isn’t appearing in the alternate list of choices, it’s easy to change the word anyway. All you have to do is double tap on the word and it will be highlighted, after which you can try swiping the new word which will replace the one that you had highlighted. It sure makes thinking about the days of having to cycle backwards through every character in order to get to that one misspelled word in the middle of your sentence seem so primitive.
Automatic Capitalization – Swype will automatically capitalize the first word of a new sentence, but it isn’t restricted to this alone. You can also capitalize any word at any position in your sentence by simply sliding from the letter to off the top of the keyboard UI and then proceed to continue spelling the rest. Your selected word will be generated with the chosen letter as a capitol. Again, as a grammar Nazi, this is essential.
Auto Correct Following Misspellings – Just because you’re using the Swype keyboard doesn’t mean you’re required to swipe all of your words out. You can use it just as you would a normal on screen android keyboard by tapping the letters. However, if your word is misspelled you can choose to have Swype auto correct to what it believes you were trying to spell, which will typically be right as long as you were somewhat close.
This is great for some people, but for me however I ended up turning it off as sometimes you simply want to use a word that isn’t actually a word, name of a place, use an acronym, etc., and Swype will always try to correct you after you type a space. I found this irritating because realistically the only time I’m going to actually type a word out is when it’s one of those that Swype doesn’t understand in the first place, but that’s up to you. Using the Swype android keyboard as a regular keyboard, as you can see, does offer other benefits.
50+ Available Symbols – Most of the symbols that the average person is going to use most frequently can be found right on the letter buttons that are already going to be on the main layer of the keyboard skin, but for any additional ones there are additional pages that make the total amount of available symbols over 50. Other than switching over to the other layers of the keyboard, long-pressing any key will bring up a small menu that will show any variations of the available symbol, letter, etc., which makes adding any esoteric or rarely used symbol pretty easy to do. There’s even fractions.
Spaces Automatically Inserted – With Swype, you don’t even have to stop to hit the space button! Once you finish swiping out one word, you can go ahead and start on the next one. Once completed, it will enter a space followed by your chosen word following the previous word.
Swype Beta 3.25 and Additional Features
With the new update to Swype 3.25 and its release to essentially open beta came a number of awesome new features, some of which I had no idea about until I was actually tinkering around with it.
Keyboard-Like Gesture Commands – One of the coolest things about it and the recent update is the Swype button and it’s associated uses for shortcuts. I think of it a lot like using “CTRL” or “ALT” on a PC, and in fact the shortcuts are clearly based on the ones we’re already familiar with; for instance, swype + C for copy, swype + X for cut, swype + A for select all, and so on. They’re really convenient and allow for the user to execute these commands much more fluidly than the “clunky” sort of way that it feels when using the standard “tapping” keyboard. Those of us who understand how frustrating fumbling around with text on a smart phone can be will definitely appreciate them.
Select-All – Swype from the Swype key to the A key
Copy – Swype from the Swype key to the C key
Cut – Swype from the Swype key to the X key
Paste – Swype from the Swype key to the V key
Send Text to Application – Now you can highlight any text whether it be on a web page, text you’re sending, text you’ve received, etc., and send it to an application. There are of course plans to add more in the future, (hopefully with compatibility for any application) but currently supports Facebook, Twitter, and Google maps. In order to send text to:
Facebook – Highlight text and then swipe from the Swype key to F and B, which will open facebook and create a new wall post containing the selected text.
Twitter – Highlight your text and go from the Swype key to T and W to generate a tweet with the highlighted text.
Google Maps – Highlight an address, place name, etc. and then go from the Swype key to G and M, and it will open Google maps with a search for your selected text.
This is an amazing feature that I can’t wait to see compatibility with apps like Evernote. Being able to send the address or place name directly from a text message sent to me to Google maps navigator without having to just remember it or write it down is pretty awesome, even though it doesn’t seem like it should have taken this long to have something that will do this already.
Swype Button – Although the Swype key has many great functions in terms of shortcuts and Swype gestures, it also works as a help/settings button. If you just tap it, a window will appear that gives you the option to go to the tutorial which will teach you shortcuts, gestures, etc. or to the settings window for Swype.
If you press and hold on the Swype key, you’ll go directly to a “Swype Help” page which looks just like any help page on Windows would, complete with a table of contents which tells you how to do many of the things the tutorial does, although the help page is text only. The help page makes it easier to find things with the table of contents and bare text, whereas the actual tutorial is a bunch of slides that give a short explanation and graphic displaying how to execute a command or gesture.
Input Slider – When you first start up the Swype Application, it will run a test on your device to determine the the processing speed as well as access to files speed in order to set a default state for a number of internal settings and gages which determine the way and comprehensiveness of the initial word database scan. The “input slider” (under “speed vs. accuracy” in settings) can be used to adjust these internal settings and improve response time, but may result in less accurate results.
These internal settings control aspects of how the application functions including, as I stated above, how thoroughly the word database will be scanned for a match, how exact you need to be on the path for a word to come out correctly, etc. On the input slider you’ll see on the far left “Fast Response” with “Error Tolerance” on the right. Generally, the default average response time is around 250 milliseconds, meaning less than one-fourth of a second between picking up your finger and response from the Swype application.
Do what you like, but for the most part I’d just suggest not messing with it. With response time being as fast as it is and forgiveness for mistakes and “sloppy” input, I can’t really see a reason why you’d feel the need to adjust it.
Personal Dictionary – 
The personal dictionary is definitely one of my favorite features for a text input replacement such as this, and especially when it comes to the way the Swype app dictionary works.
Like I said earlier concerning the option to tap out words just like you would with any other android keyboard, if you have Swype set up to correct spelling mistakes, if you tap out the name of a place or a word that doesn’t actually exist so it doesn’t show up in Swypes word database, you might end up getting annoyed that the application keeps changing your word to what it determines as its closest match in the word database.
However, you can add any word you want to your personal Swype dictionary so that not only will it not correct you when you try to tap it out, it will insert that word if you actually swipe it out as well!
Another feature of the dictionary that really amazed me was that once I installed it, it actually put together a custom dictionary specifically for me. Going over the dictionary, I instantly realized that it had not only added special words that I used frequently, but also included the first and last names of every person on my contacts list, including those from Facebook!
As you can see, you can also go into the dictionary and enter your own words whenever you want by hitting the “add” button, obviously. This is one way to add your own dictionary words, but even more simple and convenient is right in the middle of typing. Simply tap the word once its been spelled out via tapping, and in the field that usually populates with alternate/close spellings to the word you’re spelling or have inserted will be “Add “” to dictionary”. All you do is tap this and you’ll be able to swipe or tap it out with no issues in the future.
Adjustable Settings Menu
In the Swype settings menu you’ll find pretty much everything you might expect to in an android keyboard menu. There’s options to toggle vibration, sound, etc. feedback on and off when tapping or swiping, as well as access to the tutorial and help screen.
You’ll also see settings specific to the android swype keyboard. This includes access to the input slider, your personal Swype dictionary, and whether Swype should do things like auto space or auto capitalize if you’d rather manually do these tasks for whatever reason whilst swype texting.
Conclusion
In summary, the Swype for android application is by far the best android keyboard and data/text input android application I’ve ever had the pleasure of using, 
and the one I would suggest to others using android tablets or phones before any other. The amount of time and frustration you can save yourself when it comes to typing on any android devices on screen keyboard is astounding, and especially once you’re good at it you’ll feel like you’re going at a snail’s pace trying to use a “tap-pick up finger-hunt-tap” keyboard again.
You can now visit their site for the Swype download/Swype APK which you can then install and begin using right away. Don’t go looking in the market at this time however, as it has not been officially released for purchase since it remains in the beta phase of testing at the time of this writing. I’ll be ready to shell out just about whatever they’re asking when a full version becomes available though, that you can count on.
