Swype now available for Android devices after giving 3 years of beta releases

Swype the original swiping keyboard is now officially launched for Android devices.  After 3 years of beta releases and Apk, Swype today was finally made available on Google Play with a hitch though.  It is a paid App and costs around $0.99(Rs.54.00) to buy. However the good news is that there is a Free trial version which you can check out before thinking of buying this App.  Another word of caution is that Swype is giving out App for $0.99 for a limited time as a promo sale.

The App comes with a bunch of features, including Living Language and Next Word Prediction. Living Language crowd-sources and updates your dictionary with the latest trending words. Living Language also further localises your dictionary with an additional dialect supplement for your preferred language.  In essence you along with your friends build up this dictionary. 

Next Word Prediction predicts the words you might want to type after your current one. After prolonged use, it learns your typing habits and starts recommending entire sentences that you are likely to type. For example if you swype I will it will automatically fill in be late in you office SMS.

There are also features like personal dictionary backups and syncing, dictation using Nuance's Dragon technology and the Smart Editor, which analyses entire sentences for any errors, grammatical or spelling.  The keyboard essentially works by letting you slide across the letters instead of tapping. The keyboard’s built-in dictionary automatically detects what words you might have been typing depending on what letter you stop your finger over. This potentially speeds up typing since you don’t have to lift your finger at all while typing a word.

You can add your own words to the dictionary by typing them out. After the first time, you can Swype the word whenever you want. This also applies to complex alpha-numeric keys such as passwords or emoticons. Swype also has gestures that let you access alternate keyboards really fast. For example, sliding your finger from the Swype key to the T key will bring up the numpad to let you type numbers faster.

This will be a wonderful addition to your Android smartphone and might make you a little lazy but it will also give you thumbs the much needed rest.  Check out the promo video put out by Swype.

If you like what you see then you can download the Swype App from Google Play Store.  Do comment in on the same.

Vijay Prabhu