SwiftKey X Keyboard

Summary

Android comes with a virtual keyboard which can sometime seem like it has a mind of its own—there’s definitely room for improvement there, which is just what the SwiftKey X Keyboard people must’ve thought to themselves. What they came up with is a virtual keyboard the can predict words and even full sentences, and it keeps getting better the longer you use it. Sounds like a dream! Is it?

Well, honestly, Swiftkey X isn’t too bad at all, especially since the update. And that’s a massive understatement, BTW.
 

Test device: LG Optimus Speed / 2x
Android version: 2.3.5
Mods: MIUI

I’ve tested many keyboards but, truth be told, none have really struck a chord with me. So my expectations weren’t soaring when I decided to try out SwiftKey X Keyboard, but I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised.

In a nutshell: SwiftKey X susses out your style of writing and enables you to write entire sentences merely by hitting the space bar. Amaze-balls!

After you install the keyboard an assistant guides you through the primary setup. Up to three dictionaries (in three different languages, obviously) can be downloaded and stay active simultaneously. In my experience the system does a brilliant job at recognising which language I was writing in (I would say it is 99% accurate).

There are standard language packages, as well as personalised ones which SwiftKey X puts together using data from Facebook, GMail, Twitter and SMS you’ve sent out. This means that SwiftKey starts ‘learning’ your personal language/i.e. style from the get-go. Transferring data from said external sources to SwiftKey worked like a charm, and the app keeps getting better and better the more you use it and the more it becomes knowledgeable of your way of writing.
The assistant even asks you to evaluate your own typing skills, that is it want to know how precisely you can type, in order to optimise the suggestions.

I’ve been using the app for several weeks now and feel it’s safe to say that it’s a great tool and time saver. I checked SwiftKey’s statistics and am told that my writing efficiency has gone up by 30% . I also didn’t have to type in thousands of characters.
You can also check out statistics – such as how many words SwiftKey X has already predicted – in this menu.
There’s an option for sharing said statistics via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, E-mail and more—though, to be honest, I don’t quite see the point of this… Unless you want to show off to your iPhone user friends, that is! ;-p

The Heatmap function is also pretty nifty—it displays a visual of where the keyboard can be found most frequently.

Long press on ‘123’ and a separate keyboards only for smilies, symbols and arrow buttons opens up. This is especially useful for navigating through texts on devices that don’t have a trackball.
You can also choose to have the arrows displayed near the bottom of the display permanently.

You can also alter the appearance of the keyboard using the ‘Theme and layout’ options. There are three themes to choose from: light, dark and a blue neon one. I like all three.
The keyboard can also be changed from QWERTY to QWERTZ.

Check out the 'Advanced' section of the settings to see how you can make changes that will optimise SwiftKey X even more to suit your personal preferences. For instance, you can determine what hitting the spacebar should enable—a blank space, the completion of a word or the insertion of the next prediction.
SwiftKey X can determine upper/lower case for you, or you can choose to do so on your own.

Another cool new function: you can now long press on a button in order to see alternatives – e.g. the @ symbol – a popup appears displaying all of the options. You can make your selection by swiping.

Bottom line:
SwiftKey X Keyboard can help save a lot of time, period. The app can complete whole sentences for you, and even knows which smiley is context-appropriate. I love that the app supports three languages as once, and I really wouldn’t want to have to make do without this app after seeing what a difference it can make.

SwiftKey X Keyboard is easy and intuitive to use. The setup assitant is especially useful. We’re knocking one star off because the settings are in English only.

SwiftKey X Keyboard runs absolutely smoothly. Pristine and stabile performance.

SwiftKey X Keyboard is available in the App Center and usually costs 2,99€, but seeing as it is our App of the Week you can now download it for only 1,99€!